Trip to Aswan - Day 1

We had a short break, for the December Eid, so we decided to go to Aswan. the whole group was suppose to go, but people changed theird mind - so in the end it was just me, Nichole, Rachel and Esther. After a busy week, Esther and Rach went to the train station to get tickets the day before we left. Surprise: there were no more tickets. We decided to go early in the morning - maybe they will add another car to the train.
Early in the morning - we wake up - NIchole is sick. We make it to the metro station ... Nichole throws up. My oppinion - she will get better once she's thrown up. We manage to buy our tickets for 136 LE, French class (whatever that was suppose to mean) while NIchole keeps throwing up.
We were told to go to car 7, where 1st class was - we get on through the crowd of people, find our seats taken. Rach talks to them, NIchole is still sick, telling me she wants to go back home. I feel bad and try to convince her to stay. At the same time, men on the train laugh and make jokes. Angry, i turn around and shout - then the crowd starts calming down.
We found some empty seats, surrounded by Egyptian men. Nichole decides to get off. I accompany her. When i returned, there's a new scenario: our seats might be at the end of the train.
Let me try and describe you how the train looked: PACKED!!!!!!!There were people on the seats, under the seats, on top where you put your luggage, in between seats, on the aisle, pilled up on top of each other like a pyramid.... etc
Me and Rach adventure ourselves to the end of the train, passing from car to car, to see if we can find our places, telling Esther to keep the seats that we already occupied. We get to the end of the train and to ur surprise there was no 1st class there. We come back. Meanwhile, new people claim our seats - the ones we were sitting on. Esther willingly gives them our tickets. At this point we are all standing, led by a man who claims to know what he is doing. He tries to tell us that we have seats at the back of the train, so there we go again. We take our bags and carry it through the train, through the crowd of people. The man didnt even give us the chance to tell him that we've already checked the back of the train. We get to the end of the train - car 12
At this stage we dont knwo what to do ... We talk about getting off the train and heading back to Cairo. Hardly anyody spoke English on that train - our Arabic was limited ... and all around us there are oppionionated people - some say our seats are at the front of the train - car 1. At this point all i wanted was to get off the train and go home. I almost had tears in my eyes. After many debates, plus finding out that the next stop is in 2 hours, we decide to adventure ourselves and walk back - this time through the whole train to get to 1st class.
I an't describe how people were sitting, standing ... unbelieveable!! We managed to get to 1st class, but other people were sitting our on seats. At this point we are standing. I texted Nichole and told her she should be happy, that she returned, coz i was almost in tears.
Many people tried to help - Egyptian help - but htey had no idea what to do. We managed to get two seats - after an old man stood up and let us sit down. I felt so bad and tried to explain that i am ok and i feel bad having him standing. Rach is on the floor...
There was one man, in his 20's that tried to help us - his English was good and he said those are our seats, we paid for them bla bla .... while i was trying to tell him how bad i feel. Later, during our journey, he came back to check on us. After many smiles, he turned to me and said: "you know, earlier, your behavior was totally unacceptable here". Luckily, for him, i kept calm, smiled but inside i was burning .... Don't you tell me what is acceptable, or not acceptable!!!! It is not acceptable for me to argue that i cant have an older man standing, but it is acceptable for men to grab my ass while i go through the train!! Whatever... But, once again, i live in a country that is not my own, so i guess i should live according to their rules.
If you hadnt been through all the hassle and classes, we wouldnt have appreciated as much our 1st class seats.
The train ride was 16 hours, btw ... we got to Aswan at 11 pm... completely tired!!