Alexandria, a City with a History

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August 8th

I had decided that I would need to replace my phone and camera as soon as possible, if only to continue taking pictures for the blog. I did the most logical thing and bought a camera phone in the morning. Aanas had headed out early in the morning to meet another CouchSurfer and see as much of Alexandria as he could before heading back to Cairo to catch a plane.

After getting a phone and camera I was able to get in contact with Maha, she had offered to show me more of the city. We went to all sorts of places, first we headed to the Qaitbay Citadel, built on the same site that once stood the Alexandrian Lighthouse, which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was used centuries ago to protect the city from invaders and still stood tall on a peninsula of the city. We walked around there for a bit and even ran into Aanas and his CSer friend. I said my final goodbye to Aanas who had become a great friend in the short time we spent together. Maha and I continued on the tour of Alexandria, and after the Citadel we headed for the Greco-Roman ruins.

It was quite the place to see, right in the middle of all the hustle and bustle of the city lay the ruins of 500+ years ago. There was still excavating going on even, and after we walked around in there for a bit a security guard allowed us to go into the “prohibited” areas of the ruins. I can’t tell explain exactly what we saw, it wasn’t as if there were diagrams or blue prins of what was once there, but I can tell you that it was pretty damn awesome. Just standing in a spot that ancient was an incredibly cool experience. I remember leaving the restricted area and having a very incoherent exchange with the security guard who wanted some money from me and wanted me to keep it a secret he had let us in. His english was poor and my Arabic was non existent, but we had a general understanding that I wouldn’t rat him out and he was happy with a few Egyptian pounds.

After leaving the ruins Maha took me to the Alexandrian Library. We did the guided tour inside the library and saw all the different permanent exhibitions inside, like the Anwar el Sadat Museum (Sadat was the 3rd and very popular president of Egypt who was assassinated, okay maybe he wasn’t SOO POPULAR). After walking around the library book stacks and enjoying the architecture of the building we headed back to the hotel to get out of the Egyptian heat. Maha headed home and I stayed at the hotel, we made plans for that evening to have dinner at the hotel together.

I took a nap and Maha returned to the hotel with a very nice meal prepared, grilled fish, salad and pita bread, yuuum! We talked about Egypt and our travels and where we would like to go. After dinner we walked around the Corniche for a bit and then took a ride in a horse carriage. It was a nice ending to a good day of site seeing and exploring, but my bed was calling me and I obliged.

Hope you like the photos and post, until next time, Pura Vida!
-Avila

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