Alexandria & Marsa Matruh

Some pics from a little trip we went on to Alexandria and Matruh...

Day 1


"Hmmm, the center has to be in this direction... Or..??"


One of the beaches in Alexandria as we were walking away from the center.


Night traffic very far away from the center. :-)


The fish restaurant we were recommended by a butcher...

Day 2


Next day we had our bearings right...


We even managed to find the Bibliotheca Alexandrina...


Of course it was closed.. :-P So we had to do something else for a few hours.


After a hazardous decent we made it down to where the fishermen were sitting and had a stroll in the bay.


The fishermen's coffee shop was kind of like Starbucks. "One double tall cap, skim milk no sugar coming up!"


The fisherman hoped his newfound friends would bring him a lot of fish this day.


We passed the crowded market on the way back to the library after lunch.


Finally inside!!! The library was made by the Norwegian architect company Sn�h�tta and surprisingly they had actually done a very good job. ;-)


Unfortunately it was already quite run down and there were holes in the wall everywhere. Norwegian quality I guess... :-P


Very cool design indeed. The windows in the ceiling were made so that they would project tiny triangles (or pyramids) on the floor.


They even had books! Not so many, though, unfortunately. A lot of the shelves were half empty. Apparently the countries involved in this project had promised to send one copy of each new book here, but instead they only receive the old crappy books that libraries in the Western world don't want anymore. Such a waste...


Back in Matruh. Lotta's friend Besse from Sweden looked very happy in her Orange galabeyya.


Me, Lisa, Besse and the taxi driver at Agiba. I think my green Brica camera did something funny with this picture because we are all kind of skewed.


Damn, why does life have to be so difficult???


I got a new job as a clothes hanger. It probably fitted my intelligence level. :)


But it was worth it to get some After Work champagne once we came back to our $15 a night apartment... :-)

Day 3


A few friends we met before taking the bus back to Cairo next day. They had just had their hands painted with henna and first didn't want to have their picture taken, but then they changed their mind.