This is the fourth book in the Alexander Co. Abroad series. It continues the story of Samantha and Rick Jolly as they travel to nearby countries while living in the United Arab Emirates. The couple first explores Venice and Rome as they experience childhood fantasies come to life. Flying into Venice and taking a train to Rome during a winter holiday opens the world to the inexperienced travelers. Bitten by the travel bug the duo are joined by a close friend, "Ms. Rosemary", on a trip of a lifetime to Cairo and Luxor in Egypt before flying to Istanbul and the ancient city of Ephesus in Turkey. The trio explores the awe-inspiring ancient Egyptian Pyramids and Temples while witnessing the daily hardships and struggles of modern day Egyptians.

The last leg of the journey follows the travelers to the forgotten ancient city of Ephesus, the well-preserved Roman city ruins near the town of Selcuk, Turkey. The final stop is the famous Roman capital city of Constantinople known today as Istanbul, the only city with coordinates in both Europe and Asia continents. The western travelers struggle with the language and cold weather in-order to explore the world-renowned city filled with Christian and Muslim histories creating a one of a kind culture highlighted by its colorful people.Chapter 4 Rome"The 4 hour train ride passed quickly as we stopped in Florence before arriving in Rome. Nether city looked appealing from the train station, but to be honest Rome looked like a ghetto. Most of the buildings and track retainer walls were marred with graffiti and trash that amplified the decay of the cities infrastructure. Samantha's facial expression said a thousand words when I asked what she thought of Roma. She asked if this was the right place, hoping it wasn't.

But, it was in fact our stop as I led the way toward the subway."Chapter 9 Cairo"We headed out of the airport and ran straight into bumper to bumper traffic as far as the eye could see in both directions. Within 30 seconds of riding down the congested road we knew our lives were in danger with no way out. The four lane highway had six or seven lanes jammed together with angry drivers weaving and dodging for position like a real life game of frogger. Not one car stayed in the marked lanes as drivers honked horns and flashed lights pushing each other out of the way. There was no rhyme or reason for the insanity of driving in Cairo. The rules are there are no rules and can confidently say I would never ever try to drive in that madness. With that said, they should market the driving around from place to place as part of the tour.

It's a thrill ride the whole time, much like an amusement park without the safety equipment and guidelines. I would mount some cameras to record first time visitor's reactions and post them on YouTube for a nice second source of income. The look on our faces must have been priceless and worth at least 500,000 views easy."Chapter 16 Istanbul"Agreeing to the terms and conditions we followed the driver to our private van. Surprising to us, many Turkish people didn't speak English. The guy who sold us the car service spoke English so we assumed the driver would too, only finding out he didn't after we reached our van. I mean he spoke no English at all. We didn't understand the words coming out of his mouth and he didn't understand the words coming out of our mouths.

I said Galata Tower and he looked at me like I said a curse word and maybe I did, I have no idea. Handing him a printout of the apartment location he seemed to understand where we needed to go as he pulled out of the parking deck and headed down the street. I had no idea if we were heading in the right direction, thinking we would find out when we got there. Samantha gave me the look and I gave her the look back. What was I supposed to do?".