Alexandria

After a long journey we arrived at Alexandria which has a lot of fasinating history behind it. This town named after Alexandrer the Great was concoured by the Romans, British, French, Ottomans, etc, so the city is a melting pot of different culture.

We were welcomed with a drink at the hotel made with dried petals of the red hibiscus. Fruit juice stands were everywhere and you can purchase a fruit drink made with pomegranate, mango or mango for 7LE (about $1.25).

Stepping out from the Misr station you can see the Roman Amphitheather, it was once buried and now more pieces are discovered including the Roman bath, and a villa.

At the north end of Alexandria you can find Qaitbay Citadel. It is believed to be made from the stone of the Lighthouse of Pharos (one of the seven wonders).

It was a shame that we cannot bring our camera to a lot of the sites and museums. We visited the Catacombs, Jewellery museum, and the Alexandria National museum.

At the Catacomb, it is amazing to see the carvings on the tombs and painting on the walls from almost 2 thousand of years ago. They were a strang mix of Egyptian and Roman mythalogy.

The Jewellery museum is converted from King Farouk palace. The decorations inside looks European and one of the walls painted with the story of Odyssey. The jewelleries were collected from the time of Mohammed Ali through the last King of Egypt.

At the National museum I got to learn a lot of Egyptian history including the obelist standing in New York city was once put in the Ceasarion. And it was my first time to see a mummy in real life.

A lot of local taxi drivers or private cars offer rental and pay per hour. Usually you bargin the price before you get on the taxi. We didn't rent a car but our cab driver did drove us around when we visited the Montazah Gardens. It once was a vacation home for the Kings during summer. Now its used as the president's house. The cab drivers also stopped at the dates garden and we tried some fresh dates. It tasted like dry dates but it was harder, the skin was kind of bitter and the after taste was refreshing.

If you know me well, you know that I do not like beans. For this trip I have practised to eating more beans and lamb. We have tried fuul which is beans in pita bread. Also, we tried sharama, and a food that we don't know what it is called but they put beans, peas, little pasta, rice, fried onion and a sauce in a bowl then mix to eat.

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