Alexandria!

The hotel was great, but time to leave. After Shaloo got in, we moved to my friend Leanne’s house for a couple nights. It was nice to get somewhere and just relax and have a house. And a washing machine. I did 6 loads of laundry and hung it to dry on a rack—my clothes haven’t been clean in 3 weeks. We discovered that you can order takeout online here for a nominal fee (1-2$ delivery charge) from about 100 locations, so we got falafel and Hardees for lunch and delicious Pizza Hut for supper. I played some Mario Kart, which I’m crap at, and just enjoyed the house and catching up with Leanne for the night.

The next day came at 5:50am. We had to go to the Canadian Embassy for a little passport snafu. I figured no one could be less efficient than Passport Canada IN Canada, but I was wrong. We sat in the lobby with a bunch of people who had Canadian Visitor tags on—presumably, those who are trying to come to Canada. When we finally got into the consulate, they were totally unhelpful and sent us away to get other documents and pictures together. Since it was 9am and we had

plans, we said screw it and will try again at a real embassy—the one in London.

9am was a hastily planned tour to Alexandria for the day. It’s 220 km to Alex from Cairo, but the roads aren’t fast, so its 3-4 hrs. We stopped at a lovely coffee shop, Shaloo’s first proper coffee experience in months, and finally arrived in Alex around noon. Alexandria is described as the “greatest historical city with the least to show for it,” because it has been destroyed so many times throughout the ages. It was founded by Alexander the Great (proper city name is Al Iskendariyya), and was the seat of Cleopatra’s throne. It was once a thriving metropolis, but Christian and Muslim wars destroyed much of the metropolis— and with the Muslim conquest moving the capital to Cairo, the city was left obscure for centuries.

We first visited the Catacombs of Kom Ash-Shuqqafa when we hit the city (construction: 2^nd

century AD). This ancient Roman burial site was discovered when a donkey pulling a chariot fell through the ground in 1900. It’s a pretty impressive, and famous, burial site—the catacombs consist of three tiers of tombs and chambers cut into bedrock at a depth is 35 meters. You enter down a spiral staircase of 99 steps, and it’s a very interesting, eerie place. There are chambers for bodies, a library for holy books, a dining hall for family members… when they discovered the catacombs there were mounds of broken dishes in this area. Apparently, it was customary to eat in the catacomb and then break the dishes on the floor. A very interesting place, but no pictures allowed.

We next hit Pompey’s Pillar and the Serapeum, erected in 291 AD. This is a giant 30 m pillar, left standing at the ruins of the Temple of Serapeum, is one of the major attractions in Alexandria. The Temple housed all the overflow books from the famous library of Alexandria, and was destroyed in 391 AD by Christians—in an assault against Pagan intellectuals.

We next went to the Roman Ampitheatre, but there wasn’t enough to see to make it worth paying for. The sites in Alex are interesting, but there is so little left of them. This on is 13 marble terraces, and used to be a park in Ptolemaic times.

It was well after lunch time, but we had little time left to see everything—so we headed to Fort Qaitbey. This fort, which looks like a castle, is nestled on the Mediterranean and offers amazing city views. It was built in 1480 on the site of the original Pharos lighthouse (one of the original wonders of the world, destroyed by earthquake). It was cool to see, but I think we were more of a tourist attraction than the site itself. Our guide explained that most of the people there weren’t from Alex, but from villages and towns where foreigners don’t generally travel. So, to them we

were something only seen on a television. We took no less than 30 pictures with people, and a couple overly-aggressive guys got a little irritating by the end. But, we got to see the city from a whole new angle. After this long run of sites, I was ready for a few liters of water and a nap.

We had a quick lunch at a French-Middle Eastern fusion place—the falafel was delish. I’ve decided I might just eat falafel every day for the remainder of the trip. I got my giant bottle of water, and we were off for our last site—the Library of Alexandria (Bibliotheca Alexandrina). The original library was founded in the late 3^rd century, and aimed to have one copy of every published work on earth within its walls. When ships came to harbour, they were searched for any books—and anything found was confiscated and hastily copied. Alexandria was an information repository, and the destruction of knowledge in Alex led to the Dark Ages. The original library was destroyed, either by Julius Caesar or early Christians. The new library has space for 8 million books, and it a multi-floor, vast collection.

We hit the road again for Cairo—I slept through the entire drive. We stopped at the Papyrus museum when we got back, where a nice man showed us the papyrus making process and harassed us to buy something. I actually did, as I thought the art was really interesting. A small-ish sized piece was about $40, so I got one with the Egyptian Calendar on it. We thought we were heading home, but instead we hit a small bar for a drink and a shisha. Most people are familiar with shisha—it’s a flavoured tobacco water pipe thing that everyone smokes here—every man, I should say. We each tested out a different flavour, and hit the road back to Leanne’s. This is where the fun really began. The driver dropped the guide off on the highway, as it was closer to his house. He was supposed to take us home and we’d pay him and all would be well—which would have worked out if he had any idea where he was going. After a series of phone calls, questions to randoms and some stopping to walk around the road and smoke a cigarette, we found our house. About 2 hrs after we began the hunt. All in all, it was an interesting day and a good start to Egypt. I needed to acclimatize to the heat a bit, as I’ve been living in A/C, and prepare myself to see les Pyramids! That happens tonight….we’re going to the (supposedly cheesy) Sound & Light Show at Giza—stupid as it may be, I can’t wait! Yay for tacky tourism.