This Weekend

The reason for the lack of postage this weekend was that my brother arrived in Egypt!

He came friday night at 1230ish and I must say I know the Cairo Airport very well. I made the mistake in thinking that he came 1230 thursday night at 1230 pm on friday afternoon. I rushed to the airport and looked around at both terminals and then realized the flight doesn't come in until 12 hours later. Therefore, I returned to the aiport that night and went again to both terminals until I found the right one. Thankfully I was there to greet him as he stepped left baggage claim.

Needless to say, if you ever visit Cairo, you will see cabs zipping and weaving and in general being a danger to humanity. I was the result of one of these crazies because I asked him to get their quickly thinking my brother had been at the airport for twelve hours already (when in fact he was being momentarily lost in London).

Anyway it is great to have him here. Its so good to see a blood relation and a friend. Currently he is sleeping, catching up on the traveling and weekend in Alex. He has been overwhelmed just like I was when I first arrived.

Friday morning we had a field trip with my architecture class to the city of the dead. It is an amazing place home to crumbling ruins, fabulously preserved ruins, and ,of course, poor people. The city of the dead, it a poverty stricken area, which originally was just cemetaries. There were many mausoleums which had rooms for the relatives to visit. These rooms began to be occupied by the homeless. One thing led to another and then apartments were built, which is why you have the living in the city of the dead.


After this field trip, I introduced him to koshary (about as addicting as crack) and then went to Alexandria. We stayed for one night. The train ride was fine except I drank a five pound glass of tea (prohibitively expensive). When we arrived at our hotel, the Windsor Palace, we found that they didn't have our reservation. Reception said we hand't paid, when in fact we had, so therefore asiarooms.com (the company I booked through) had not emailed them to make the reservation. It was a blessing in disguise (hopefully) because I am in the process of trying to get my money back, and instead of paying 400 pounds I only paid 100 for a low budget but decent hotel a block over.


After that fiasco we walked along the corniche to Bibliotheca Alexandria and saw what there was to see. Then we tried to find this restaurant called Al Sharq. It was as elusive as a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, so we ate at this place called the Dream Cafeteria. DO NOT GO THERE! The food was okay, but they overcharged us as foreigners. They brought us a bottle of water which we did not order, so we thought it was complimentary and charged us for it and overcharged us for service (think close to 50%). It turns out Al Sharq is right around the corner-we went there the day after. It has great food, great music, and great service.

The next day we did a lot of walking and tram riding. We went to Qait Bay Fortress, Pompei's Pillar, and the catacombs nearby. Most amazing. If you want to know about them, check out my previous Alexandria posts or go to answers.com. I had a very similar experience both times except the second with Pepe was far better. I wasn't with a huge group of obnoxious Americans and we had more time at each sight. That night we spent catching up and talking in the hotel.

Then we tried to go to the beach. A half tram ride away from the city, got us just past the library and turned out to be a six minute tram ride on the way home. We couldn't find the beaches so we sat on some big concrete blocks and watched the water hit them, slept, and sunned. I aired my feet out.

We arrived home tired, watched Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and slept. Pete has been inudated with Egyptian life and has been going nonstop, which is why he is still sleeping. I think within 36 hours he had been to three cities-London, Cairo, and Alexandria. Needless to say, today is an easy day.

In Alex when we were walking the streets, it was the first time for Pete but the first time for me since arriving in Egypt that I felt distinctly aware and slightly uncomfortable with my status as a foreigner. We really stuck out in the small streets in Alex. I am used to not being in the minority anymore, but it came back to me here. Not totally sure why.

Okay now I actually have to do some homework.