9:43 am CST
5:43 pm Egypt, Marsa Matrouh
If only you could see what I’m seeing. I’m usually not one for beaches, palm trees, and sunsets, but I’m usually not staying at brand new five-star beachfront hotels on the Mediterranean either. The hotel is completely empty except for our group. The whole town is, really. Marsa Matrouh is asleep nine months of the year, until refugees from the hotter lands invade in June. We’ve got about two hours until dinner, so I’m making efficient use of the balcony. My room faces west, towards the sunset. Cameras are ready.
It’s fitting that this idyllic corner will host our last night in Egypt. Starting from the hustle and madness of Cairo, we’re ending with the calm and stillness of the sea. (Calm except for the obnoxious chatter wafting over a few terraces away. Don’t you people need quiet time??) I’m sad to be leaving Egypt, and our awesome guides Walid and Hisham. They stay behind at the border, and we meet up with our new guides (and bus) in Libya.
We left Alexandria at about 7 am this morning. I ignored the 5:30 am wake up call and snoozed til 6. Rolled out of bed, packed, showered, had all my bags downstairs and on the bus by 6:30. Still in time for breakfast. I’m getting pretty good at this.
First stop was Abu Mena, a holy pilgrimage site for Coptic Christians, dedicated to St. Menas, and the first of our five UNESCO sites. The skies were perfect, yet again, making for some nice photos of the newer monastery complex. The remains of the old sixth century monastery are still there (which is what we went to see), you just have to take a nice little walk through rocks, mud, sinkholes, and sludge to get there.
Then we went to El Alamein, a WWII battle site. We visited one of the memorials, an Allied cemetery. Very calm, very lovely, very moving in its starkness. Some of the epitaphs were quite sad. The ages of the soldiers were engraved on the stones, some as young as 18. History just repeats itself. You’d think we’d learn to play nice by now. Most of the soldiers were killed in a battled waged for control of north Africa in October/November 1942. The Allies won.
Our travel agent, based in New York, is coming to Libya with us. She met up with us today after Abu Mena. We stopped in the middle of nowhere in the desert to literally pick her up from the side of the road. That just how things are done here.
The bulk of the drive followed right along the Mediterranean coast, and I swear I’ve never seen more beautiful water. I think I said that ten years ago in France, too. We had to wait for permission from the inspector to get to our last site, so we crashed a hotel lounge to use their restroom and their bar. (Last night for alcohol!) I wandered on down to the beach. The sand is bone white. The sea is turquoise.
Wish you were here.
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