Alex III

It's time I covered my trip to Alexandria with In-Focus last weekend.

I started the day with a 5:30 am get-up and go. The taxi missed a turn and I missed my cappuccino as a result; but no matter, our group kept us well watered, pepsi'd and snacked on the 3 hour bus ride up the Alex Desert Road.

I'd never been up the desert road before and it was an interesting experience. Not very much desert, these days. 6th of October city looked like a DC suburb with mini-malls, stylish office parks on beautifully manicured lawns, exclusive communities of villas, and coffee joints...*sigh*

Upon reaching Alex, we met up with the Alex In-Focus group and visited the first neighborhood on our adventure: a small neighborhood that definitely is off the tourist track. The tiny winding streets were full of laughing children, kindly old ladies, older gentlemen full of character, and very curious residents wondering what these 50 or so odd photographers were doing in their streets.

After about 2 hours in the first area, and some of my best pictures of the day, we moved on to the Alex I was familiar with, near the fort. Fortunately, I teamed up with some new friends (2 of whom were residents of Alexandria) and discovered some new things: the fishmarket, the boat yard, and - best of all - Fuul and Tamaya (light, fluffy version of falafal). The three of us each had 2 sandwiches; one fuul, one tamaya - and the cost of all 6 sandwiches was 78 cents (and were DEEELICIOUS!) I also, FINALLY, got a cappuccino!

I thought that was going to be the end of the day (I really must read my emails more carefully). We had finished up the second area at 4:30 and I was ready for a nap. However, we still had one more neighborhood to visit, a fishing community about 20 minutes away from the city center. This community had beautiful boats and a beach. We spent about 2 1 /2 hours between the neighborhood and the beach, and I got some nice shots; however I was tired and the slightest annoyance (even a precocious child begging and begging me to take more pictures of her) was wearing on me. By sunset there was no where I wanted to be more than home in bed.

At 8:30 / 9:00 we left for ... DINNER!

That's right, at this point, we finally headed to the restaurant back near the city center for a fish dinner. The food was incredible! Seafood Soup and Salads (tahina, etc) to start, followed by fish 2 ways (deep fried and grilled with tomatoes and onion), calamary, shrimp, and rice ... all included with our day trip! The company was excellent as well, as I sat with some of the ladies I'd been hanging out with all day. (including my friend Noura's mother who had taken me under her wing in the morning).

Finally, at 2 am, thanks to a new friend who gave me a ride from where the bus dropped us off downtown, I got home. 20 hours of photography, 200 ok pictures - about 40 that I consider "good" and loads to think and talk about. All-in-all a good day.

WAKE UP CALL!

Tomorrow morning I'll be up EARLY for a trip to Alexandria with my photography club. I think we're going to places I've not been before (but as most trip info has been disseminated in Arabic, I can only guess at most of the plan for the day). Anyway, the pics should be up to Flickr, and a post about my trip should be here, some time next week.

Up at 5:30 am and I'm off to meet the bus at 6:15. Thank goodness the cappuccino store is 24 hours!

and again

Another guest, another discovery.

Last week, for just a few days, one of my dear old best friends Seanie came to visit. We did the usual - pyramids, dinner at Abu El Sid (really good Egyptian restaurant in my neighborhood where I dined on Quail for the first time - YUM!), walking around...

But as with my last visitor, there were new discoveries (beyond the quail appetizer).

First, the pool at the Cataract Hotel near the Sakkara pyramids. It's a great way to cool off after a morning in the desert, it's not far from the Giza pyramids, and you can pay just to use the pool. (My good friend Therese and I plan on frequenting it often in the future).

The next discovery was probably the best - the Sawy Culture Wheel in Zamalek. A performing arts space and gallery (built under a bridge) that is not only a great use of public space, but is also a reminder of the Creative Alliance back home, which I've been missing very much lately.

Completely by happy accident, we saw a great live concert billed as "In Memory of Abdel Wahab, Hossam Sameer Presents the Great Composers' Master Pieces on Oud accompanied by his Musical Band" (copied exactly from the original). Mr. Sameer was a charming man (I assume by the crowd reaction, as my Arabic allowed me only to grasp 5 words of his introduction) and he and his Oud were amazing. Equally worthy of praise was his Musical Band: a percussionist on tambourine and beatbox; a zither player; a flautist; a violinist; and a cellist.

Towards the end of the first set, a tiny old woman, easily in her 80's, was brought onto the stage to much fanfare and acclaim from the crowd. Up until this point, we had noticed people in the audience occasionally singing as the band played, but we now realized everyone had received a program with all of the song lyrics printed (in Arabic) as they came in. This little old woman grasped the microphone stand to steady herself and sang with the band as the crowd went wild clapping and singing along, and cheering. Occasionally she would wiggle her hip or get a little shoulder move going, along with a mischievous glint in your eyes and you could see that, in her heydey, this was a very sassy lady. The crowd loved her so much that, despite it obviously not being planned, she was brought up again after the intermission to sing another song. The band stopped playing before the last verse and she turned around with her hand on her hip and made a joke and they started playing again until she was done singing. The moment was heartwarming and brilliant and made me so glad to have moved here and taken this journey.

I have no pictures from the evening except for this one, of a wedding car outside the florist shop as it was being decorated for a wedding procession:

Kate's Visit

M'friend Kate just visited. We went to Alexandria (still love it!). After dinner, we discovered the fish museum, with loads of plaster fish in plaster fish environments and a giant whale skeleton. My FAVORITE kind of museum: i.e. quirky, unexpected and a little bit awesome! (and only $1 admission!) Made me think of my fellow quirky museum enthusiasts back home.


On Kate's last night we took a felucca ride (still love that too!). My friend's mom, who was visiting as well, made smoked salmon sandwiches, we ate chips and silly lollipops, and the Nile, that tricky vixen, stole my sunglasses; a small price to pay for an amazingly beautiful night and sunset (and being able to see the tippy-top of the great pyramid from the boat).