Extreme Alexandria

July 16-20

Our bus-ride along the desert highway was uneventful, except for the comical and inexplicable water obstructing Josh's view from his window. Once at the bus station, we haggled with cab drivers until one agreed to treat us fairly, angering the other drivers who had colluded to rip us off.

We were let off at Saad Zaghloul Square and quickly oriented ourselves towards our hotel, the 'Swiss/Suez' Canal hotel. I'm not sure on the actual name because both are pronounced the same with an Egyptian accent and seem to be used interchangeably. 

After our first of many meals of ful and falafel at Alexandria's famous Mohamed Ahmed restaurant, my friend Ahmed, who I had met on my last adventure, came to meet up with Josh and I. We caught up over many cups of tea and far too much shisha.

Since Ahmed's cycling club (http://www.cycle-egypt.com/) had no upcoming events, I thought it would be fun to rent some bikes for the day and have Ahmed show us around.

Little did we know what Ahmed had in store for us the following day.

Ahmed met us for breakfast and we made our way to the bike shop. We chose our one-speed mountain bikes with star-spangled handle-bars and assured that the breaks worked properly.

From that point on, we were cycling through the streets of Alex in full-on traffic. We were weaving through bumper to bumper traffic, dodging pedestrians and passing donkeys and horses. We were swerving to miss buses, microbuses and even a tram or two pulling over to pick up passengers. At several points we were even cycling towards oncoming traffic in the middle of the street! This would all be rather terrifying if it weren't so exhilarating!

Ahmed estimated that we must have travelled between 38-40 km on this death-race-like-course. Any cardiorespiratory benefits clearly negated by the copious amount of vehicle exhaust inhaled and dust accumulated in our lungs. The only breaks we took were to make sure everyone had made it through each leg of this urban obstacle course...and once for mango juice.

Not very badass I know, but damn delightful!

We finished our ride with an extended circuit on the corniche. 

After we dropped off our bikes, my legs were like jelly, my shirt soaked in sweat, my legs caked in dust, and adrenaline still surging through my system, but it was worth it.

Definitely worth it!

Everything we did after that in Alex seemed rather pedestrian by comparison, no pun intended!

The following day, Josh and I attempted to go to the Greco-roman tombs known as Kom Al Shoqqafa, after enjoying the air-conditioning and impressive views at Bibliotheca Alexandrina.

The tombs date from the first two centuries A.D. and are apparently quite impressive, but a power failure extinguished our chances to visit the interior. An ambitious Chilean family invited us along with them, using a surprisingly bright cell phone screen to light the way, but they gave up rather quickly and we followed suit.

That night we met up with Ahmed for a tremendous seafood feast and followed it up with more tea and shisha.

Our final day in Alex was spent sleeping in, and visiting Fort Qaitbay. Fort Qaitbay was built in the 15th century and stands at the same location as the former ancient wonder of the world, the Lighthouse of Pharos, once stood.

Even though Alexandria straddles the Mediterranean and has had an intimate relationship with the sea since it's founding thousands of years ago, I still contend that the best way to see it is on a bicycle and I have my friend Ahmed to thank for that!