Day 236 – Alexandria
Today we woke up to a every sunny African morning in Alexandria, as it dawned on us that we were in Africa! Transit Alexandria Hotel included a very nice breakfast, with eggs, bread and tea.
We then walked along the very beautiful street along a Bay that joins to the Mediterranean Sea. We got to see a lot of traffic down the road, as we observed how locals cross the road, which is Vietnam levels of scary. Whenever we needed to cross, we would just follow a local, and in effect use them as a human shield as we copied there movements across the road 🙂
We survived the walk and the multiple road crossings, to the Bibliotheca Alexandria, also known as the Library of Alexandria. The entrance fee is just 70 EGP / $6.02 AUD per person. Once we arrived we saw, that there were free guided tours. The next English tour was in 20 minutes at 11:15am. We went inside the library, while we waited for the tour, and wow, just wow. The space was massive. On the tour they explained that the building is 11 stories tall, and has 2,000 reading spaces. It also houses several paid and free exhibits. We only went to the free ones, which were nice. Unfortunately the attached Planetarium Science Center, was closed when we tried to go in.
By the time we were done at Bibliotheca Alexandria, we were really hungry. We went to the close by Selsela Café, for more amazing views of the Mediterranean Sea. Also the lemon juice was amazing!
We then walked along the promenade to the Citadel of Qaitbay. Along the way we walked past a few interesting buildings, that looked like they belonged in Greece or Rome. The Citadel itself has a 60 EGP / $5.16 AUD entrance fee per person. The Citadel is located quite nicely along the coast, with a commanding view of the city. The walls were really thick and the building looked really good. We spent a few hours exploring the various levels until we were nicely kicked out by the staff around 4pm.
We then walked towards the Sidi Abo El Abbas El Morsi Mosque. Since we had never gone to a Mosque before, we were not sure if we could enter or not, so we just looked at it from the other side of the gate before leaving the magnificent structure.
We then walked to the Cathedral of St. Mark (Cathédrale Saint-Marc d’Alexandrie) which is an Orthodox Church. The church has a large police presence outside the church. Our passports were taken away and we had to walk through a metal detector. The police presence is reassuring and nerve racking at the same time. The church itself was nice, and was surrounded by tall buildings. The interior walls were beautifully decorated. While we were there, a service was taking place so we didn’t stay too long. Once outside, we nervously looked around for the guy who had our passports. There was no dramas as we easily found him and got our passports back.
We then walked around 2.5km / 30 minutes to Pompei’s Pillar. Just before the Pillar, we had to walk on a road that was essentially a market street. It was a local market with mainly clothing and small food stalls. In amongst all the people were trams and cars. Along the way, some kids around 8 to 10 years old drove past on a tuk tuk screaming out “hellooo, I love youuu”.
When we got to Pompei’s Pillar…it was closed. That being said you can see the pillar through the gate. It was surprisingly to see the typical Egyptian architecture after a full day of walking around Alexandria and only seeing Arabic and Greek/Roman Architecture. It made us remember why we came to Egypt, which made us really excited.
We decided to Uber to Montaza Palace. We had set the destination inside the Palace grounds, which I don’t advise, as you have to pay for the driver’s entrance ticket and the car. We had to pay an extra 50 EGP / $4.30 AUD for the driver and the car. Typically the entrance is only 25 EGP / $2.15 AUD per person. As it was after sunset when we arrived, we could not see too much but the Palace itself was pretty. The building is actually closed off to the public. We walked around the grounds for a while and found some restaurants to have dinner. After dinner we walked to the main road and then caught another Uber back to our hotel, which ended a very extensive day of travel in Alexandria.
