It was a fabulous day trip.
First thing I did after arriving at Mahtat Misr (Misr Station) was take a taxi to the historic Alexandrian library. The drive took me down the Corniche (water front.) Like any good ocean drive, it was mmmmmm.
I liked the small art and history displays in the famous library. So funny I found instead of an “ancient library” perhaps the most modern building I’ve ever seen. I hear it was refurbished. It wasn’t renovated – it was completely re-designed and re-done in steel and granite. The original had been destoryed ages ago.
After that I got some OK food and dipped into a shopping fair where I picked up quite the collection of bling. Fake bling. I love them. I’m going to wear my fake jewelry a lot from now on, ahhh, so beautiful.
On to the Roman amphitheatre, which is a wonder, especially since I haven’t been in the ruins of Italy or Greece. Basically you can look down on the unearthed sunken ruins of a site that has a proscenium and stairs aplenty, some water collection area and baths, a school (I don’t remember) .
It’s always amazing when you see, as you often do in Alexandria, this merger of Pharaohnic and Greco-Roman. The Roman columns and style of stage. And you can still see the “backstage” alleys, which made me think of the movie Gladiator.
Off to the side of this tourist site are phenomenal finds, statues lifesize and larger, an obelisk/column, that are 100% Pharaonic, and – get this – were plucked out of the ocean. An amateur diver noticed this entire world in front of QaitBai, andta-da, now we have Sphinx and royalty, covered in cartouche (the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing) displayed in the city.
On to the catacombs (Kum el-shoghafa.) Along the way from the ROMAN, I saw many of he street names were in French and Arabic, not Arabic and French or just Arabic. Even the boards and lettering of the streetnames reminded me of Paris.
At the entrance to the catacombs – oh my goodness – I ran into a friend I haven’t been in touch with in years. The catacombs were cool and damp and creepy and awesome. Take a guide to explain what all the crevices and tunnels mean.
That was it for formal tourism, but now with friends of course we did cool stuff like walk through town checking out clothes shops, grab a bite at the elegant Cafe Trianon, ride the streetcar/train, and hang out on the Mediterranean near Fort Qait Bai, which was a Turkish outpost and is so beautiful in real life, it looks like a videogame image.
Then it was time for the bus ride back home to Cairo.
Amazing day. Very relaxing. My first time on the Mediterranean. It’s amazing. Great during winter, summer, whenever. Fun sharing this story with you.
