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By the Sea

Wednesday, November 21st, 2007

When we first arrived in Egypt, Matteo and I had planned to travel straight from Cairo to Alexandria to wait out the summer heat near the breezy Mediterranean coast. Our plans fell apart, however, on our first night in Cairo, when we fell in love with the city as we sat drinking mint tea on a sidewalk café, watching busy crowds of Egyptians and Gulf tourists browsing shops still open at 2AM. We soon became completely entrenched in Cairene life—we made friends, I found a job teaching English, Matteo continued his Arabic studies with a private tutor—and now we view the city as a sort of second home. (Or really, these days, it’s our only home.) Yet, despite my fondness of Cairo, I always wondered how my life would have been different in Egypt’s second largest city.

Nearly a week and a half ago, we finally traveled to that second city and, as luck would have it, fell head over heels in love with yet another Egyptian metropolis. (Who knew that I would be such a fan of this country? I still don’t know if I love it because it’s Egyptian, or if I’m simply fascinated by Arab society…I’ll have to see how I feel about the rest of the Middle East in the coming months.) Alexandria (or “Alex” to those in the know) is in so many ways like Cairo, with the same bustling energy and crowds, but, with its beautiful, wide blue-green harbor and stately old European buildings with ornate facades, it also reminds me of another city across the Mediterranean named Marseille. And, I admit, while I remain a fan of Cairo, I was a little disappointed that we didn’t stick with our original plan.

Thoroughly burned out from the temples in the south, Matteo and I didn’t visit a lot of sites in Alexandria. Instead, for three days, we walked everywhere, admiring the gorgeous views, and ate everything, happily tucking in kilos upon kilos of freshly grilled calamari, shrimp, and fish and gobbling delicious cups of fresh ice cream at some of the dozens of stands along the water. At night, we wandered down streets draped with brightly-colored flags and banners, along markets selling anything and everything—clothes, shoes, feta cheese, olives, pomegranates, bananas, seafood, live chickens and rabbits, radios, notebooks, gigantic stuffed teddy bears—and settled down at cafes where patrons smoked apple-flavored sheesha and played chess over cups of strong Turkish coffee and shai.

On our final day in Alex, we visited the Roman catacombs and had, for the third time, an Indiana Jones experience as we wandered deep within the earth. We were alone; at the lowest levels, water had seeped into some of the graves and flooded the ground so I walked along creaking wooden planks and stifled screams as I spooked myself with visions of ancient corpses emerging from the water’s depths or crawling out of the dark spaces.

Back above ground, we stopped at a dilapidated building with crumbling brick walls where young boys were playing ping-pong and pool. We challenged several to games, and drew enthusiastic crowds. A boy of about 10 or so tried to give me trick gum (there was a plastic cockroach attached to the end hidden inside the package), while another one, mistaking “love” and “like” as so many Egyptians tend to do, declared that he “loved” Matteo. And I was happy, because moments where I can bond with people rank among my happiest overseas.

From a sea of water we moved on to a sea of sand. Next stop: Bahariyya Oasis.