A week after I returned from Damascus (Oct. 7) Mommy came to visit. I was so so so happy to see her, I had been looking forward to her trip for a month and I couldn’t wait. Sometimes you just need your Mommy.
We planned to make a weekend trip so Mom could scuba dive – we had to choose between Sharm el Sheikh (a resort town) and Alexandria. We mistakenly chose the latter, Mom got an e-mail two days before we left saying President Hosni Mubarak would be visiting Alexandria and no boats were allowed out on the water because they were doing Navy exercises…or something.
Mom and I took a morning train to Alexandria. As always it was an adventure. Fake conductor-looking men offered to help us with our bags and we mistakenly allowed them, of course they wanted tips when we got to our seats. The ride itself went well, I got to see the Egyptian countryside – it’s very pastoral actually, I guess that’s thanks to the number of cotton farms.
We went right to the Sheraton where we were staying and took a nap. Haha it sounds ridiculous but Mom never gave herself time to recover from jet lag and I was exhausted from school. Careful of not sleeping for toooo long we decided to spend the afternoon studying (she had work to do for class too) at the Library of Alexandria. No, not the largest library in the world that burnt down in 48 BC but the one that was built in 2003 and has horrifically modern architecture. We purchased our tickets to get in, luckily with student discounts for both of us, and headed in only to be stopped by a security guard who told us we can’t bring our bags in. Fine. Whatever. We can bring our books in right? No. No books allowed in the library. I’m sorry, did you hear what you just said?!? So instead of studying in the library we set up camp in the cafe where we had some lunch. I ordered fish and chips. The fish was SOAKED in vinegar – so tart!
We eventually accepted our defeat for the day and went back and had a quiet night of studying at the hotel.
After our first day of two in Alexandria, even though I felt defeated (as I often do after a rough day of getting lost in Cairo) I really appreciated the city. It was so different from Cairo. The streets were so clean (they even had street cleaners and garbage cans! They’re hard to come by in Cairo) and it was a lot quieter than Cairo – a lot less horn honking, which was probably due to the fact that the driving was a little calmer as well. On top of that, I’ve never seen the Mediterranean Sea before. It was Crayola crayon blue aside from the turquoise in the shallows. It was beautiful.
The combination of city and sea was unlike any town I’ve ever been in. There are walls and beach huts that block the view of the sore from the street, which makes it feel less like a beach town. For me beach towns slowly become more and more beachy as you approach dunes. In Alexandria, it’s like you wonder out of the city and you smack right into sea. Even in New York the buildings get lower and lower and the city gets quieter as you approach the Hudson at most points. The Corniche – a main highway – drives right alongside the beach.
