Alexandria

On Friday morning, we left Cairo at 8 am for our drive north through the Nile Delta for Alexandria. Fields of sugarcane, tomatos and wheat bordered the highway. Two and a half hours later we arrived at Amr's squash club which are part of a huge country club type complex. The complex has two huge gymnasiusms with the olympic rings and sports, clay tennis courts, golf course, soccer fields, two pools, basketball field house, horse track, a bank, supermarket, clothing shops and a handful of restaurants. Willy and Amr trained and I went upstairs to the locker room to change. The attendant was giving herself a pedicure..one foot soaking in a red pail, the other hoisted up with her long dress on the bench where she was intently filing away. The locker room looked like it came from the 60s. Tired gray linolelum with touches of peeling orange trim. The workout room featured three walls of mirrors and one wall of windows looking out at the horse pasture. There were four treadmills, a stationary bike and nautilus equipment. I started pedaling on the bike and within a few minutes the two teenage attendants wearing headscarves, long sleeve jerseys and very baggy sweatpants conferred and started blasting arab techno for me to work out to. The only other people working out were a 7 year old boy who had finished playing squash and his mother who strolled along on the treadmill in sandals, jeans and headscarf. The teenage attendents walked around, stopping to do a few situps on the machines every so often. When I went to take a shower I discovered you had to bring your own towel, which I hadn't. So Amr found one for me. This time the attendant was on her prayer rug doing her prayers since the call to prayer had been announced over the loudspeaker. This call to prayer occurs five times a day and is a wailing sound broadcast through the entire city. We often didn't hear it because we are inside.

We see people here with ash wednesday type smudges on their foreheads. These are actually marks from prostrating during prayers. Supposedly the darker and larger this mark is the more pious they are. We ate foul sandwhiches and watched Willy and Amr play. They hit the ball so hard, the ball broke, and Will said it was the hottest ball he had ever felt. After a hard workout and game, Amr had Willy run drills from one corner to the next. It was exhausting just watching him.

Just like Cairo, Alexandria is notorious for traffic, especially on the weekend which in muslim countries is Friday and Saturday. We drove to the Citadel , a fortress built upon an old light house. It is situated at the far west point of the coastline. Alexandria is best known for its literary history, not its monuments. Alexander the great for whom the city is named wnated to collect copies of all the printed books in the world. This was in 332 BC and he developed this place where ideas and knowledge were exchanged and revered. Several years ago a new fabulous library was built in Alexandria resurrecting its name as a cultural center. It is an architectural gem--looks like a disc representing the mediterranean sun rising. Unfortunately for us it didn't open until 3 on Saturday and our plan was to spend the afternoon at the beach, so we just drove by.

The public beaches we passed were the MOST crowded I had ever seen. People sat shoulder to shoulder on plastic chairs -- 10 under an umbrella. It took us 45 minutes to crawl along the beachfront to our "private beach". Amr had arranged a day room for us at a friend's hotel. This way we could sit by the pool or on the beach and have a place to shower and hang out in before the big wedding of his best friends brother, Kareem. As we've come to realize in Egypt, you must drop all expectations and just go with the flow. Once we checked in, we were escorted through the fake, luxurious lobby (read tacky and cheap), past the pool with every lounge chair occupied, through the scruffy garden with outdoor stage, to the beach area and our room in a cabana. It was a tiny room with a plastic lounger and a shower in the corner. The walls were stretched canvas. Witgh our duffels and suitcases and backpacks there was hardly room to walk. The only thing to do was to don our suits and enjoy the ocean.

The water was the perfect temperature and super salty. We were surrounded by people in bikinis, swim dresses and full black long dresses and headscarv es. One side of the beach was dominated by a stage with a dj in a speedo and three dancing Russian Blondes in bikinis. The music was American and Arab techno. After the swim I found our guest relations person who carried in a 2x3 mirror and attached it to a grommet hook in our cabana and brought me a hair dryer so I could get ready for the fancy wedding at the four seasons.