Alexandria

I spent a few days in Alexandria with a couple of friends that I met at the hostel back in Cairo. It was the German owner of the hostel named Mathias, an Egyptian named Ali and myself. We stayed in Ali’s flat just a few blocks from the beach. Although Alexandria is far cleaner than Cairo, this was by far the gnarliest place I’ve stayed. Ali’s flat was huge, but had that abandoned feel and was just the rattiest place ever. I slept on the floor, didn’t shower for days and had to go buy tissues for the uhmm, bathroom…

It’s not socially acceptable to wear shorts in Egypt, but it was okay at the resort in Sharm, so it kind of sucked to have to go back to wearing pants and shirts- especially at the beach which is oh so beautiful! Alex is where much of the Muslim world goes for vacation, so I was truly a minority there. I hardly saw any other white foreigners, but there sure were a lot of Saudi’s- you can always tell them by the women as they’re the one’s completely covered except for a tiny slit at the eyes (Muslim Ninja’s).

I saw a lot of non-existent ancient stuff in Alex. I saw where the Great Lighthouse would’ve been. I saw the new Great Library, which is apparently the biggest library in Europe but no sign of the old one that burnt down. There is also a really cool castle called Qaitbey Fort, which was used to defend against the Christians during the Crusades- never defeated!

Ali took us to a seafood place where I had possibly the best Calamari I have ever had- possibly the best seafood period: massive shrimp, fish, mussels and this amazing fish bouillon broth. During the day, I watched the fishermen pull in all the fish using a massive net in the sea (picture below), so cool! I also tried some new juices: strawberry juice that was just pure strawberry’s mulched up, palm (tree) juice, and fantabulous date juice mixed with milk.

I managed to meet a cute Egyptian girl named Amany and convinced her to come to dinner with us. She brought a friend as chaperone, and all I really got in the end was a kiss on the cheek, but hey it’s fun to try!

That’s it for now~