The End of the Road in Egypt

I awakened to a bit of a rainy morning in Port Said. All in all, I haven't had too much to deal with in terms of rain and such all the way along, and this was only a bit of a sprinkle of rain. I thought I would head out for a look around in the daylight before I headed back to Cairo. I headed to the canal and had a look in the light. It was still pretty impressive, at least in my mind. As I was approaching the canal, there was a large ship passing the spot I was approaching. It is always an impressive sight when I see a big ship passing such a short distance from the shore. I don't know how deep the channel is, but it must be quite deep. And it left me wondering again how one engineers and then accomplishes such a feat as a canal, when water is fighting to get in.

I went up on the walkway and was walking along the path when I happened to pass a bunch of young people. They got my attention and beckoned me over. We chatted for a while. They were really friendly. We took some photos together before I headed off on my way. The boys were both named Mohammed. The girls in the photo with me are Summer, Rayid, Shushu, and Aya. After a while it was time to head off.

I walked around for a while longer before refinding the candy store I visited the night before. I couldn't help it. I wanted a bit more. I got some gummy worms and coke bottles as well as some fuzzy peaches. Heaven!!! I want them to be famous. They were another little taste of what I know. I was glad to see them.

Then I headed to the bus station. What had been supposed to cost me 10 pounds the evening before, but had really cost 20, today cost me 5 to get back. I hate taxi drivers who prey on those who don't know the area and are visiting. I hate them!!!

My taxi driver on the way back was really nice. He talked to me and told me about his family. Because he was such a nice guy, I gave him my change as a tip. He appreciated it.

I walked into the bus station and the same guy from the night before, the damn taxi driver, was in the station. He came up to me like we were friends. Apparently he really had missed the part where I was supremely pissed off at him. He made to ask if I remembered him. Heh heh, yeah, I remember you, uh huh, right. Get away from me. But he pulled me to one of the kiosks to “help” me get a ticket to Cairo. I imagine he was fishing for more money, but I just resisted his help as much as possible. Then he tried to get me to follow him to the waiting lounge. I stopped and figured where I was was good enough. He got a bit surly and had someone come over who could speak English and ask me what I needed. I told him to make the bozo go away because he was annoying me and I didn't like him much. I think the message even got relayed because the taxi asshole kind of slouched angrily away.

I sat in the coffee shop and waited for my bus. Eventually it came up and I got on and headed back to Cairo. On the way, I saw a rather astonishing sight. It looked as though a bunch of ships were cruising through the desert. I knew it was in all likelihood ships in the Suez Canal, which cuts right through the desert, but it really did look like they were just sitting in the sand. It was eerie even though I knew the real story.

It was only 180 kilometers to Cairo, which should have come to about 2 and a half hours all things considered. It took three and a half, although we were back in the Cairo area after about 2 and a quarter. The rest of the time was spent getting through the very crowded streets of Cairo.

From where the bus let me off, I walked back to Brothers Hostel. They didn't recognize me at first, as I had gotten a haircut, but they were happy to see me again. Or at least that was how it seemed. With all that I had paid them and experienced because of that, I was on guard. When I said I needed to get to the airport early in the morning, they told me that the only way would be to take a taxi. But they could arrange a car for 70 pounds. I questioned the amount, and they told me that because of the early morning and the fact they were going to the airport with no guarantee of a fare back, they would charge about double getting in from the airport. Baloney!!! I call BS. There is no cabbie in the world who will take a trip to an airport, where people are arriving all the time, and not return with a fare. He was just spinning a story to be able to get as much money from me in their own transport as possible. They really were all about the money.

Another thing that showed that was that despite all the money I paid for them to set three different excursions during my time in Egypt, not one of them asked how it went. And that speaks volumes to me about what they considered the most important part of “helping” me get out and see Egypt. It's kind of sad really. They won't ever know, or probably even care, that they screwed up and that they are just having more and more people trash them. It's not something they will probably ever realize that they could be having a soaring reputation and people telling all their friends about the hostel. And all it would take is just some customer focus, instead of money focus, which is how it feels after having dealt with them. It's too bad.

Rosetta, Port Said, and Another Smooth Flowing Day

The brochure that I got from the tourist information office in the train station in Alexandria had little maps of each area of the Nile River. I had a look at the north coast map and discovered that Rosetta was on the coast, not far from Alexandria. I was also reading that another town was at the mouth of the Suez Canal at the entrance to the Mediterranean. I had thought to go to Suez to have a look at the canal, but this other town, Port Said, would do as well. So I made a plan. I would go to Rosetta and have a look around for the spot where the Rosetta Stone was discovered. Then I to Cairo and prepare to vacate the country.

I got up and had breakfast. There were some people eating their breakfast in the dining area already and we got to chatting about what they could do in Alexandria. Eventually I decided I needed to get a move on if I was going to accomplish all my plan. So I headed out and hopped in a taxi. He took me a long way to the bus station. I wish I had thought to take a photo of that depot. It was about 40 rain cover sheds with a bunch of minibuses under each waiting their turn to go to the destination. I can only assume that each cover was for a different destination. Nothing was in English, so I had no real idea. I had been told that Rosetta was in there somewhere, but because I don't read or speak Arabic, it was like a giant physical version of “Guess the number between 1 and 40.” I guessed the first time at around 5. They told me it was way farther on. So I went to about 33. They told me that it was back a ways. So I went back to about 20, narrowing in on the correct spot. I like the spoken version better. It didn't help that I was asking for Rosetta, but they all knew it by its Arabic name of Rashid. It got a lot easier once I started asking for the right place.

I did eventually get on the correct bus and once it was full, it headed out. It took about an hour to get to Rosetta and cost the grand sum of 4 pounds, about 60 cents.

Rosetta is the place where the famous Rosetta Stone was discovered in about 1798. When Egypt was first being explored, they found all these tombs with all these nice pictures all over the walls. But nobody knew what they meant. They were pretty sure they did have a meaning, but there was nothing showing what meant which. Maybe it was a phonetic alphabet of some kind, or maybe it was more pictorial, like Chinese. But there was nobody around who spoke or knew the language any longer, so hieroglyphics remained a mystery.

Until the Rosetta Stone was discovered.

In 1798 or so, French soldiers were told to demolish a house. As they did so, someone noticed a strange stone that had been part of the foundations or maybe the walls. It had a bunch of writing on it, and symbols. There were three inscriptions. One was in Greek, and two were in Egyptian. One of the Egyptian inscriptions was in hieroglyphics. I'm not sure if the other one was in a language that could be read or not. But the Greek inscription was definitely something someone knew how to read. It was an edict from some government. And since there were three inscriptions and they were together, someone thought that maybe they all said the same thing. So they sent it to a specialist in translation and decryption. (I'm not sure if decryption would be an apt characterization though, as that refers more to codes and cyphers nowadays.) He went to work and eventually had success in cracking the mystery of hieroglyphics. This unlocked all the knowledge and cosmology and everything that had been unearthed of the ancient Egyptians. It was a fantastic discovery and one of the most significant, ever. And it was all because of some eagle-eyed soldier demolishing a house in the small town of Rosetta.

I have always liked the story of the Rosetta Stone and, since it was so close by Alexandria, I figured it would be criminal not to go and have a look around. Of course, it could also be considered criminal to and have a look around without being really sure of how to find what I was looking for. And I didn't.

I got to Rosetta and off the bus, with my pack on my back and started wandering around. I wasn't even sure which way led to the sea. There were no tourist information offices and not many people spoke any English, so I couldn't just ask around. And so, I walked around. Aimlessly. I'm good at that, but given I had a bunch of things that I wanted to get done, that wasn't the most effective way to go about things. I decided that I would give myself about half an hour to make progress and then give it up and head off to Port Said. But the town was really quite interesting in a medieval kind of way. The roads were muddy and mucky and wet. There were horse and donkey carts all over and it just called out, “old.”

Eventually I was making no progress on either finding any spot connected with the Rosetta Stone or the waterfront, so I had turned around to go and find a bus out. A man saw me and, I assume it was the big pack on my back that gave me away, pointed down a street indicating that what I wanted lay in that direction. With nothing more than that and the thought that I really shouldn't be giving up so easily, I followed his finger. As I was walking, a man popped out of a shop and jabbered at me a bit. I said something about the Rosetta Stone and he bobbed his head and pointed down the street. Then he invited me into his shop, a barber shop, to get a haircut. I initially declined, but then changed my mind. My hair had been getting unruly lately and it had been a long time since my last haircut, so I went in and got the full treatment. There was a haircut, and a shave. He did something with this string all over my face and ears that seemed to be pulling little hairs out (painfully). He greased and slicked what was left of the hair on my head once he had cut a bunch off. It was amazing. When he was shaving me, he made a great show of putting the straight blade in front of my face as he removed the blade. Then he sprayed it with disinfectant. And finally he selected a new blade, in paper to show it was really new, and placed it in the shaver. I appreciated the gesture to know it was all clean, but I almost laughed out loud at the way he flourished when he was showing me. Even when he was done and allowed me to take a photo, he had a certain flair to his stance.

Then it was off down the street once more. And very quickly I reached the waterfront, and a monument to the Rosetta Stone. I had found what I was looking for, despite having no clear idea how to find it.

I was on a roll. There was a museum as well, inside what was apparently the house where the stone had been found. I doubted it was the actual house because it looked quite new and because the story was that the stone was found while the house was being demolished, and it looked in rather good shape for a demolished house.

Inside, it wasn't that great a museum, but it did give the explanation of how the stone had been found. There was also a bunch of rooms with furniture set up as I would presume the owner at the time had had his house set.

When I first went into the museum, a police officer came up to me and asked where I was from, where I had come from that day, and where I was going to go. It was a bit difficult because he didn't speak much English, and I don't speak Arabic. But he seemed satisfied. Then a short while later, another police officer came and asked me the same things. I was a bit curious about what was up. Then the officer had someone from nearby who spoke English come and talk to me as well. I took the opportunity to find out how to get to Port Said and found out that it wasn't actually possible to get directly there from Rosetta. The best way was going to be to go back to Alexandria and go from there. Hmmm... But in answer to my query about why the interest in where I was going, he said it was just to make sure I was safe and to keep track of me for that purpose. But when I asked if there was any problem with my planning to go to Port Said, he said it was nothing like that. All right, I thought.

Across the street from the museum there was a small park. I went in there and had a look around. There were a couple of old cannons and some kids running around as well.

After a few minutes I decided to make tracks as I was going to have to return to Alexandria before heading to Port Said. That was going to take some time. As I got to the exit, the two policemen who had talked to me were there as well as a couple of others. One of the policemen introduced one of the other men as a detective (I presume of the police force). He told me that they wanted to have the detective walk with me around town. He would show me a couple of interesting places and take me to the bus station. I wondered at this, and I thought they were offering him as a guide. I told them I hadn't the money to take a tour. They immediately reassured me that I wouldn't pay him anything and I wouldn't be tipping him either. They wanted to make sure I got to the bus all right, and then the detective would take the licence bus of the I rode so that if anything happened, they could begin to track me down to bring me to safety. I wasn't sure what town they thought it was, but I hadn't been feeling at all threatened. I didn't fuss about it though and accepted.

The detective showed me the way back to the bus station. I saw a mosque.

And a street market.

Then he took me to an old house, that looked like the outside was fairly new. Inside it though the floors were sloping and it seemed it could actually fall down at any time. But the people there were friendly and helpful as they explained how the house had been in the old times.

Next to it was a mill that was operated by animals. That too was interesting. I could have done with keeping the 16 pounds I paid for going into the two places, but I didn't see the need to make a big deal. I was being looked after and that was enough. I did have to pay the guy at the mill 5 pounds as a tip, but that might have been because I was allowed to sit on his chair and eat my lunch.

After that, the detective led me to the bus station, put me on a bus, took the bus driver's information (and I think offended the bus driver in the process by assuming he would have nefarious intentions), and waved goodbye. There was not a cent asked of me in return. If it weren't so ludicrous to me to think that I was in any sort of danger, I would be far more touched by how well they were trying to treat me in that small town. (And I was touched by their concern for a visitor.) It just points up the way people treat visitors to their lives, when it is far away from the big tourist areas.

I got back to Alexandria and got a ticket for a bus to Port Said. It was later in the afternoon, leaving at 4. By the time I would reach Port Said, therefore it would be well after dark. I thought about just staying in Alexandria, but decided that I wanted to see the Suez Canal and if worst came to worst, I could just hop another bus to Cairo and be done with it all.

While I was waiting at the bus station for my bus to show up, I was distracted by a girl with probably the most amazing eyes I have ever seen.  I couldn't look anywhere near her without my gaze being drawn by her eyes.  They were a piercing blue.  On the premise that she could only say no, I went and asked if I could take her photo.  She said yes.

The bus left and the sun set and I witnessed an amazing moonrise over the Nile Delta, all orange and flitting amongst the clouds. It was magical and I sincerely wished I were stationary so that I could have taken a few photos.

The trip took about 3 and a half hours and I arrived in Port Said at about 7:30. I kept hoping it was going to be easy to deal with once there. And it mostly was. I got off the bus and, as usual, had to deal with taxi drivers wanting to take me somewhere. Of course, I had no idea where to go or what hotels I might be able to check into. So I ended up with a taxi guy who told me he could take me to a cheap-ish hotel for 10 pounds. I was down to where I had only about 300 pounds in my pocket and that was going to have to last me through the next day and night until I got to the airport and my plane. I wasn't going to the bank again. Once in the taxi, the driver asked for his money. I pulled money out of my pocket and went to give him 10 pounds, but he saw the twenty in amongst it all and took that instead. I protested, but he just smiled, patted me on the knee and made like we were great friends. He got instead a, “Don't touch me, you thief.” But he didn't speak much English, so he didn't understand, although he should have been able to tell I was angry. I don't think he even got it when he asked me if I wanted to get something to eat after the bus ride and he got a clipped, “No!” in response. Nor did he seem to understand when he asked if I needed money changed, and got the same no in response. And he definitely didn't get it when I said he was only getting one shot to take me to a reasonably priced place. I was almost certain that I was going to somewhere expensive, but he surprised me. I ended up in a hotel that cost 85 pounds. More that I really wanted but well within the 100 pound limit I had set for him. So it had worked out, even if the guy was a dink and a thief. I should have got out of the cab when he did, or kicked up way more of a fuss, but in the end it was a buck and a half, and it just wasn't worth it.

After checking in, I went for a walk. Again I wasn't exactly sure where I should look to find the canal. But this time, I had a plan. The canal was to the east, so I got out my compass and made sure of where east was. Then I headed that way. It wasn't too long before I hit a long row of shops with a walkway on top. I thought that might be it, but I had also found a pizza place. And I was hungry. I went in and had a very, very good pizza at Lorenzo's Pizza place. And Lorenzo told me that, yes, the canal was on the other side of the shops. He told me how to get a look and after my meal, I headed down the street to a place where I could get up to the walkway and see the canal at night. And it was a very nice sight, at least as far as sights of canals, which are just trenches filled with water, can be.

I had been very satisfied with how the day went. I did actually find everything I was searching for, despite having almost no plan beyond, “Well, I will just go and see what happens.” It was something of a miracle, in many respects, that I managed to find everything, so quickly, with so little preparation. It was just one of those days when things work out, I guess.

And I also found a great pizza place, and a candy store with things like Werther's. Candy I haven't seen in a long, long time was in that store, and I could have spent a bundle. But I didn't have a bundle to spend, so I was content with a chocolate bar and knowing that it was there.

Anatomy of an Almost Perfect Day

Sometimes things just seem to work out. It takes almost no effort to make it happen that way. It just works out. This was one of those days.

I got up in the morning and had some breakfast. Egypt really needs to work on its idea of breakfast. It's not that bad, but it's not really what I would call breakfast. It often consists of a couple hot dog type buns, some jam, a small wedge of some kind of cheese and sometimes a boiled egg. That is usually what's included as breakfast when you are in a place that includes breakfast. And it's not really what I want in breakfast. But, it is included, so I take what I get.

After breakfast, I asked about how to find some of the places I had seen as being interesting. One was the site of the Pharos Lighthouse, which was one of the seven ancient wonders of the world. It is long gone, of course, having fallen down a couple thousand years ago, but the site still exists and it has a fort on it now. I also wanted to go and see the catacombs that I read about in the guide the people at the tourist information office gave me. Finally there was a place called Pompey's Pillar that also sounded interesting. It was supposedly a tall granite pillar that had been made in one piece and erected in Roman, or perhaps Greek, times.

The guy told me I could walk to the site of the lighthouse, now the site of an arab fort and citadel built to protect the city from invaders from the sea. But I should take a taxi to visit the other two places. I just agreed with him, but in my mind I knew I wasn't going to be taking any taxi anywhere. The tiny map of Alexandria in my guide made it look like they were all within reasonable walking distance, and I wasn't about to be taking any taxi anywhere if I could help it.

I struck off towards the citadel, called Qaitbay Castle. It sits on a point at the west end of a bay on which the hotel where I was staying was situated. On the east side of the bay is the library. I had seen the castle the day before while I was walking to the library, but I hadn't been sure that was the place. It took about 20 minutes to get there.

The north side of the point is face on to the Mediterranean Sea. And in the winter the sea gets rough. So as I was walking up to the citadel, there were waves crashing against the rocks and the shore. It made a really nice picture of what it might have looked like long ago as the last bastion against an enemy, even one like the seas.

I purchased my ticket and went inside the citadel. The ticket price was a bit high, but the inside was still quite interesting. There were all kinds of interesting passages inside and under the castle. One went all the around the sea wall under the castle, without any actual access to the castle that I could tell.

As with all castles there were tunnels and courtyards and rooms all over the place, the function of which were sometimes not easy to tell. But it made for interesting exploring. I eventually made my way onto the outer wall and tried to get a good photo of the castle and courtyard. With no people. It took a lot of patience because people seemed to determined to get in the way or just stay in the way. But I managed it in the end, after I was approached by one of the guards of the castle, who wanted to take my photo and show me something. I knew where that was headed and so I just told him I was waiting to take a photo of the courtyard. I would find it later. He wandered off, frustrated.

After a while, after I got my photo, I went down and into the castle itself. It was a typical sort of castle, except it was a Muslim ruler's castle, so there was a mosque inside. When I entered the castle, there were two of the guards there. One immediately jumped up and wanted to show me the mosque. It was the same one who had taken my photo on the walls. He still wanted to try and get a tip, it seemed. I told him I wanted to visit upstairs first. He nodded and sat down again, clearly displeased that I was being so difficult.

I stayed up on the upper two levels for a long time, both because there were lots of passages and nooks and crannies to explore and because I was hoping to outlast that guard, that he would move to his next position. It was all empty, but it was cool the way it was laid out.

Eventually I went back down, and to my relief, that guard was gone. There were two others though, and they all seemed to want to be on the take. One jumped up and wanted to show me the mosque. I just pretended not to know English when he asked if I understood. I was going to pretend to not know any language he might have offered. He still gave it a shot and started to lead the way, and I went into another room instead. He came into that room when he realized I hadn't followed him. He had this hopeful look on his face. I got a photo in the room, and then I headed in the direction of the mosque.

The guard got all happy again and pointed to the spot where the ancient lighthouse had once stood. I was pretty sure it was more than just this one perhaps 4 square meter spot. It was a pretty big lighthouse by all accounts and would have had to have had a fairly large base. Either that or I understood why it had fallen down. But the spot was indicated by being behind a barrier and not seeming to serve any other purpose, so I figured out for myself that it was the lighthouse spot.

Then the guard led the way, without my allowing him to actually lead me, to the mosque. It too was barricaded off, but that was okay. It was easy to see all around it. And there was a sign explaining what it was and how it was set up. When I peered around the corner from behind the barricade, the guard “helpfully” pushed it aside so that I could go in if I wanted. I pretended not to know what he was offering. And I took photos up instead of where he thought I should take photos. I really can be a stinker at times. :)

I did get a pretty picture from the up direction though. The designs were quite nice.

Then I left the castle. When the guard went back to the door and tried to get me to stop and talk to them, I just pretended not to understand and left. Too bad guys, and better luck next time.

I had spent a good long time in the castle and wanted to find the catacombs. So I headed out into the street and then in the direction I thought I might find them, according to the relative locations on the tiny little map. I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out. I didn't want to take a taxi, but I was prepared for it should I get myself hopelessly lost and not have a clue where I might find it.

I did get myself hopelessly lost and I had wandered well past and to the northwest of the site in the end, as I discovered later. But I persevered. I had lots of time and the streets were full of interesting sights and nice people. I started asking about the place, called Kom el Shoqafa, as I was walking along. Initially, I had no luck. I modified my direction, and kept asking. And then I hit on someone who did know the place. That was progress. When you are in a large city and are looking for something and you are nowhere near it, you won't anyone who knows it. But as you get closer, you start to find people who have heard of it, and then who know how to find it, and then who can tell you exactly where to go (and not in a mean way), and then who know exactly what you are looking for before you can even ask because that is what people who are there are looking for. This was how it went for me. I kept asking and found people who knew more and more. Then I was walking along a dirt road where people were raising animals and slaughtering others. I felt this wasn't quite the place, but I didn't know where to turn. I was about to turn back to the last place I had had a good answer when a man told me I was going the wrong way. He pointed down a street and told me to go, then turn, then go some more, then turn again and then I would find it. I guess my blank look at the complexity of the directions was obvious. He commandeered a neighbourhood boy and told him to show me the way. The boy did. His name was Mohammed. The first boy of any family in Islam is to be called Mohammed after the prophet Mohammed. So it often seems that every other boy or man you meet is named Mohammed. Mohammed showed me along. He spoke some English and asked me some questions. As we progressed, we picked up a bunch of his friends. Before long there was a group of about 8 or 10 of us heading to the catacombs. It was fun. At length we arrived at the catacombs and I gave them a ten pound note to share amongst themselves for the help. I don't know if it did get shared. I suspect it didn't because one of the other boys came back later asking for more. He didn't get it. I was not about to be responsible for how they shared the money amongst themselves, when I told Mohammed clearly that he was to share it.

The catacombs also were a bit pricey, but I wanted to see them and the day was costing little else, so it was all right. The only thing I was disappointed about was that I couldn't take my camera in with me. Inside there were a couple of surface tombs. The catacombs had been discovered by accident when the ground gave way under a donkey one day early last century. When they were dug out, they found a necropolis and this one tomb in the center that was quite lavish and nice. I really wish I could have taken a photo of it. It was quite spectacular, way down under the ground like that.

It was well after noon by that time, so when I was walking out of the site and Mahmoud from the cafe across the way told me to come and have a tea, I accepted. He was nice. I sat and watched people smoking sheesha pipes and others playing dominoes. I never knew dominoes could go so fast. I seemed like they were starting a new setup every couple of minutes.

Then I paid for my tea and headed for Pompey's Pillar. It wasn't nearly as complicated to find. I was told to walk straight down the street and I would find it. It was quite that easy, but at the main street where I arrived, I looked around and saw a big and elaborate fence a block or so away. I thought that might be what I was looking for. It was. I went in and had a look there. I'm not sure of who built the pillar, but it is a solid piece of granite that is some 20 meters tall. It was built as part of a temple where people came and worshipped a couple of gods in a unified religion between Greek and Egyptian cosmology. The deities involved included Isis and something called the Apis Bull. But it was just a cool place. There were foundations of all sorts of things in the site.

There was a sacred pool...

...as well as Roman baths and columns galore.

And there was an underground here, too, but not a necropolis. It seemed to be a place for storage, but I could take photos there, so I was happy. It was another place I was glad I had searched out and was amazed that nobody knew.

Following Pompey's Pillar, I headed out into the street just as a street trolley came by. I hopped on, knowing that one of the routes went past my hotel. I didn't think it would be this one, but I asked if it went to the waterfront and the ticket guy said yes. Instead it went to the depot. But for 25 piastres, I didn't complain. I paid again to get on one going the other way and rode it for an hour. I saw all kinds of cool things: bustling markets, sidewalk furniture shops, fruit markets, and just plain daily life.

One spot, I saw this old woman with a remarkable face. I don't think it shows in my photo though.

And all along the way, there were coffee drinking/games playing/sheesha pipe smoking cafes.  This country loves its cafes!

The tram never did go to the waterfront, but it was a great ride anyway. Eventually we reached close the other end of the line, and I got off and headed, with the ticket guy's help, in the direction of the waterfront. I got there and determined which way to go to get to the hotel. I had to pass the library on the way. It had gotten dark by this time and I had the opportunity to get a photo of it at night. I was excited by that, and then I realized that it was the night of the full moon. The moon had risen behind the library, from my vantage point, and was reflected in the pool in front of the library. Sometimes I get so lucky!

After that, I was wandering around the forecourt area of the library, looking for more nice spots to take photos of the library, when I tripped on a step. I righted myself and looked up to see a taste from home. There was a Cinnabon in front of me. I was absolutely amazed. Was it a real one? I had to find out. So I went in and had one. And yes, it was real.

What a way to end an incredibly fun day!!!