http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Africa , Egypt , Mediterranean en-us Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:09:33 BST Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:09:33 BST Alexandria can be viewed in 3 days. We came by bus on Thursday evening and went directly to KADOURA fish restaurant. After we went to sleep in a FOUAD HOTEL 40 Egyptian pounds per night it's in the downtown but not that much good and comfortable no toilet in the room. Next day we woke up at 8am first we visited Greekroman amphitheater on foot then we took a taxi to Pompey's Pillar then o http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-302132.html 16051606 15751604157615831575161015751578 1575160415891594161015851577 1578157115781610 15751588161015751569 15931592161016051577 By far this was the best place in Egypt. I fell in love with the coastal community out here. The people seemed to me to be more modern. The majority of the women here were sti http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-294707.html Yesterday we got back from our first school sponsored trip it was to Alexandria. The bus ride was about 3 hours most of which was through the dessert therefore there was not much to see surprisingly there is a lot of real estate...who would want to live in the middle of the desert when we made a rest stop as Masters toilet convenient store restaurant gas station clothing store ect. http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-287636.html I made it to Africa Yesterday was quite the trip. I caught a bus to Aqaba which is a port city in the south of Jordan at 730am but it left on Middle East time around 830 so we arrived in Aqaba at 1030 and caught a ferry which also left on Middle East time and we didn't arrive in Nuweiba Sinai area of Egypt until 3pm. I ended up finding a bus to Cairo but it was super slow so I didnt arri http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-280395.html Salaam a'aleykoum from quiet Marsa Matrouh where we've been lounging by the beach for the last four days. After surviving our first week in Cairo Dad Caitie and I decided to treat ourselves to a vacation from our vacation stopping first in the desert oasis Siwa and again here to break up the trip to Alexandria. At this very moment it is 940pm. A cool breeze is blowing and the imam has just http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Marsa-Matruh/blog-278744.html Once again the trains were delayed which meant we got into Alexandria four hours late.We settled into our room which had ocean views and then quickly headed out to the RomanEgyptian Catacombs before it closed. The Romans who settled in Egypt built these but still used an Egyptian influence with decoration to fit in with the locals. It was very impressive to see and the carvings were intere http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-273610.html Hi everyone. How is it going I hope you are having a good time. We went to a water park in Cyprus and it was very fun. There was this big can of water and every time it filled up it did 8 rings and then dumped. I got drenched and I found a friend. He was fun. I found him on a slide we bumped into each other.In Egypt we went to see the pyramids. They were big and after we saw the pyramids http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-272720.html Pompey's Pillar exemplifies the continuous urban renewal at Alexandria. The massive 30mhigh pink granite column was give it's name by travellers remembering the murder of the Roman general Pompey by Cleopatra's brother. Under the current base of granite facade they have uncovered the original base with heiroglyphic text. The area around the pillar has been made into a modern outdoor exhibit recen http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-268271.html Akmed our driver for the day took us to Rosetta for a cruise on the Nile. Fort Qait Bay the original location where the Rosetta Stone was found is located on the banks of the Nile amongst a forest of brick factorychimneys. Red bricks seems to have been the building material of choice for centuries and still is today. To visit the fort Akmed had to navigate through narrow dirt lanes with mor http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-268062.html Getting lost is all part of the exploration process and finding yourself is also part of the fun of travel. We decided to set off on our own this morning to buy train tickets for our trip back to Cairo on Sunday. Having great foresight we had the hotel desk clerk write down the address for the train station in Arabic. However some of the taxi drivers cannot read. so having a written address is of http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-267774.html Travelling to Alexandria was tranquil in comparison as we had a driver Mr Sammy who seemed quite sane. We stopped for a couple of hours at Wadi Natrun the site of salt lakes that when dried out produced the salt used in mummification. There are also several monasteries dating back to the 4th century. We visited Deir Anba Bishoi and were given an extended tour by one of the monks. Spiritually r http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-267417.html We arrived in Cairo early in the morning from Luxor on the overnight train and hopped straight onto a bus that would drive us to Alexandria 3 hours away. The day trip to Alexandria was okay it seems like a nice city to visit and I would have loved to have more time there but without the luxury of having that extra travel time to explore on our own we were left with the only option in taking a http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-266770.html Up early and on the road with the comical hope of missing the insane traffic of Cairo. The traffic here makes Dubai seem serene it's insane. They can fit four cars and a motorcycle abreast in a two lane road and seem to consider traffic lights and their attendant traffic officers as decorative. Mayhem to the soundtrack of horns. The driver told us they Toot and Come On. He laughed every tim http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-265373.html March 30 31ALEXANDRIA EgyptWe got an early start today for the 3 hour drive through the countryside to Alexandria. This was a very enjoyable drive with a good look at the very productive agricultural area between Cairo and Alexandria. We were surprised to see the wide variety of crops. Vineyards Olive groves Fruit Nuts Palms Wheat animal feed and some very big banana plantations. Lots http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-264018.html Willie Nelson said it best...sometimes you 'just can't wait to get on the road again'. So we hit the road again on Mar. 14th back up north to Lower Egypt back to Cairo. The ten hour train ride was right on time and with the help of a British couple chatting with us the ride went pretty quickly. We desperately tried to find a different hotel this time around but the ones we wanted were either http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-258940.html It is now the 1st March and we are headed back to Kathmandu in Nepal to get ready to set off on the South East Asian leg of our roundtheworld journey. Due to a lack of time and reasonable Internet facilities I am over a month behind in our blog so you'll have to wait to hear about our adventures in one of the most fascinating countries I've been too anyway back to Egypt it's a good thing I' http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-248410.html Hello to allThank you all very much for your birthday wishes. I wish i could only say that it was the best birthday ever sadly it was probably the worst I have pretty much recovered from the fever but the worst was yet to come.....I decided to stay in Alexandria instead of going out into the desert which turned out to be a very good decision The night before my birthday we celebrated my bir http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-245913.html marhabaWhen i last left you i was in Luxor and had a fever. that night was probably one of the worst nights of my life. I was so sick i could hardly move and what was worse i had really bad nausia. to make things even better that evening at 10pm we were catching the train back to cairo then on to alexandria which is where i write this from now. The train trip was almost 11hrs which meant i had to http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-245167.html After a wonderful evening of celebrating birth i awoke the next day to do much of the same. you can never have too much birthday. We began they day by heading towards Pompeii's pillar. Our guide had a hard accent to follow so for a while i was unsure if i was heading toward a pillar in relation to the volcano or the roman general but eventually she explained that it was customary that when someo http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-244739.html I spent 24 hours in Alexandria and it was moomtaz. That roughly translate to great. It is your quintessential Mediterranean city only... in Africa. The city extends for miles and miles along the coast and is just absolutely fantastic. I will do my best to keep my review of the trip brief. There are a lot of pictures and those tell a better story i am sure. We left Cairo early Friday morning and http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-244599.html Salut tout le monde ou plutot salam aleykoumNous avons enfin vu les pyramides cette semaine wow elles sont vraiment impressionnante et tres nombreuses. Encore plus impressionnant est la faon dont ces merveilles sont presentes au public. Sur deux des trois sites nous pouvons monter directement dessus...au dtriment de leur conservation sans compter tout les dchets qui s'amassent tout auto http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-242392.html Hello everyone I thought I'd write again as I fancied an hour of sitting in a room with air con Since writing last I left hectic Cairo biggest city in Africa 18 million and headed to Alexandria 2nd biggest city in Egypt And it started to feel like a holiday with the sea on my doorstep. I had a lovely walk along the coastline on my first day and I bumped into a Sir Alan Sugar lookalike http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-216064.html All I can say about this weekend is WOW It feels like our weekend started last wednesday with our BCCIS If Tar. I have mentioned before that If Tar is the daily breaking of the fast. It is very family oriented and even if families are busy the rest of the year the month of If Tar requires dinners together with family and friends every evening. On wednesday we set up a huge pot luck or dish http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-209312.html So I finally got the rest of my pics loaded up from the first month of my time here in Egypt. There are quite a lot and the links to reach them are at the bottom of this page. I was in CairoLuxorAswan last week and had an asbsolutely fabulous time. I will write about that next week once I've got all those pics loaded I took about 700 I know crazy but I went to sooo many Pharonic sites it w http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-201413.html Yet another time I find myself in the magnificent reading room of the Bibliotec Alexandrina. Yesterday I made my way to Alex. with Mike for some excellent seafood and relaxation. It's been wonderful. Last night we ate Kadoura the seafood restaurant in which one selects their fish out of a ice cooler then tells the server the preferred method of preparation. It is then served with an assortme http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-192673.html A side trip north to Alexandria by train We got up early theme of this journey picked up by Hamby our trip transfer lead and driven to the Cairo train station by our driver Ahmed where we were experienced yet another bout with culture shock. Trains in Egypt are not what they are in Europe not even what they are in the States Amtrak but they are available to all people for low cost in http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-175470.html Once again I find myself in the massive space of the reading room at the Bibliotec Alexandria actually Bibiloteca Alexandrina. Tim and I visited this monstrous wonder this afternoon. The tour wasn't nearly as good as the first time I visited two months ago when there were only three people in the group. This time there were close to 25 which makes for quite a different experience. It was s http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-175097.html My patience has definitely grown thin since entering Egypt but I have no choice but to bite my lip and smile. After all the locals won't know what I'm saying if I try to make a logical case for anything obvious. The various inconveniences Rob and I have encountered are worth putting up with. Egyptian locals cutting right in front of us for train and bus tickets is just one example. Another i http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-175091.html Yesterday Tim and I arrived in fascinating city of Alexandria. There truly something about this city which feels as though it's crumbling. It has this faded grandeur that is now dingy and dirty yet somehow inviting. It's one of those intriguing cities murder mysteries are set in. Even pulling into the train station yesterday we passed by elaborately designed homes didn't seem from this world. http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-174971.html