Saturday, March 20, 2010

Alexandria

After a couple of weekends bumming around in Cairo this weekend a group of friends and I decided that it was finally time to visit Egypt's second city: Alexandria. With that in mind we made plans to catch an 8 o'clock train out of Cairo station Friday morning, so we could spend a full day touring the city. Unfortunately, this plan didn't account for Thursday night, which just happened to be the first weekend night after St. Patrick's Day. Of course Americans cannot allow Ireland's holiday to go by unnoticed, and the requisite plans for a felucca ride were made. A felucca, or at least a party felucca, is a long, low boat with excessive lighting and bad speaker systems that can be rented out for under 10 dollars an hour. When this is combined with forty to fifty foreign students and whatever alcohol they bring you get a classic Nile party. This one was particularly anticipated, perhaps because some entrepreneuring soul had promised to acquire Guinness and Jameson, two items which are sorely missed in Cairo. Suffice it to say that it was a successful party, but that meant we didn't get back to the dorms until two or three in the morning, four hours before our planned rendezvous.
Somehow my mind managed to wake up just before seven. I briefly contemplated checking to see if anyone else was actually going to go through with the plan, but I decided that the thought was absurd. Twenty minutes later I was proven wrong when I woke up to a phone call informing me that I had five minutes to get up, pack, and make my way downstairs to leave. I made it in under 10 minutes, and by a minor miracle 4 out of the original 6 travelers caught the 9 o'clock train, an hour late but far ahead of my expectations.
We got into Alexandria about 11, and quickly made our way to the Corniche for a view of the Mediterranean, which really is a beautiful sea. Alexandria is a cleaner, smaller and cooler version of Cairo, which makes a trip there a very pleasant respite from the former. Unfortunately Alexandria resembles Cairo in that it often can only echo a more glorious past which is either destroyed or surrounded by endless concrete high-rises. In Alexandria's case there are two epochs in particular that would be wonderful to see first hand: the ancient city with its lighthouse and library, and the early 20-century city which had close cultural ties to the European Mediterranean, before the Suez Canal crisis forced many foreigners to leave the city.
Secure in the knowledge that most of us would revisit the city, our group took our time to visit major sites. In fact the only "must see" we saw was the Fort of Qaitbay, a smallish but impressive fortress that guards the entrance to Alexandria's bay. Afterwards we found a seafood restaurant with a great view and enjoyed fresh fish and mezze for a surprisingly low price. Then it was time to meet the final two travelers, who took a later train after sleeping in a little later. One of these was Ahmed, an Egyptian friend whose parents own an apartment in Alexandria, which was generously offered to us for the night. After lunch we headed there to drop off our stuff and plan our next move. That turned out to be nap time, which will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with college students' sleeping habits. Then, to complete the stereotype of living lazily, we didn't move much at all until dinner, which was another beautiful affair at a local restaurant. We finished the day by taking a long walk on the corniche to soothe our over-full bellies and enjoy a sheesha and tea session on the coast. So, while many sites went unvisited, there were two good walks and two better meals, which makes the day a successful one by my standards.
The only real drawback to the weekend was the performance of Catholic Big East schools in the NCAA Tournament. In a spirit of optimism I had predicted that Notre Dame would make the Sweet 16, instead they couldn't make it past Old Dominion. My bracket was even more devastated when Georgetown, who I put in the Final Four, somehow fell to Ohio. To complete the trio Marquette lost to Washington, but I could deal with that, I had them losing to New Mexico in the next game anyway.

1 comment:

  1. Josh,
    Don't know if you'll remember me - I'm the middle daughter of Vicki Hitchcock, your Mom's friend in Rawlins.
    I thought of you today, Googled your name, and was very happy to find your blog. Haven't read the whole thing yet, but am enjoying it thoroughly.
    I'm just over in Cincinnati, so if you ever need anything at all I hope that you will not hesitate to ask. If you'll email me I'll send along my address and phone so you can get me in a hurry if ever needed. Cincinnati is a great town for a history man like you, and if you have a day to come over and hang out (when you get back in the States) you'd be most welcome.
    When I was in college I swore that, when older, I would help along anyone in shoes similar to mine. Unless you have changed drastically in the last 8 or so years you definitely fall into that category, so please do not hesitate if I can ever be of aid, large or small.
    I am deeply envious of your current circumstances, and appreciate your writing about them so that I can live vicariously.
    Very happy travels to you,
    Kate Hitchcock
    cowgirls1022 at gmail.com

    ReplyDelete