Back on the Med

Trip Start May 30, 2009
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Trip End Aug 04, 2009


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Tuesday, June 23, 2009

The train to Alexandria was a supprisingly nice exprience, even after our mamouth trip up from Luxor. It was ment to take 2 hours and we arived in 3. The views were very nice out of the window as we passed into the Nile delta so there was a lot of birds and it was beautifully green - especially after the dryness of the south. We also had a ticket for the train and so guaranteed seats which was nice!

Once in Alexandria we were looking for cheap accomodation. It wasnt obvious from looking at the guide book if there was any, but the book strongly recommended against a place which had the reputation of theft from rooms - so we headed there! If that wasnt going to be cheap - nowhere would! It was cheap and had amazing views over the mediteranian so we were about to take it (we had no posesions to keep in the room as we were traveling light) - BUT then we went downstairs one level and found a good cheap place also wih nice views. AND no risk of theft - much better!!

So we went out searching for tourists - none. We drank juices, smoked shisha, drank tea, looked unsuccessfully for a good cheap fish meal and then ate some nice food but there really wasnt much going on.

Once we were u in the morning after memditation we checked out the the Cataclomes. They are nutoriously hard to find but we got there after a 40 min walk. They were amazing - so many tombes underground fairly centeral in a subburban area of Alexandria. There is also an underground temple and it is one of the finest temples I have seen. It was a mix of styles, from ancient Egyptian to Romanic - the light was awsome and the detail of the god of death taking the mummified body were in unbelievably good condition.

Also it was great as there was next to no one else down there and I got to clamber around and explore as I would like to - not as I am meant to!

After a while in the tombes we had a great walk back through a very traditional area and checked out a market on the way back into town. We ate Fuul on the waterfront and then looked at the crazy modern library - really, an unbelievable building. We left the library, almost got to the station and then realised we left all of our stuff in the lockers at the library - oops! Zeya went book shopping while I drank copious mango juices and then we got on the train, literally as it was pulling off back to Cairo.
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