On Egypt

First of all, what fantastic news of Mubarak’s resignation after 18 days of protest! Let's hope that Egypt will now be able to successfully transition to a democracy.

first stop

I couldn’t stop myself from shooting photos from the bus as we drove through the streets of Alexandria for the first time.

The streets were certainly a lot quieter than they are now, but that doesn’t mean they were quiet. Our guide told us as a result of many men drinking strong Egyptian coffee all day long, not a lot of them sleep at night and the streets are full of people until the early hours of the morning.

don't leave Egypt without it...or something

We only figured out afterward that our stop here was government-mandated (every foreign tourist group must visit one). As were the machine-gun-armed guards on all of our buses. 

that's our guard...

Other stops our first day in Egypt included the Alexandrian catacombs, ancient tombs deep underground; the brand-new Biblioteca (the ancient library was one of the wonders of the world);...and dinner...here! 

not really Italian...

After that most of the group retired to their rooms on board ship (seeing as how most of them were over 60 at least)...and the remaining young ones, that is five or six of us, went out to discover the real city without guards, guides, buses or any of that other nonsense.

Most fascinating: the night market!

identify the animal parts...

raw slabs of something (you can't really see the blood dripping onto the street)

how old is that scale, do you think?

pigeons, delicious pigeons!

another Egyptian delicacy

As a blonde woman my experience in the city was especially adventurous. I wouldn’t have believed it beforehand, but I was literally the centre of attention wherever I went. Men stared, grinned widely at me and struck up conversations whenever they could. I’m sure I could have had at least a dozen husbands if I’d given any of them a chance.

All the attention was unnerving at first -- never before had I ever wished for a headscarf!-- but after a while I got used to it and even started to enjoy it. It’s not every day you turn heads like a celebrity!

something else that turned heads - us foreigners', at least: preparations for the big feast of Eid, including cows being led home

 

most adorable little girl ever

The only regret of the night was something we didn’t do. Heading back to the ship, we were chatting enthusiastically about a wedding we’d passed at a mosque near the port. It looked like a great party: tons of people (of all ages), fireworks, dancing, singing and what looked like lots of food inside.

Someone said, “Y’know, they saw us and tried to talk to us. I think they wanted to invite us to the party!”

We all looked at each other. 

I can’t explain why, but we ended up deciding not to go back.

Dumb!

Lesson learned: when in Egypt, don’t not do anything which you might regret not doing later.