This is my travel diary of my trip to Egypt. It contains in detail my memories of what I did and saw.

Tuesday October 27, 2015

Egypt: Day 6, Part 2 – Streets of Alexandria

We turned off the corniche road that rings the edge of the sea, and into the heart of Alexandria.

As we drove we saw little slices of everyday life, from the various fruit and veggie stands, local markets, people trying to catch local microbuses. It was fascinating.

But it didn’t seem as impersonal or quick paced as Cairo did. Probably because the buildings were closer together and thus the streets smaller.

I loved seeing this old tram packed with locals attempting to make its way through the tight streets.

We were trying to make our way to the Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa, and the roads were getting narrower and narrower. We could easily see the locals, as they were standing quite near us. Here in Alexandria, everyone was so excited to see tourists. People and children waved and smiled, some following our now slow moving van.

Photo by Jane

At one point we were in an area that was full of chopped up cars. Not surprising since we had seen how Egyptians drive, that it made sense they’d need to pickup a bumper or headlight as replacements.

Photo by Thomas

As we got closer to the catacombs, traffic got really backed up. The street was so tight that traffic could only move in one direction…except that cars were still jostling on either side trying to get through. One of the younger boys who had been smiling and waving to us became our own traffic cop, he started rallying locals and drivers alike to move out of our way. In the end the tourists won, and a line of opposite lane traffic directly in front of us started slowly reversing up the street to let us inch forward. When we got closer we got out of the van and walked the rest of the way to the catacombs, leaving our driver time to make his way to meet us for the return trip.

alexandria19

As we walked we were watched by this angry local boy, but shortly after this photo was taken a local women walking by talked to him and he had the biggest grin I’d ever seen. We all laughed at that!