Blogs from Alexandria, Mediterranean, Egypt, Africa

Dear All Greetings from Alexandria! City of my name, founded by none other than Al-Iskandar Al-Akbar himself (Alexander the Great), the capital of Cleopatra’s Egypt, and the site of not only the famous Great Library of Alexandria, the greatest collection of scrolls and manuscripts ever at that time, but also the Pharos lighthouse, one of the Ancient Seven Wonders of the World which towered over the ancient city’s harbour. Alas, none of these wonders remain today, as after the Arabs swept through North Africa in the 7th Century, Egypt’s capital was moved to Cairo, and Alexandria was all but abandoned. The Ancient City today sits some 6 metres below modern Alexandria, and much of it is actually now under water. Today the city is as Arabic as they come, a frenetic, heaving metropolis of 4 million ... read more

Looking for a short day trip from Cairo, I decided to head to Alexandria or Alex as the locals call it. Tons of history here. The city was created by Alexander the Great and Cleopatra lived here. Little did I know my tour guide would be Regis Philbin (or at least his Egyptian look alike). Seriously – the guy looked just like him. I left my house at 7 am and made it to the Catacombs in Alexandria by 10 am – the largest Roman cemetery in Egypt at 3 levels cut in the rock, and all underground. What’s cool is that it was discovered accidently in 1900 when a donkey disappeared through the ground. Next up – Pompay’s Pillar which is exactly as it sounds – a pillar. Nice to visit, but not actually built ... read more

Ahlan everyone! I wrote most of this yesterday before our Halloween so apologies if the timeline is a little squiggly. Time is flying by and my blogging rate leaves much to be desired i know. As usual, my apologies. Em and I had the sudden realisation yesterday that we don't really have all that much time left before we are back at the airport leaving the country. The strangest thing is, that despite all my bitching, i will really miss it and i can't quite wrap my head around the idea that the next bit won't be with emma... However we still have 5/7 weeks here respectively and so i won't take up any more space with that stuff just yet. It is an absolute abomination on my part that exactly 3 weeks ago today em ... read more

Greetings from the Ancient Land of Kings and Cleopatra. It has been a week of settling in and acclimatizing here. I say acclimatizing because Alexandria really has been a culture shock for us. I'm not entirely sure what i was expecting, maybe the Mediterranean setting gave me the naive hope that Alexandria would be slightly more western; a city perfect for the transition between West and Middle East. This was stupid. The women are mostly veiled and standoffish. The men are overly welcoming and often treat us the same way small children treat cats; that is to say it isn't uncommon here for us to be chased down the street with men either trying to lure us towards them or, alternatively, hissing at us. And all of them; men and women alike, drive like absolute maniacs. ... read more

Marhaba! This past weekend I ventured to Alexandria, Egypt's beautiful Mediterranean coastal city. The drive took approximately three hours, and was not that bad since I slept most of the way (I had to get up 5:10 to leave at 6 in the morning!) The first thing we did while in Alexandria was venture through the narrow streets with our big bus to go to the Roman Catacombs. The Roman Catacombs in Alexandria were found only in 1900 by a donkey since an excavation started in 1892. Wait a donkey? Well, according to legend, a donkey pulling a cart unfortunately fell through a hole in the ground and voila there were the catacombs! The catacombs, or Kom el-Shoqafa, date back to the first century AD. Most likely these tombs were originally private, but later became public. ... read more