Rosetta

Our good friends wanted to treat us to a fish dinner and we, of course, accepted. They drove us to one of their favorite places, Rashid, a city about 40 miles to the east of Alexandria, but still on the western side of the Nile delta. 

Date Palms

Outside of Alexandria, the road crosses farmland and marshes and then travels through acres and acres of date palms. The palm trees stand in orderly rows, much like Christmas trees in the northern U.S., only very much taller. We could see huge numbers of mostly yellow, but also some red, dates hanging on these trees in large bunches, in various stages of ripeness. Produce stands all over Alexandria have overflowing boxes of these same types of fresh dates for sale.

Rashid is better known internationally as Rosetta, home the famous stone that was the key to unlocking the meaning of Egyptian  hierogylphics. Unfortunately, the original stone is housed at the British Museum in London and Rosetta only has a replica, as does the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Rashid was important at one time as a shipping port, but has been replaced in that category by Alexandria. Clearly fishing is still an important industry here. We were told some of the boats we saw there venture as far as Libya, if they have the appropriate fishing license. Its location along a wide section of the Nile, with colorful fishing boats tied up along its banks, makes Rashid/Rosetta a picturesque city.

Broad sidewalk and quay in Rosetta

Somewhat rusty brightly painted fishing boats were tied up alongside the broad sidewalk abutting the quay along the Nile, while smaller boats ferried passengers and produce across the river. We were surprised when our friends picked a nice spot along the river and employees from the fish market across the street began to bring tables and chairs across the street to provide a place for us to dine. Our friends had purchased fresh fish from them, and then had them prepare all the meal: fish, rice, baba ganoush, spicy pickled vegetables, salad, bread, and beverage. As seems to be the custom everywhere, we enjoyed a cup of tea after the meal.

Dinning in Rosetta

My only disappointment was when a fish market employee cleaned off our table prior to delivering tea. He picked up two of our aluminum cans and threw them onto the quay. I can only hope that the fish market has someone clean up along the quay regularly.

This was a very pleasant and scenic outing and another opportunity to spend time visiting with our friends and learning a little more about Egypt.

Our meal

Some of our fish

More of our fish

Our waiter crossing the street

Produce to be ferried across the river

Read Full Post »

Second Trip to Cairo

We just got back from a three-day trip to Cairo and now I feel like a local Alexandrian.

Cairo was interesting, but hard to get around in. I’d compare it to spending three days in Manhattan and not being able to speak much English. We took a morning train on the 13^th, went to an in-country orientation on the 14^th, and stayed at a Fulbright apartment for both nights.

Traveling from Alexandria in the early morning, wesaw more of the countryside than we did on our previous road trip, because there were no roadside establishments, just farmland. Outside Ramses Station in Cairo we were met by taxi drivers wanting 50 pounds Egyptian (50 £E) to take us to our destination. The difficulty was that we were western looking, couldn’t speak much of the language, and, worst, we had no idea what a fair fare should be (but knew it should be substantially less than 50 £E.) So we wandered out into the street thinking we could do a little better; but it was hot and we really didn’t have a clue. Fortunately, a few bystanders speaking a little English flagged down taxis and tried to negotiate for us. We finally agreed to pay 20 £E. That was probably too much, but only about $3.25 USD. So, seriously, what do you do when it’s hot and humid and you don’t speak the language? One of the compounding problems was that the apartment was on a street behind the Marriott, so that was the landmark we gave the driver. Of course he just assumed we really wanted to go to the Marriott, which charges a ridiculous amount for their rooms, so we must be rich. Nonetheless, we did end up where we were supposed to, and eventually somebody showed up with a key.

The Fulbright apartment is in the Zamalek section of Cairo, an island within the city, much like Manhattan, although a lot smaller. While exploring the neighborhood, we discovered that it is home to many embassies. We passed the Sri Lankan, Algerian, Tunisian, Dutch, and a few more embassies that I can’t recall. That, of course, means that there are nice shops and restaurants in the area. We saw our first Egyptian liquor store here; a place called Drinkies, really, Drinkies, where we bought a bottle of South African Merlot. We enjoyed a beer with our dinner at L’Aubergine, a pleasant restaurant with a number of vegetarian options. It was our first alcohol since we arrived in Egypt over three weeks ago.

As slow as Alexandria traffic is sometimes, it’s slower in Cairo, which is surprising, as it seems there are no longer any donkey-pulled carts in Cairo, unlike Alexandria. Cairo offers more goods and services, like coffee shops with Internet connections and liquor stores. Just down the street from the Fulbright apartment is a place called Beano’s, with relatively expensive but very good American-style coffee and wifi for less than $1 USD an hour. Alcohol seems to be relatively readily available, at least in this neighborhood. There seems to be a lower proportion of women with head coverings than in Alexandria. That may be just because there are more foreigners, and more people in general, but it definitely leaves a different impression. It appears to be a significantly more cosmopolitan city.

It was pleasant to get up on Wednesday morning and go to the coffee shop for coffee, breakfast, and checking our email. The orientation was at the U.S. Embassy and it didn’t seem that far away, so we thought we would walk. While it really wasn’t that far away as distance goes, it was hot, too hot to be walking that far. The embassy is in a complex that includes other embassies, like the British one, so we wandered a bit before we found it.

It was good to get to better acquainted with other Fulbrighters whom I had initially met in Washington, but Mary Ann hadn’t met before. There were about a dozen students, only four professors, three spouses, and the dad of one of the other profs. The orientation covered basic safety and security topics. The most interesting presentation was by four of last year’s students who were still in country. The formal policy is that, when you see a protest, don’t go near. Their most important advice was to not take part in any of the protests. Regardless of how one feels, this is their revolution; it really needs to be free of foreign influence.

As we departed the embassy, we observed protesters demanding the release of an Egyptian cleric imprisoned in the United States for plots to blow up New York City landmarks, the “blind sheik.” Evidently, this is an ongoing thing, but I counted only 12 protesters; this is a city of several million people. It was however, midweek, during the working hours. They were pretty much ignored.

A very nice catered dinner was provided for us at the 10^th floor apartment of the local Fulbright Program director. We enjoyed wine and hors d’oeuvres and a nice opportunity to get to know the others in a more social setting, with wonderful views overlooking the Nile. (Alcohol two nights in a row – this is the big city!) Many of the students had majored in things like Arabic or Middle Eastern studies and are doing research in related fields. Most of them speak some Arabic, some are fluent, and many have been to Egypt before. In general, they seem to be having a lot easier time getting around than the professors do.

Thursday found us doing some computer business at the Fulbright office in the morning and then walking to the Egyptian Museum. This was the tourist part of the trip. We had read that this museum is often extremely crowded, but we found it to be very manageable, no doubt because of the recent decline in tourism. Because many of the exhibits are not well-identified or described, visitors are often advised to hire a guide, which we did. It was an excellent decision; our guide was very knowledgeable, pleasant, and spoke English quite well. We spent three hours with him and it was money well spent. Being that close to 4,000-year-old artifacts is a thrill. The Tutankhamen exhibit was the highlight, particularly the famous gold funerary mask. Our guide pointed out two or three empty glass cases that had housed exhibits stolen during the protests in Tahrir Square last winter and the windows in the roof where they had entered. (Photographs are not allowed, sorry!) But I’ll bet you can see pretty good photographs elsewhere of almost everything we saw that morning.

Getting around Cairo is so time-consuming that the museum was our only bona fide sightseeing for this trip. The pyramids will have to wait for another day.

Sidi Gaber Station, Alexandria, Egypt: Exiting the train from the “wrong” side.

First Class Car, Express Train from Alexandria to Cairo

Countryside not far from Alexandria

Outside our Apartment Building in Cairo

Outside Cafe at Marriott Hotel in Cairo

Along the Corniche in Cairo

Street Scene along the Corniche in Cairo

View of the Nile from a 10th Floor Apartment in Cairo

Evening View of the Nile from a 10th Floor Apartment in Cairo

Interior Ministry Building in Cairo, Burned During Protests

 

Taking a taxi to Ramses Station for our return to Alexandria was interesting. I thought I had done well to bargain for 10 £E, but then the driver got in the car and turned on the meter. As an important aside here; generally speaking, there are two types of taxis in Cairo, black ones and white ones. The black ones are older, run down, and without air conditioning. The white ones are newer, nicer, have AC, and, of course, are therefore a bit more expensive. Traffic was incredibly slow and bumper-to-bumper most of the way; it was good to have air conditioning. Not surprisingly, when we go to the train station the meter displayed 15.5 £E. That’s about $2.50 USD and that driver earned every cent of it, earlier bargaining notwithstanding.

Negotiating Egyptian train stations at first seems daunting, but it turns out to be really easy, thanks to the kindness of strangers. Walk onto a platform, and look around. Inevitably, someone comes over, asks where you’re going in English, and tells you where to wait. Since the tickets have the car number and seat number in both Arabic and English the rest is easy.

As we got off the train in Alexandria, we were again offered taxis for exorbitant fares, but this time we knew what to do. Drivers asked for 50 £E; we knew the fare should be about five £E, ten max. We just took the nearby tram for the equivalent of four cents each and felt like we were locals, heading home after a trip to the big city.

Read Full Post »

Coffee, Wine, Ironing, and Football

Coffee
As it turns out, getting a good cup of American coffee here is not that easy. On the one hand there are coffee shops everywhere, where men smoke shishas (hookahs), drink coffee, and play dominoes. But, on the other hand, Egyptian people mostly drink Turkish coffee or espresso, not coffee like we’re used to. There are also a number of other more western style coffee shops that sell coffee, tea, and pastries. But even there, the popular coffees are Turkish and espresso. One can order an “American” coffee, but, at most establishments, one will get instant coffee, typically instant Nescafé.

There are three Starbucks in Alexandria. They are all located at upscale malls, two of which are on the outskirts of the city. The third is about a 20-minute walk or two tram stops from us and is also in an upscale mall at the base of a Four Seasons Hotel. Early in our third week, we had reason to be in that area and stopped for a large mug of Starbucks coffee. It was really, really, really good. It was the first real American style coffee we’d had since our arrival. We sat outside, just sipped the coffee, split a delicious cherry pastry, and watched people.

This week we tried a place that bills itself as a Brazilian coffee house. We asked for American coffee, as listed on their menu, and got Nescafé. So, last night we finally broke down and bought a French press. Finding ground coffee is difficult. It’s only in a few stores; and even then, it is usually an espresso grind. Tea really seems to be the hot beverage of choice here. Coffee, real American style coffee, is just going to have to be one of our little luxuries.

Finally, this morning we had our own American-style coffee – simple pleasures.

Ironing
We don’t have an iron or an ironing board. We could buy them for the year. Or, as it turns out, I can give my shirts to the bowab in the morning and have them delivered to my apartment that evening, all ironed for two Egyptian pounds per shirt or about 34 cents each. The bowab is a combination doorman, security guard, and concierge. Every apartment building has one. He sits inside the lobby, or, in some cases, just outside the building, and provides a level of security. He sees everyone coming and going and arranges for a variety of deliveries. Most of the nearby local markets will deliver just about anything for a very small fee. We haven’t taken advantage of the delivery services because we don’t yet speak enough of the language or understand the arrangements and because, at this point, we still enjoy walking through the markets and discovering what’s available.

Wine and Beer
I have not seen wine or beer available anywhere in Alexandria. I understand that it is available at the lounges and restaurants at upscale hotels, but we don’t usually frequent those places since we live in an apartment. I did notice bottles of Johnny Walker Red and Black on the shelves of a small neighborhood market, but they were probably good examples of the low quality knock-offs which are reputed to be available throughout the city There are duty free shops that one can visit within the first 30 days in county to buy alcohol, including one in Alexandria. Unfortunately, we need passports to verify our 30-day status. Our passports are now at the Fulbright office in Cairo for residency visa processing, and we won’t get them back until September 14. We have until the 19^th to get our wine.

This brings me to the next point. We would love to have guests visit us here, but we may all have a bit more fun if you bring some wine and coarsely-ground coffee with you!

American Football
We watched the NFC championship game at a sports bar in Lima, Peru, while there on a study abroad trip with UW Oshkosh students. There appears to be no such thing as a sports bar in Alexandria, actually there aren’t even regular bars in Alexandria, outside of those in upscale hotels frequented by expatriates. The kickoff game for the NFL season is tonight, Thursday, September 8, 2011, at 8:30 pm eastern time; that’s 2:30 am Friday morning my time. I may have miss this one. We have a TV, but it doesn’t seem to work. We’ll look into that next week in Cairo, but I suspect we won’t be getting NFL games anyway.

Alexandria University
As it turns out, university staff go home at 2:00 pm every day until school stars on October 1. The security guard, however, must stay until all employees have gone. So, as of today, no more working late at the office. I can work just as easily from my laptop at home and not keep that poor guy stuck at work.

Photo Update
Unrelated to the above posts, I have added some photos of our most recent week in Alexandria.

Another Sunset from Our Balcony

A Daytime View from Our Balcony

Buying Felafel at Our Neighborhood Shop (I’m the gray-haired guy down front)

Making Felafel

Souq: Open Air Market

Collecting Cardboard (recycling?)

 

Read Full Post »