The Northern Coast

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Our whole program decided to head up to the coast for a quick one day visit to the Mediterranean. We arrived in town, then proceeded to get lost fairly quickly, and slowly snaked our way along the beachfront searching for our hostel. Turns out that it was far further than anyone had realized. My conservative estimation is that we ended up walking for about three miles before taking a break for lunch. Of course, we couldn’t help but end up at a Pizza Hut. Maybe it was because we had been in the country a little over a week and felt that it was time for a taste of home. Either way, we spent well more than we should have (when compared to the cost of local food) and much less than we would have in a first world country, and went on our way. In a short time we had arrived at our hostel, which had no record of a reservation for the twenty of us. In typical fashion though, the owner had a ‘friend’ who could accommodate us ‘no problem.’ We then proceeded to move over the Hotel Leroy. I am sure there are worse places to stay in the Middle East; I have just not been to any of them. In all fairness, I have no doubt that the part of the hotel we stayed in was not usually offered to guests. The price was right at about $2 a person, but I was very comforted knowing that we would only be staying for one night. After dropping our bags and, taking into account that we would NOT be staying in our rooms for any more than we needed to, we headed out to explore the seafront and look at the citadel. For the rest of the evening, a small group of us walked along the coast taking the atmosphere and sea breezes. We went up to the Citadel, but it had already closed for the day. Looked like it may have been interesting to peek around in. Again, I am reminded of the downside of travel-study: the clock is always a factor, and the travel must always be kept in balance with the study. Since we had started the day off in Cairo, and walked for a while with our stuff, we didn’t feel like making a long night out of it. After sleeping in a bit, most of us took the late morning bus back to Cairo. A few adventurous people decided to stay in town for a few more hours and head back on their own.

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Photos

Lunch at Pizza Hut
The Pizza Hut / KFC chain is the most popular in the Arab world

Hotel Leroy
the worst place I have stayed to date

Hotel Bar
Yes, it has been a while since this establishment served heavy A.

My room
the bed on the left only had three legs; thus the slant into the wall

The bathroom
Kinda on the dingy grimey side

The bedroom next door
hmmm...they must not use this one too much