5:30 am wake up call, I had to be ready for 6 for our tour of Alexandria. It was going to take 3 hours to drive there.We had a different driver that day then we did to the Pyramids and on the city tour. This guy was a really nice and more talkative, maybe because he spoke better English. As soon as we got in the car we had some of the breakfast the hostel had packed for us and passed out. About halfway to Alexandria we stopped by this very modern complex that had a Chilis restaurant and Coffee Bean. I knew Egypt was modern, but to see these big American chains there that we didn't even have in Canada was a bit of a shock. We all got coffees and continued on. You could see the difference right away as we were pulling into Alexandria, it was clean, modern, beautiful and almost sleek. This was such a far cry from dirty crazy Cairo, you would swear you were seeing a mirage. We stopped by the Mediterranean sea for a bit, then our driver took us to our first attraction. It was some kind of old Roman amphitheater, we decided to just look at it from the outside instead of paying money to get in.
Then we stopped by their version of the Catacombs. It was definitely creepy being inside there, but thank God they had removed all the dead bodies. After that our driver took us to this place where they had this giant old pillar, again instead of paying we decided we could just see it from the outside. After going to the pillar, we went to the citadel by the sea. The citadel was definitely worth every cent, the whole area was beautiful. The only problem is there were a lot of annoying school kids around who kept harassing us.
After the citadel we out for lunch at this buffet place that our taxi driver recommended. I thought it was really expensive and not really worth it.
Then we went to the Alexandria library, I have to say this is the most impressive modern library I have ever been in! There is also a mini museum inside it! The drive back to Cairo took something like 5 hours, and I was in and out of sleep the whole way back.
When I got back to the hostel, I met up with Mitch. I guess there group was leaving later that night for the red sea and they had checked out of their room. I let him put his stuff in my room, the two English girls that were there before had just left to catch their train to Aswan. Mitch and I chatted while we waited for the others to come back from the market, we were starving and just about to give up when they showed up. Next thing I knew everyone had dumped their stuff in my room and we were all taking turns with the one shower. That night we were all bound and determined to find a 'normal' restaurant to eat at, something quit, clean and a little more European. As we were walking down the street, we ran into this woman from New Zealand and her daughter. She was very nice and chatty and told us how she was married to an Egyptian and has been living in Cairo for 20 years. She also recommended a restaurant that had just opened around the corner. We found the place pretty easily, and it was just as she described, we were all breathing a sigh of relief. The food was great and so was the service! Time was getting on and they guys were getting worried about missing their bus that was picking them up at the hostel. We rushed back, but in the end everything was fine, I guess the bus was running late so we killed time in the common room. That's when we saw the English girls, apparently they had not been allowed to board their train to Aswan for whatever reason and had a horrible journey on the metro there and back. They had to spend another night at the hostel and then catch their train the next morning. The bus to the red sea came around about two hours later then it was originally suppose to come, we all said our goodbyes then I headed to bed.
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