Sāniyat al Ḩumayyirāt

I was in touch with a guy, Amir. He offered to drive me around Alexandria. Life in Alexandria was quite more open I would say, compared to Cairo. Though the traffic is as hectic as ever. We stopped by to get some brunch, Amir treated me to a lot of traditional Egyptian food, each very delicious. He took me to a huge mosque, I was hesitant to enter at first but anyone can enter if they want to. I took off my shoes and entered the hallowed place. Muslims were in front, praying, the inside was extremely beautiful. Arabic geometric design with comfortable carpet flooring. The men and women had separate spaces. Just relaxing and chilling inside was great.

Alexandria was also much cooler compared to the other Egyptian countries, probably because it was facing the sea. A took me to other places, the Citadel of Qaitbay, which I didn't bother to pay to enter, just outside was enough. He even bought me some ice cream, I think all Muslims are this hospitable when it comes to having guests based on my experience. He took me to this luxury area to see the gardens and some royal vacation homes and as he drove me around we just talked about Islam, his life and life in Egypt and Alexandria. I edged him on to tell me his love story on how he met and courted his wife, and much to my surprise stating that he also wanted to get a second wife someday. This prompted me to ask if it was okay for him if his wife got a second husband too in which he replied it wasn't as she is a woman. I stopped right there as I didn't want to get into an argument of gender equality when he was so graciously driving me around the city. He had a daughter as well, he spoils her with a lot of love this I know.

I did have a place to stay in Alexandria. Omar was coincidentally the host of Arianne and Alex back from my Greece trip and also the Couchsurfing ambassador of Egypt. They stayed with him too and I just happened to see his profile, he quickly agreed to host me but I had to get there a bit late at night so I had a lot of time to spare. Amir offered to drop me off my final stop as he needed to get back to work. I decided to spend the rest of the day inside the fabled Alexandria library, now rebuilt to be super impressive. Best thing, it was very cold inside. The library was huge and had a lot of sectors, I tried to find a quiet place to just relax and sit and let the time pass by. After a couple of hours, I decided to leave the place and head to the coastal area.

There, I was blessed with a wonderful sunset. There were also two guys sitting right beside me, who I guess were interested in seeing a tourist in the area. They started to talk to me in what English they could muster. Now, I didn't know what to make of it as I couldn't really feel out their vibe but we ended up talking and decided to get dinner together. I asked for a koshary place and they took me to some alleys, I was quite suspicious at first but we got to a good restaurant and I ate my fill. Omar apologized for being late but pointed me to one of his friends, Richard. Richard was also a strong member of the Couchsurfing community, he's Czech and was studying in Alexandria for the time being. He told me where to meet and I headed there with the two guys, who apparently were brothers. One of them bid me farewell, and I was stuck with the older one of the two. Along the way to meet Richard, the guy asked if he could ask some money. This pissed me off quite a bit because I had thought we were good friends and I already had a good impression, I let him know my feelings and he quickly apologized.

I got to meet with Richard, who brought me to meet more of his friends, Seif and Mina and some other guy while the person I was with went on his way. We went to a hookah place and had some food. I told them stories from Japan and they all seemed so into it, it was funny. They didn't even know that fireflies existed. We talked for a long time, switching restaurants and I had so much leftover at the end of the night.

I went to Omar's place finally, it was definitely a high-end house. It was huge and air-conditioning in Egypt is always a boon. I took a shower and he smoked me up with some Afghani hashish. As part of his custom, he asked me to share some music. I let him listen to Mykonos, one of the songs that I've held on to ever since I left Greece, the song that kept me company while I was bedridden in Cairo. Omar had to get up early tomorrow, and I was fine with that so we bid each other good night and went to bed.Read more