July 29-31: Alexandria, Egypt (By Jeff)

After eventually figuring out the bus we needed to get to the train station from Cairo airport we were a step closer to actually reaching Alexandria. It was bit odd on the bus as we were clearly the only 2 non-Egyptian people on the bus and being that Liz was not in burqa she attracted even more attention. After finding out all the tickets were sold out that day to Alexandria we did what all other Egyptians would do and just get on the train anyways and hope to find an open seat or just stand. Luckily we found seats and sat next to a man who sparked up conversation with us seeing that we are tourists. He asked where we were from and seeing all the people around us staring at us I said Canada to avoid any anti-United States sentiment, but this proved to be a bad answer. He asked what part because his kid had studied in Canada and I said Vancouver, but fortunately his son had been in Toronto. Throughout the ride he made small talk and asked various questions about Canada that I had to attempt to answer as conservatively as possible such not to actually reveal that I knew nothing about the country. Once reaching Alexandria he showed us to a cab and negotiated the price and gave me his phone number and to contact him if we had any problems or if we wanted to meet up with his son when we were in Cairo as that is where he lived. He was a very nice man and we were glad he was genuinely nice as we found it hard to determine who was actually nice and who was only nice for a price. The cab driver got lost and 45 minutes later made it to our hotel that was 10 minutes away and tried to double the fare on us, but we gave him a small bit more and told him to screw off since he was the idiot who didn’t know where he was going. The hotel had gorgeous views situated on the 5th floor of a building overlooking the Red Sea and our room was great value for the price too. We were directed to a cool fish restaurant that evening where you choose the fish you want out of a huge lineup and they cook it the way you like either fried or grilled. The fish tasted pretty good despite having what we agreed a somewhat dirt-like taste and having been fried with skin/head/tail all still on. It was a huge meal with 3 courses that cost us a total of like $13 so we were plenty content.

The next day we took off to check out some of the sites around Alexandria like the Catacombs and the reconstructed fort with the notable lighthouse along the Red Sea. We got the Catacombs and found a guy offering a tour which we initially dismissed but after talking to him he seemed rather helpful and cut his price by like 60% for a private tour for us. It turned out to be a great choice for us as he had a tremendous amount to tell us about these Catacombs and the funny story of how a donkey literally fell onto them and that is how they were discovered. There was a unique combination of Roman and Egyptian culture as certain sculptures and drawings depicted Egyptian gods in only human form as Roman’s rejected the idea of idolizing animals. This was one of the few tours we took where we felt we got great value for our money and would recommend it to others. We then made our way to the fort with the lighthouse only to be disappointed and learn that the fort had been entirely reconstructed and that the lighthouse that it was famed for is no longer there. It was still cool to walk through and it had great views from on top of the exterior walls, but a shame that it lacked any real historical value.

The walk back to our hotel along the Red Sea was great as we stopped a few times along the way and one place had a delicious dish we could not pass up. It was similar to a pizza as it was dough then on top stuffed with meat, peppers, tomatoes, cheese, and then dough on top and with peppers and cheese again on top and baked for like 15 minutes. It was my favorite Egyptian dish and one of my favorite dishes now in general. We continued to walk and stopped off to play some backgammon and have some tea. Some nice but rather strange man saw us on the street and then came and sat at our table with us as we played. We were not sure what was going on for a bit but it seemed that he was just being friendly and chatting with us with the limited English he knew. It was nice for a while until he suggested we go with him to this place we were not sure where he was describing and we had to make up some lame excuse to get out of there before it got too awkward.

That night for dinner we went to a place called the Fish Market which was completely catered to tourists and rather expensive in comparison to other restaurants but we had heard it was worth it. So once again letting our stomachs order we each got a fish and split some seafood pasta, and to our luck they brought out a wrong fish order that we sampled so they let us keep that for free too. We had an upstairs sea view table with 3 fried/grilled fish and a bowl of seafood pasta and bread for 2 people for a bill that came out to like $20. There is no denying that even in the most expensive cities in Egypt that it is still very affordable. The walk back this time to the hotel along the Sea was a bit different as Egyptian people lined the Sea front wall and every single person it seemed stared at us like we were in a zoo and especially for Liz as guys would just gawk at the fact a woman was not in burqa. It went on like this for the entire 25 minute walk as it would get uncomfortable at times but we never felt like we were in any danger which was nice.

I would say that Alexandria was my favorite Egyptian city that we visited as it was a very manageable 75-80 degrees and was much cleaner and safer feeling than the previous cities we had visited. It had a very relaxed feeling to it as we were not clearly the only tourists and therefore were able to more freely roam around without being harassed. I would certainly like to visit again and hopefully stay more than 2 nights.

The final day we had to do the whole stowaway on the train again but eventually made it to the capital, Cairo.


The first fish place



Fish counter at the end of the night at Shaban


The fort


The delicious pizza thing!