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| Palace #1 |
Today has been one of the longest days of the trip so far. We
saw a lot of things and traveled to three different cities. I am exhausted but
ready for whatever tomorrow holds. AKA- the cruise! Anyway, about today…
Palaces
In the morning, we visited two old palaces in the Royal
Gardens of Alexandria. One, like the Cairo Marriott, had been converted into a
hotel. They were very pretty. I especially liked the second one because of its
proximity to the sea. As recent as two years ago, this palace was being used as
a summer home for President Mubarak. We tried to forget about that unfortunate
bit of news while we took pictures by the Mediterranean Sea.
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| Palace #2 |
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| By the sea! |
The Library of
Alexandria
Words can’t describe the beauty of the Library of Alexandria.
Holy cow. If we had that at Drake I would definitely spend more time in the
library. It’s huge! There isn’t much to say about it other than that. Also, it has the world’s most advanced printer. It can print a 500 page book in under four minutes. When it is done printing, it comes out ready to be sold with binding and a cover. Crazy.
The
technology is so advanced. The architecture is breathtaking. The size is
unbelievable. It can hold up to 2000 readers at a time in the reading room
area. Get your butt to Alexandria to see the library- no joke!
Lunch
Back by popular demand, SEAFOOD. We went to the exact same
place as yesterday for lunch. We had pretty much the same thing but we added
grilled calamari and a shrimp pasta dish. It was just as good as the day
before. I made the mistake of sitting at a table with three determined men. We
decided to eat everything that was put on our table. We did it but it took some
serious work! I was in charge of eating all of the shrimp. I ate two large
plates pretty much by myself. This was in addition to eating quite a bit of
bread and fish. Although it probably wasn’t the greatest idea, I loved every
second of it. DELICIOUS!
Travel
After dinner, we began our three hour drive back to Cairo. I
slept for some of it but mostly talked with friends. Towards the end, the back
of the bus began singing a bunch of random songs. That was fun but I think we
might have irritated the front of the bus- oops!!
The Cairo Airport is so simple. We were all able to go through
security and check into our flight in what seemed like 20 minutes.
Unfortunately, our plane was delayed about 45 minutes because of a sandstorm in
Aswan. Luckily the airport has free WiFi so many of us wisely decided to use
the time to creep on Facebook. That was a good life decision.
A final note about
Alexandria…
I have reached a conclusion about Cairo and Alexandria. First,
Alexandria is far more beautiful than Cairo. Second, I would much rather be in
Cairo than in Alexandria. The people in Alexandria are not nearly as nice as in
Cairo. I can’t count the number of times we have been stared at, videotaped,
and hollered at. I do not understand why this is happening. What does someone
get out of videotaping a bunch of American students? Honestly, I don’t think I
want to know the answer but it is really awkward. Professor Hamad says that
people in Alexandria aren’t as use to tourists but it still is odd. I can
understand the staring but not the picture taking. Even at the restaurant, men
would give certain girls winks, a thumbs up, and a “nice.” I thought that dying
my hair would help eliminate that from occurring but it hasn’t. In fact, I have
gotten it worse than my tall, thin, blond roommate. Not fair.
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