Blogs from Alexandria, Mediterranean, Egypt, Africa - page 2

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

Well, time for another blog. When last I left off I was coming close to departing for Alexandria. During that first week, I was constantly battling a lovely little bug who seemed to enjoy the inside of my bowels for some reason. Thankfully that has passed and I am feeling much better now and hopefully it will stay that way, In shah Allah. A week ago Sunday, while Aaron was feeling a little under the weather, Jon and I ventured over to the city of the dead. As we were strolling through the alleyways, we saw many tombs and places where Cairos dead have been buried over the last thousand or so years. After the earthquake of 1994, in Cairo, many of the cities poor people, who had lost their residence during the earthquake, moved into ... read more

Had my cruise itinerary not included Alexandria, I probably would not have returned to Egypt. Given the opportunity to visit, I went with an open mind. I was anxious to see the new Bibliotheca Alexandrina (the Library) built to replace the ancient one, previously burned by Julius Caesar in 48 BC during the Alexandrian War. The ancient Library was to have held the world's knowledge. The architecture of the new Library is magnificent to my eye, the competition for its design having been won by a Norwegian. This wonderful modern edifice of gray granite, glass and steel was opened in 2002. Inside the feeling is open with beautiful wood complementing the glass. On each of the 15 levels, there is contemporary sculpture with the nude female body well represented. A lower level houses a contemporary art ... read more