Belated Alex and Siwa Trip

Although Paul was amazing enough to load a crap ton of our vacation pictures into our photo album, I never actually wrote an entry about our trip. So, while I’m kind of over the whole thing, I’ll post a quick blurb here about our adventure along with a few highlighted photos.

Alexandria. Amazing. It’s still a lot like Cairo but the air is fit for the living and the bay is beautiful! There’s also more seafood than you can shake a stick at. We stayed at an adorable budget joint right on the main drag called Hotel Crillon. We spent the day stumbling about and hyping ourselves up on Turkish coffee from the period café’s around town. Our café of choice was Athineos; while the service leaves a lot to be desired, the coffee was good, and it had the perfect 50’s look with big windows where you could sit for hours reading and soaking up the breeze off the Mediterranean. After a lot of caffeine we wandered through Anfushi which is the poorer part of town but for once had buildings painted with bright colors which made it quaint. We also did some typical tourist type stuff like visit the catacombs. The streets in Alexandria though are packed. Walking around can be a lot like driving in stand-still traffic. The first night we ate at a fancy smancy seafood joint where we got to pick out our fish of choice and have it grilled to perfection. We also ate a delectable seafood soup which I find myself craving all the time. The next day we ate at a popular joint that everyone knows by name. It sits in an obscure little alley where the seafood sits out in big pots. A guy helped us order a big plate of everything…no silverware; you just dig in with your fingers…delicious. That night we made drinks in our hotel room and hit the town looking for an old French bar called Comp D’or. Unfortunately the place was closed due to the fact that the big Feast was taking place…bummer. But we did meet an interesting old fellow who dubbed himself Sammy Davis Junior. He kept using the phrase “if you know what I mean jelly bean” which made me giggle. He was nice enough to explain about the bar being closed, and escorted us to another bar called the Mermaid where we drank a few beers.

After a couple days in Alexandria, we hit the trail again and jumped a bus to Siwa. Siwa is the equivalent to being in any po-dunk town in the states, except…well, it’s in Egypt. When the bus stopped we got our luggage and were promptly offered a ride to our hotel in a donkey cart, the main mode of transportation. We woke up early the next morning, ate breakfast at a far too tourist populated restaurant, and then had coffee at an outdoor café overlooking the Shali fortress. After that we rented bikes…which was amazing…and then hit the palm groves to see some major archeological sights. Siwa is basically good for this and only this…sightseeing. It’s beautiful, and lazy, and quiet, but lacks any semblance of a “night scene”…it is in the “country” mind you. The first stop was the Temple of the Oracle, where Alexander the Great was said to travel and was basically told he would take over the world. Once at the top there’s a great view overlooking the Oasis. As you're looking out you can see each layer and beyond: the town, the palms, the great sand sea, then the desert plateaus. If you venture further down the path, you’ll run into the Temple of Amun, which is basically the Temple of Zeus, but the only thing that remains is a single wall with some low relief pictographs. The rest of it was blown to smithereens by the governor due to lack of building material. The rocks from the temple have been transported and used to build what is now the town police station. Hah! After that you run into Cleopatra’s bath which is a natural spring that’s been there since the beginning of time. Some Europeans were brave enough to jump in, but it was pretty freakin' cold. After a long day of cycling we treated ourselves to dinner atop the Shali Fort which was beautiful and had a big open fire. Our last sightseeing event were the Roman Tombs. The tombs were basically dug right into the mountain. During World War II, when Siwa was being bombed (why and by who? I have no idea), the town used the tombs like a bomb shelter. After lot of mosquito bites later, we decided we had our fill and came home.

We took so many pictures over this vacation it was really difficult to decide which ones to post in the actual blog, but good news is (if it’s not already obvious), there are a ton of photos in the Picasso Album. Enjoy.


Me being a typical tourist and looking through our guide book in Athineos.


These sheep have two magical powers...
1. They can fly
2. They have invisible fleece and skin

More meat! And a little dancing man!

...and even more meat. Can you tell this is during the Eid? For all of you who were left out of the loop, Eid is a big feast where they slaughter a ton of animals on the streets and give the meat to the poor. They have to slaughter it a certain way to make sure the sacrifice isn't Harom.

This is just some crazy looking old building I saw. I thought it kinda showed the Roman-esk aspect of Alexandria.

The streets of Alexandria. I kept taking pictures hoping I could, at some point, capture how absolutely packed the streets are. This is the best I got.

Pompey's Pillar.

This is what's under the Pillar. Our guide (a police officer looking for a tip) who didn't speak very much English told us that this is basically an archaic library. Imagine checking out books here!

Overlooking the Bay in Alexandria.

Paul in front of the Library in Alexandria.

Shali Fortress at the center of Siwa.

Cutest kid ever driving around his family, in as I said before, the main mode of transportation...a donkey cart.

Temple of the Oracle.

View from the Temple of the Oracle. You can see the small town below and the Mountain Plateaus in the background, but the Great Sand Sea gets kind of lost.

Temple of the Oracle.

Me and my bike! Wonky pedals, but a sweet little ride none-the-less.

This is the lake that all the palm groves drink from. Strange. A lake in the middle of the desert. I guess that's why it's called an oasis.

Cleopatra's bath.

Paul and I playing with our Shadows...Neato!

This is a Postcard worthy photo of the Roman Tombs. We went at sunset and climbed to the top, right as we were climbing down the prayer went off, which we could here coming from all different directions...it was ominous.