After a quiet post-camel day, I mean seriously, how can you beat that?, we tuck in for the day and get ready to move on. We're only spending 3 days in Cairo - our shortest stay yet -knowing that our preference for travel is smaller urban cities. We just can't manage the melee that is 7 million people! Crazy Cairo!
Marc heads out with Mohamed on our quiet day to secure train tickets, and returns easily enough with our 2 first class tickets in hand, but with a $40 guide/ car/driver fee attached. A 2-hour train ride costs about $9 Canadian.
The following morning we say or goodbyes to the 2 Mohameds who are running a growing hospitality business via AirBNB and other rental sites despite hard, hard economic times. Our driver escorts us right to the platform, getting through the metal detectors and massive crowds at Cairo's main train station, the Ramses Station. Originally built in 1852, it has received 3 upgrades, most recently just after the Arab Spring uprisings. We've an hour's wait on our platform, and stick out like sore thumbs - white with large suitcases.
It's a calm, beautiful ride to Alexandria, Egypt's north coast port. We love how we keep ending up at these historical port cities without really thinking about it, and realize that our next living space, it would be nice to be close to a port of any size. Marc and I could watch boat traffic for hours.
We've booked a hotel for this 6 day stay, thinking ahead that after managing about a month of independence, we need a rest. We're not sure what navigating Alexandria will be like, personal safety, whether we need to be with guides, our research hasn't indicated one way or the other. But we're hoping that with it being a smaller urban center with a major airport and some tourism presence, that we can move about freely.
We navigate the train exit easily enough, lingering behind on the platform while the rest of the crowds disperse. Let all the hawkers and taxi drivers swarm those travellers first, we figure there will be less to negotiate if we wait till the end. We're right, we're barely swarmed and end up with a lovely taxi driver, Hossim, who gets us right to the hotel 5 minutes away.
We unpack our bags, excited to be here, settle in and prepare to go for a short walkabout. Watching the people below our balcony to get a sense, while the temperatures are warm, there is no skin showing. A wide variety of dress, from fully robed with face coverings for the women, to quite fashionable young women with head scarves. The men are very casually dressed but with long sleeves, some in robes, but not as many as Luxor. We figure we've ended up in a more liberal city!
How wrong we were. Below right is the outfit I wore on our first walkabout, minus my leather desert boots. I knew my knees, legs, neck, shoulders and arms needed to be covered, not necessarily my head. I have been soooo respectful on this portion of our trip, always carrying an extra scarf too in case my head needed to be covered.
We leave the hotel, and are met with fierce, fierce winds. Almost hurricane force! But the skies are clear, the temps are warm, and we're out for a walk to test the waters of our independence. I shouldn't have worn the skirt. The winds push it up above my knees by about an inch, and despite wearing dark tights, within 20 minutes I know we have to head back to the hotel and change. Stares, leers, hisses, dirty looks, from both women, men and children. Huge mistake. I'm so upset by it.
We go back to the hotel and lick our wounds, not a very successful first independent walkabout. But the seaside is gorgeous, the waves are massive, we aren't approached by too many hustlers, and we begin mapping out our 6 days in Alexandria. The photos below are from our hotel room balcony.
Across the road, the sunset glow on the tile work, Turkish influence and the old painted sign on the apartment complex across the street.
More to come as we learn about this most ancient of cities.
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