Egypt 2017 - Day 13 - Alexandria to Cairo

Today started without an alarm ! But I was still up and ready to go by about 9am.

I sent my Hurghada friend, Tony, a message asking what a traditional breakfast would be - what should we look for as we wander out into Alexandria for the morning. Beans and falafel - yum, I can handle that !

But, once again, John didn't want to explore - we stopped at the first place on the promenade that was an actual restaurant . . . boring ! Ended up just having chicken on a bun with a tea.

Off we go to wander. We were in the shopping district with clothes and fashions. Also encountered a yarn shop - had a snap a pic of that for Mum !

Crossing lots of big streets and I'm getting rather good at this "Frogger" version of dodging cars !

I've had a headache for over a day now and it dawns on me I have only been having one or two teas a day. I'm used to starting my day with a pot of coffee ! So, we found a cafe and I had a Turkish coffee followed by a Caffè macchiato. Two good doses and my headache was gone in 30min ! On the macchiato the guys wrote Canada in Arabic on it . . . awwww - they are so nice and love having fun with the tourists ! I left 40 LE . . . for 28 LE of coffee ! $3.50 CAD !?!?!

We know we will be in the van for a few hours over the lunch hour so when I spotted a street vendor that was making falafel and bean pitas, I insisted that we stop and get some. 4 half pitas full of good stuff - 6 LE ($0.50 CAD !?!?!) And oh soooo good !

I love traveling with a back pack ! I'm self sufficient and mobile.  It is just so much easier.  John with his 2 suitcases was always struggling.

I spotted Mahmud (our driver) and we loaded up and headed off to the Alexandria Library.  This place is  . . . massive ! . . . never have seen a library that was so elaborate: 

Ancient Library of Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt, was one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world. It was dedicated to the Muses, the nine goddesses of the arts.  The library was part of a larger research institution called the Musaeum of Alexandria, where many of the most famous thinkers of the ancient world studied.

The library was created by Ptolemy I Soter, who was a Macedonian general and the successor of Alexander the Great. Most of the books were kept as papyrus scrolls. It is unknown precisely how many such scrolls were housed at any given time, but estimates range from 40,000 to 400,000 at its height.

Arguably, this library is most famous for having been burned down resulting in the loss of many scrolls and books; its destruction has become a symbol for the loss of cultural knowledge.

After the main library was destroyed, scholars used a "daughter library" in a temple known as the Serapeum, located in another part of the city. According to Socrates of Constantinople, Coptic Pope Theophilus destroyed the Serapeum in AD 391, although it is not certain what it contained or if it contained any significant fraction of the documents that were in the main library. The library may have finally been destroyed during the Muslim conquest of Egypt in (or after) AD 642.

And now we're off to Cairo for our final two days. Free time ! We are staying at the Al-Hussein hotel that is right in the Khan el-Khalili Bazaar ! ! ! Too cool . . . and crazy ! ! ! It is so lively and fun. And, the balcony of the room over looks the Al-Hussein Mosque (it houses some items considered sacred by Muslims, such as the oldest complete manuscript of the Quran). I am so excited to have this view for the Friday Jum'ah !

So plans start changing . . . I'm supposed to meet up with Nermin and her 24 yr boyfriend (lol) but John has made plans for us to have dinner with the sister of Hussein, who is the friend that has made all the travel plans for the group travel. I feel it is only polite to join them so I'm not going to be able to see Nermin.

To pass some time until Hussein picks us up we had a tea at al-Fishawi:

Some 240 years ago, a man named al-Fishawi began serving coffee to his friends in an alley of Cairo's Khan al-Khalili district each evening after prayers.

Al-Fishawi, they say, gradually added mint tea and anise tea to his informal menu, as well as shishas, or water pipes. Thus was born Qahwat al-Fishawi, Fishawy's Café, now the most renowned café in the Arab world and a monument to the traditional Egyptian social style of relaxing with friends, colleagues and the occasional stranger over coffee, tea and tobacco.

"We are different from the other coffeehouses because we work to preserve the old style," says Akram al-Fishawy, one of the café's seventh-generation owners. "Qalnvat al-Fishawi" really represents Egypt's past." 

Hussein and his cousin pick us up and we stop at a sweet shop so we can take a gift for dinner. Imagine a platter full of baklava and similar sweets treats - probably 100 pieces . . . 100LE - $8.00 CAD !?!?! I wanted to bring one home ! If only I could have.

On we go to the home of Hussein's sister and her new husband who is a lawyer. And we are going down these tiny rough 'road' alley's and the buildings are all dilapidated - they would be condemned by our standards !?!? But we arrive and go into the entrance of a building that we would expect to find homeless people living. There is no power and we need to use the flashlight on a phone to guide us up 4 flights of stairs !?!?! A lawyer lives in this !?!? WoW. Finally get to their apartment and it is a nice simple little apartment.

John and Hussein did a bit of business and I chit-chat to the best of our ability with Fatma (the sister). We had a simple dinner sitting on the living room floor around a round table. Soup, noodles, a spicy chicken, cucumbers and a bowl of bbq chips. Yup - odd.

John calls it a night at 10pm. We have learned the the Egyptians do not sleep much and they don't tend to go to bed much before 1am - ever. So they think it is odd that we are leaving.

Hussein knows I have made it a tradition of having Shisha every night so he finds a little spot on the way home and we all share a pipe.

On to the hotel and they decide to let John drive . . . I said I was going to walk ! Fortunately it was on one of the quietest streets (still lots of cars) he did ok until he had to cross 5 lanes of traffic to make a left turn. He failed miserably and gave the wheel back to the driver.

John went straight to bed and I went down to the bazaar as it was still so lively and early. The first shop I went into I saw a Shisha pipe that I liked so started working on the price. I knew the others got theirs for 600LE and they had negotiated it down quite a bit. I like mine more than theirs and mine started at 550LE !?!?! I got it down to 280LE really easily which makes me think I could have got it for even less - darnit. But a full size Shisha pipe for $23 CAD - I'm not going to complain. My theory is because the others were a rowdy bunch of tourists (they really were) and I was a quite solo tourist with a pleasant smile (they loved my smile :) I heard "because of your smile we will . . ." or "beautiful smile" quite often.) That's how I got it for so much less . . . we'll go with that lol.

I checked out a few of the things I needed to get on my list after I dropped of the pipe but forgot my money in the room. But that's ok - I have all day tomorrow. I stayed out wandering until after 1am and things were still hopping. This place never sleeps !

Nighty night xox