i spent yesterday in alexandria. walking along the corniche to the citadel, then climbing to the top. then heading back to the bibiotheca alexandria, and then to the catacombs of kom ash-shuqqafa (or as the locals say "ash-shu'afa"--i'm still not used to that disappearing qaf in the local accent), and then on to a couple of other smaller archaeological sites, dodging baksheesh demanding tourism police at each step. the catacombs were the best part, largely because i mostly had them all to myself. it was really great to wander through a 2000 year old underground tomb all alone, with shadowy statues of greek and egyptian gods adorning the room.
after seeing the mob scene at the sites around cairo it was strange how empty alexandria seemed. the citadel had a lot of tourists, but they were all egyptian tourists. i was one of, if not the, only foreigner there.
anyway, today i'm pretty much on the other side of the country in aswan. i'll tell you about that when i got something to say.
