Second Alexandria Day Trip

Yesterday I went back to Alexandria with a few friends (post of first trip is here). We left from Ramses Station around 9:30 AM via minibus, and arrived about three hours later. This minibus was pretty small and uncomfortable, but it was also cheap and effective.


On the road to Alexandria.


We arrived near Misr Station, right near the bus station. Our Egyptian friends eventually figured out which bus to take to the Roman Theatre, after much searching. In Cairo and Alexandria, there are thousands of buses, and most of them are not labeled with destinations or prices, so finding the right bus is just a matter of asking drivers.

Donkey cart alongside traffic.


The Roman Theatre is one of the best preserved Roman ruins in the region. Though little remains, it was a fairly fascinating place. If you stand on the disc in the middle of the theatre and speak softly, your voice will echo loudly, which must have helped the Roman actors performing for large audiences.


Pictures from the Roman Theatre.





Brian testing the echo effect.



We then went to a restaurant along the Corniche, called the Alexandrina. It was quite expensive, though the fact that the menu was entirely in English explains that.

Stray cats a huge problem in Egypt, and to a lesser extent, stray dogs. You can find one anywhere. I saw this one on the sidewalk, which looks slightly deformed.


Unfortunately we realized it was too late in the day to head to the Catacombs, so we went to one of the beaches instead. There was a small admission fee for the beach, but the beach was very clean, so it was worth it. The water was warmer than ocean water I've been to in Maine, but Bill who lives in Florida said it was much colder than Florida.

We were the only non-Egyptians at the beach. Alexandria is noticeably more liberal in clothing, but even here most of the people at the beach were modestly dressed, wearing thick sweaters. There were a few Egyptian boys swimming and the fisherman were dressed in clothes suitable for the sea.

At on the beach.



We were able to rent a paddleboat for a small price and take it around the bay.

Views of the Mediterranean Sea from the paddleboat.




After the beach, we returned to the same restaurant we had gone to during the previous trip. We ordered the same food, and it was, again, the best seafood I've had.

We spent the rest of the night walking around the city and visting various cafes and bars. Alexandria is very spread out along the coast. Walking across the city is impractical since it is so long, so taxis are the only way to go. The Alexandrian drivers don't care how many people they take, so we managed to stuff six passengers into a tiny Fiat for several rides.

Around midnight, we took a minibus from the minibus station near Misr Station. This one was much more comfortable than the previous one. The bus owner was quite aggressive in recruiting passengers for the bus, as the buses will not leave until they are completely filled; in our case, full capacity was about sixteen passengers. This recruiting process involves shouting "ala qahera, ala masr" (To Cairo, to Cairo) at the top of your lungs at every passing taxi or passers-by all the while making sure the adjacent minibus doesn't entice a passenger to the same destination. However, even aggressive shouting isn't entirely effective at such a late hour, so it took close to thirty minutes to fill the bus. Then once the bus was filled, it took another forty minutes for a driver to arrive, because apparently the passenger recruiter didn't feel like going to Cairo.

After we got on the road, a young guy in the back of the bus was making trouble of some sort. I couldn't exactly understand what the problem was, but everyone sitting around him was furious and complaining to the bus driver. There was lots of yelling. The bus driver stopped the bus a few times to get out and yell at this guy himself. Then, about fifty kilometers out from Cairo, the bus driver decides it's time for tea. We stop at some deserted restaurant in the middle of nowhere and have tea at 2AM. This guy who was causing trouble comes over and strikes up conversation with us. When we're back on the road, the same guy causes some more trouble. The driver pulls into a security checkpoint and the police ask everyone in the the back two rows leave the bus, including me. Yet what we like to refer to as the "white phenomenon" occurred; the police officer just sends me back in the bus, no questions asked. Everyone else was questioned, padded down, and bags were searched. I still don't know exactly what the problem was, but there wasn't any further trouble for the remainder of the ride.

It was a pretty frustrating ride, but I like to keep it in perspective - it cost less than four US dollars for a three hour ride.

It was another enjoyable trip to Alexandria. I'll probably be back at some point.

End of the week

I took a couple pictures of the AUC campus Thursday, but only the
outskirts.

View from the third floor of the library. On the left is all new
construction, mostly still in progress. The complex straight ahead is
the Future University. On the right is nothing but open desert.

These are the student dorms.

New construction across from the main gate. There are at least a
thousand student cars that park on the road every day.

Parking lot.

From outside the gate.

The weather here has finally gotten to a point where I can say it feels like a summer. There were a few days last week where it was less than sixty degrees, cloudy, and very windy all day. Usually Nate and I leave the balcony doors open at night, so some nights the apartment actually got extremely cold by the morning. However today it was sunny and at least eighty degrees.

Even though we haven't gotten to the "uncomfortably hot" temperatures yet, it still baffles me how the Egyptians can wear so many clothes in moderate temperatures. On this note, here are some of my observations on what Egyptians wear. The Egyptian males who dress in the Western style typically wear slacks, dress shoes, and a dress shirt with a woolen sweater over it, regardless of occupation or class. Some men wear suits or a uniform depending on their job. However wearing it seems like every Egyptian man wears the same uncomfortable-looking woolen sweater. Women typically wear a long skirt, a woolen sweater, and the higaab (head scarf). No one wear shorts, males or females, as it is considered immodest. I have only seen a few teenaged Egyptians wearing shorts in public, but they stood out quite prominently.

A large portion of the population dresses in the traditional style. I haven't quite figured out the reason behind the choice of style, but I speculate it's correlated with social class, location, occupation, and religious piety. It may also be a reaction to preserve traditional way of life. Typically businessmen and other professionals wear the Western style, as do the wealthier Egyptians. The location has a lot to do with the choice too. My district of Doqqi seems to have a very high percentage of those wearing the traditional style, perhaps up to twenty-five percent. In Islamic Cairo, it's practically one hundred percent. In
Mohandeseen, Downtown, Garden City, and Zamalek, most of the population wears the Western style. However nearly one hundred percent of women wear a higaab (headscarf), regardless of whether or not they wear Western clothes or not.

Males who dress in the traditional style wear a long woolen tunic and possibly a turban or hat. Usually they're white, brown, or black. Women will wear a sort of robe (I don't know the name for it) that covers everything but their face. Colors vary. A small but significant percentage of women wear the burqa, which covers everything on their body in a black robe except for their eyes, including hands and face.

At AUC, all the students dress in the Western style, as does most of the faculty and staff. It seems about half of the females choose not to wear the higaab. The only people who can be seen wearing traditional garments at AUC are the construction workers who are there temporarily. Even at AUC all the males wear long pants, though I have seen a couple males wearing shorts.

My gym is another place where the dress tends to be more liberal, although even there most of the men wear pants.

Some thoughts on traffic in Cairo

I've mentioned the subject of traffic in Cairo in my blog before, but watching it a little more closely has made me want to write a post about it.

In short, traffic in and around Cairo is utterly chaotic, and as far as I can tell, there are no traffic rules enforced. Fortunately, compared to the United States, speed of vehicles is not an issue, as most drivers tend to drive slow. The major problem with traffic is that drivers simply do what they want to get where they want to go.

I have only seen about two traffic lights in the whole city, in Tahrir Square. Some of the other major traffic squares have police officers to direct traffic. Aside from that, intersections are a free-for-all. There is a section along the bus route in New Cairo where two busy roads intersect and there is no rhyme or reason to cross. The bus just crosses the street slowly and tries to avoid cars coming in the perpendicular direction.

There are traffic lanes painted on the street, but it seems drivers think they are guidelines for the middle of the vehicle rather than the edge of the vehicle. Cars, trucks, and buses dart in and out of lanes on a whim. Taxis and buses discharge passengers at random points, even on the highway. While there are crossing lanes, they are useless since traffic almost never comes to a complete stop. Crossing the street involves either running across oncoming traffic, or crossing one lane at a time while the other lanes clear.

Sidewalks are not a place for walking. If a street even has a sidewalk, it is usually occupied by shopkeepers and merchants attempting to sell some goods. Additionally the sidewalks are not consistent; one building may have a flat paved sidewalk, while the next may simply have a pile of sand, and the next building may have a sidewalk that is elevated several feet above the rest of the street. The only practical place to walk is on the street, just beside the parked cars.

The horn is used liberally, and can mean "I am pulling over" or "I need to get by" but most times it is used just for the sake of letting everyone else know you are coming down the street. Lights are never used at night unless they are flashed to indicate "you can pass." Rather than go to a car wash, bowabs wash their residents' cars on the side of the street.

While police officers can be found on every street corner in Cairo, there are no police cars that patrol the roads like in the United States. I've only seen one or two in my stay. There are ambulances, but they struggle to get past traffic, since there is usually no room to pull over to let the ambulance pass.

It's hard to get a feel for the traffic without mentioning specific occurrences. Among the entertaining traffic sights I've seen in my experience so far:

• A bus packed beyond capacity, such that two men were literally hanging onto the door of the bus, while driving on the highway.
• A minibus involved in a fender bender with a minivan, causing the bumper of the minivan to come off. The woman driving the minivan got out of her car and ran to the nearest police officer. The minibus drove away, while the police officer simply yelled "stop" a few times.
• A small collision on the highway, between a minibus and a car. The two drivers exited their vehicles and immediately ran at each other and broke out into fisticuffs, while traffic waited behind. I didn't see how it ended.
• Donkeys pulling fruit carts on busy streets is a regular occurrence.
• Pickup trucks with half a dozen to a dozen workers in the back is quite normal.
• Boys riding bicycles with a tray of teas and coffees in one hand.
• Boys riding bicycles on the street with one hand, either other hand balancing a board on their head. The board is about the size of a surfboard with about one hundred loaves of bread resting on top. I'm always amazed when I see this.
• Pickup trucks with cargo packed about three to four times the height of the vehicle.
  

Given the huge population density and the size of the streets of Cairo, it's understandable why the traffic situation is so crazy. It certainly keeps things interesting. Luckily I don't have to drive in the city, so I get to observe the situation from the passenger's perspective. One advantage through all of this is that one never has to wait to catch a bus or taxi, and they can bring you anywhere in the city relatively quickly.