The Hotel Metropole, Marc's birthday!

Built in the late 1800s, this hotel is a classic! Part of me felt like we were walking into Don Wolvin's living room, or Marc's grandmother's apartments with the brocade curtains, Louis the XIVth chairs, ornate carvings, gilded frames surrounding large, dark paintings, marble everywhere. The lobby! We arrived to check in and were greeted with a chair, a sweets table and a freshly squeezed lemon and lime drink. So civilized!

The rest of the hotel was equally elaborate. Breakfasting every morning, lounging with tea and wifi late afternoons, you got the feel of the place when ball gowns, jewels and men's evening coats were required. Service was top-notch.

The elevator was a classic!, as was the brass plated call buttons. The service ware was porcelain, 1946, made in Egypt,  complete with gold trim, real silver. 

We had Marc's dinner in the dining room, and as we were 1 of 2 tables of guests, we were personally crooned by the Egyptian karaoke singer. Hilarious! A rare bottle of wine was produced in this alcohol-free country (mostly). Delicious dinner.

I do have to relate a funny story from our first night in this hotel. When we land in a new city, we unpack and hit the streets. Usually getting our bearings of the neighbourhood, finding a grocery store - minim purchase is some cream, coffee, sugar, bread, fruit if we can find it to hold us till the next day's bigger shop. We then find a fast-food dinner - shwarma in Iraklion, pizza in Naples , curried stew in Rome, more shawarma in Athens. It's a small, leisurely circuit that has usually been conducted at dusk, getting to know the neighbourhood. It's been a really enjoyable start to the adventure of each new city. 

On this walkabout, we aren't 100 steps from the hotel, and a dapper man in his late 30s taps Marc on the shoulder and introduces himself as Sammy. He works at the hotel, is just off his shift, on his way home to his wife and 4 kids, are we okay? Yes, yes, and we explain our task. It's quite late for grocers he says, but I can lead you to a store that will have some cream. He is so affable, his English is so good, he works for the hotel, why not? We follow him. And cream we get. He starts leading us back, talking all the while about his family, Egypt, his job and we are quite enjoying his company. He asks us if we need some alcohol, a 3-day holy day is coming up, no alcohol will be for sale, the guy is still open. We debate, and he encourages us, not far, not far, special price, and so we don't even think, we just go along. He takes us on a long circuitous walk, we end up at the shop, buy our beer, and he starts walking us back to the hotel. We've now been with Sammy for 45 minutes  ( "don't worry, you're safe with Sammy") ,  gotten a great background on the city, he talks about his 6-day a week job for the equivalent of about $100 Cdn / month and trying to support his family, his wife cannot work in Egyptian society,  he deep sea free dives for fish a few mornings per week at 4 am, with a gun-spear, but if he had an oxygen tank, man, life would be different! 

We continue walking towards the hotel, he stops. "Don't mention this in the hotel, I could lose my job. If you see me, do not acknowledge me. Don't ask for me. Please. When we get near the hotel, I will stop walking with you." We understand, it makes perfect sense! As he makes his leave, he hits Marc up for a tip. He knows what we have in our pocket after the cream and the beer, 15 Egyptian pounds, which is less than $3 Cdn. He takes it with great thanks.

We never see Sammy again. We talk about it a lot. The ruse. For $3? The perfect scam, we'll never ask, we'll never tell. But $3? We're there for 5 nights, are in the public spaces of the hotel a lot. We never see him again. 

We're so trusting. Coulda turned out much worse, during the no-streetlight portion of the walk to the booze shop. Duh.

Streets of Alexandria

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.