I love this city...I only spent one day here, but I really liked it. It's North of Cairo on the Mediterranian Sea, was found by Alexander the Great during his conquests and was one of the old capitals of Egypt. The people here are genuinely friendly and it is just and all around beautiful city full of history but with a modern feel.

We didn't get there til about 1 or so in the morning, but managed to get a hotel overlooking the bay. Basically, there is a large oval-shaped bay in the west part of the city with small peninsula's enclosing it on on either side. There is a small break in between to allow ships passage. Along here is a walkway called the Cornish, that was full of men fishing off rocks with these gigantic rods.

The first thing we tried to do was go to the new, modern library in Alex. Unfortunately it wasn't open, so we headed to the Greco-Roman Museum. This place was cool. Everything was labelled (thank goodness), and it was kind of a mix between Roman, Greek and Egyptian design. A lot of this was just uncovered recently (last 25 years) and ther is probably a lot left to be uncovered. Just seeing some of those statues made me imagine what the city might have looked like 2000 years ago. They were magnificent, a lot of Greek Gods (which I knew a little about which was nice), some rulers (Greek and Roman) as well as some Egyptian Gods and Goddesses.

After spending a couple hours here, we headed to the Roman Amphitheatre which was uncovered about 8 years ago when the started digging for an apartment complex (which obviously was never constructed). It was anywhere near the coloseums of Italy, but you could get the feeling of the ancient theatre.

After this, we had some delicious fish at one of the local (and a bit more pricey, but it was delicious so it was worth it) restaurants. After that, we had a sheesha on the Cornish overlooking that bay at night and then headed off to the trains. This train was sooooooooooooooooo much nicer than the Thai one. We took second class (there was no third, not that I would have taken it) and it was really spacious and comfortable. Makes me wonder what first was like. If you are heading to Alex, I highly recommend the train.

ttyl,
Drew