25 March 2006

oh yes, the reason i'm here...

i forgot to tell you what we did yesterday. oops. luxury is blinding.

leptis_theater.JPG
Leptis Magna theatre

the entire day was spent touring Leptis Magna, THE site of sites in Libya. it's phenomenal. magnificent. colossal. the city dates to the 7th century BC, but its heyday was the Roman period, during the reign of Augustus in the early ADs. at its peak, it was home to 80,000 people. it is by far the most complete ancient city we've visited, and it's only half excavated!

leptis_ssarch.jpg

there are several intact arches, including the impressive reconstructed arch of septimius severus (a Roman emperor said to have been from Leptis). a grand theatre stretching three storeys high, with a killer view to the water. hadrianic baths which must have been an amazing structure in its day... giant outdoor swimming pool, cold baths (covered by a vaulted ceiling with turquoise and blue mosaics), warm baths, hot baths, changing area. wow, it's massive. and there were marble latrines! roman and punic marketplaces, with the ancient measuring devices still in place. and... a coliseum!

leptis_latrine.jpg
Leptis latrines

leptis_coliseum.JPG
Coliseum view

close your eyes and you could picture battling gladiators, roaring crowds. it's dug right into the ground, so you approach it from above. just beside, between the coliseum and the sea, is the hippodrome, another site for races and contests. it was said that spectators would wander from one event to the other via a passageway between the two. of course, i was hellbent on finding it. i dropped down the cliffside into the hippodrome (of which not much remains), skirting some tricky rocks and sand, and meandered until i found the tunnel... which leads you straight out onto the field. it's soooooo neat. so neat. looking up at those seats, it's just immense. our whole group was still up on top, and i heard them shout, "there she is!" i yelled up, and my voice echoed throughout the whole stadium, which seats 16,000 people. they all snapped pics of me posing gladiator-style, so hopefully i'll get one or two. so neat.

leptis_museumoutside.JPG

then we went to the on-site museum, which had a lot of exquisite statues and mosaics they were wise to remove from the elements. however, the ridiculous highlight was the two-story triumphant portrait of Mr. Qaddafi himself in the lobby, greeting his people as they come through the door.

leptismuseum_colonel.JPG

then we went to the icky hotel in nearby zliten and had yellow food for dinner. i watched a james bond flick and went to bed at 9:30.

zliten does have some pretty spots, however. see?

zliten | mosque

like i said before, tomorrow we ship off to the desert, which i am quite certain is not yet wired for internet. pretty sure my cellphone is going to be useless, too.

first stop is ghadames, an 8-hour drive to the southwest. it's a major desert trading post town, a stopping point for caravans. we get in pretty late, but still in time to catch a traditional dance performance. kinda amped for that. i bet it's beautiful.

from there we go... somewhere else whose name escapes me, but there's a hotel. it's after THAT that we pile into the 4x4 Jeeps and bounce over sand dunes til i vomit from motion sickness. four nights of camping out in "comfortable tents". i did get confirmation that there are beds, we're not actually sleeping on the ground. i'm getting really freaked out about the heat. it was hot at leptis, the hottest day so far, with bugs, and i was miserable. this will no doubt be worse.

one of the areas we're going to, the ubari, has the most stunning lakes rising from the sands. i can't wait to see those, hot and bugs be damned. and the acacus moutain region, which is right on the algerian border, also looks amazing. the famed prehistoric rock art, the main focus of our excursion down there, lives on the rock canvas.

this has been like three vacations in one. egypt seems like months ago now.

at home in opulence

back home! ... in tripoli, that is, at the corinthia. i'm getting far too attached to this hotel.

it initially seemed cruel to make us go from lavish indulgence to last night's well, let's be honest, dump in zliten (we were hunting for saran wrap to cover the beds.. i ended up making a cocoon out of a seemingly safe blanket from the closet). it just makes me appreciate this place even more.

and holy crap: i scored a junior suite this time. it's bigger than my apartment. just when you think it doesn't get any better... damn. let's compare:

zliten:
- cracked toilet seat
- stained bedspread
- no light bulb in the lamp
- dim, buzzing overhead lighting
- drip drop of hot water
- full stream of yellow cold water
- mosquitoes
- had to keep curtains wide open to get A/C, street light pouring in
- quarter-size dollop of sauce on my spaghetti

tripoli:
- TWO bathrooms
- TWO TVs, including a flat screen in the bedroom
- TWO seating areas beside giant picture windows with a 24th floor view of the sea
- L-shaped desk as big as my office
- high-class toiletries (all of which i will be stealing)
- real terrycloth bathrobes
- complimentary apples, nuts, and chocolates on the table

my job is hard sometimes.

this is really just to soften us up for what's to come: two night's of spartan accommodation before the camp out in the sahara.

23 March 2006

back to real time posting.. for now

Thursday, March 23 (I think..)
8:12 pm, Tripoli

I'm losing track of what day it is.

Tripoli has been FUN. Yesterday we got to explore the city, which was not only a welcome break from hiking over ruins all day, it meant a change of SHOES. Hello sandals!

We started off as a group at the Jamahiriya Museum, the national museum of Libya. First few floors are filled with archaeological artifacts found from throughout the country from way back when to not so long ago. It's a beautiful museum, very well arranged and displayed. But all of the labels are in Arabic... As is everything in Tripoli, and most of Libya. One of Qaddafi's edicts I suppose. Keep out the Western influence.

tripoli | nat'l museum, qaddafi's VW
Qaddafi's VW bug

tripoli | nat'l museum, mosaic

We had a guide through the archaeological floors, then we were left on our own. I wandered up to the top floor, history of the military and Libyan Resistance. Our guide insisted on coming with, and I see why. Gone were the loafing college kid museum guards. Up there, it's men in suits watching your every move. I was too self-conscious to take a photo. We were greeted by a gigantic photo of Qaddafi at the top of the stairs, then taken through the resistance against the Italian occupation and the rise of The Colonel. Helloooooo propaganda. There are two galleries devoted entirely to gifts given to the man. The next gallery is full of photos of him shaking hands with various world leaders and fan letters from his people (wish I could read Arabic...). Then there's the oil room. It was a little creepy, to be honest. Even creepier is that those galleries share the floor with the taxidermy, so in my attempt to flee the Libyan SS guards, I run into a gazelle being chewed by a coyote or something. No happy nature scenes here, folks. Our guide made a specific effort to point out the oddities case: two-headed cows, three-legged chicken, a sheep with no eyes. No thanks! Ran back to the lobby.

Then the fun began.

tripoli | naga mosque

We wandered through the old city, where all the suqs and shops are located. Not as chaotic as the one bazaar we happened upon in Egypt, but this was primarily tourist stuff; that one was actual functional goods for everyday people. I finally got to flex my shopping muscles. Mohammad, one of our guides (actually, our only since Linda fired the other guy) came along with me to assist with the pricing... We tore through that joint. My arms were full in about 15 minutes. Still need to get some gifts for people though.

tripoli | mohammed

Tripoli is a lot more, eh, advanced than I expected. People here are much more stylish than in the rest of the country, and Egypt even. The clothing is much tighter. Women still wear headscarves, though not as much as in Egypt, and almost all are drenched in makeup. The catcalls have resumed. Maybe I should wrap my scarf around my head instead of my neck. Thinking about looking into a fake wedding ring, too. After touring today, we had the afternoon off. I hung out at home, as I've taken to calling our hotel, then went back to the suq on my own. (It's really close to the hotel.) Of course, everyone else in the group had the same idea so I strolled around with a few people once I got there.

tripoli | medina

Oh yeah, touring. The reason I'm here. We went to Sabratha this morning, one of the sites to see in Libya (the other being Leptis Magna, tomorrow's destination). It's another huge site, very well-preserved, right on the Mediterranean coast, as all of these sites are. The shining star of this spot is the theater, which has been impressively reconstructed. Three storeys tall, beautiful carvings and reliefs still in tact. The weather was once again amazing, so the beige stone really popped against the sea and the sky.

sabratha_theater.JPG

libya | sabratha wall mosaic
Wall mosaic at Sabratha

Now, I've just returned from my urban exploration. Thinking about taking a bath and ordering room service. Why not?? I'm getting a little sick of being around people, which is not to say that I want to go home (though I am counting down the days... 11 to go), I just want some alone time.

Tomorrow we drive east to Leptis Magna, where we'll be all day. It's far enough out that we're staying in a local hotel instead of coming back to the palace. Bummer. But we'll be back here the night after, which is the last night of the "official" tour before the extension into the Sahara begins. Some people will be going home. The rest of us will be heading south in 4x4s over the sand dunes.

handwritten post, no. 3

Wednesday, March 22
3:38pm, Tripoli

Sitting in the lobby of the swankiest hotel I've ever been in, let alone STAYED in. Yowza.

RECAP!

I think we left off at Qasr Lebia, still in Cyrenaica/Susa. From there, it was on to Ptolemais, the site that the OI partially excavated in the 1950s, and that has only been 10% excavated overall. The sites here are leaving a bit more to the imagination than in Egypt, mostly due to the absence of inscriptions. You could have the same pile of rubble in Egypt, but there'd be hieroglpyhs scrawled all over.

libya | ptolemais, cistern

We had a great guide through the site, a city founded by Ptolemy I. What was interesting about it (to me) was the clear evidence of of roads. People WALKED here. You can see the major intersections. Most of the area is reduced to rockpiles, save for some exceptional spots, but the roads persevered. Roman speciality, right? You could even seen the curbs sometimes. Oh, and the chariot wheel tracks were still visible! Really brought the place alive-- evidence of actual human USE. Towering temples and statues are great, but a bit sterile. There was also a swimming pool in the main palace. Guess the Ptolemies found time for leisure between their many scandalous escapades. The cisterns were the highlight, though. Vast cavernous underwater vats for fresh water storage. We got to go down exploring.

libya | ptolemais, exiting the cistern

The little gift shop was also the first sighting of the famed Qaddafi watches. I held off, figuring I'd get a better price in Tripoli (and I have).

After Ptolemais, we went to Tocra/Taucheira. The only memorable feature of this site was our guide. He was FABULOUS, in the most fabulous sense of the word. Totally clad in traditional Libyan garb, flowing tunic and pants with a decorative robe over top, turban wrapped on his head, but completely Western accessorized. Ray Ban sunglasses (think 80s, Risky Business-era Tom Cruise), bling bling silver watch, constantly ringing cellphone, cigarette dangling from his lips. And of course, he's an actor! Knew every stone on the site though.

tocra | guide

After the site, we drove to Benghazi, the largest city in the area. Ate dinner at a Turkish restaurant then were hustled off to the warehouse they call their airport for our flight to Tripoli. That was an experience.

It was nearly 11 when we got to our hotel in Tripoli, and I was all ready to crash. Then I saw my room. I feel like a little kid lost in a five-star hotel. Giant fluffy bed, sofa, arm chairs, desk, armoir, TV entertainment center, separate bath and shower, all brand-new, all marble, all smartly decorated, view to the sea. Chocolate on my pillow! I've been craving dark chocolate for over a week now.

And the best part: my cell phone service kicked back in. Return to civilization!

22 March 2006

handwritten post no. 2

Tuesday, March 21
about 10am, somewhere in Libya
On the bus

We left Susa this morning, en route to Benghazi where we will board an evening flight to Tripoli. Along the way, we stop at three sites: Qasr Lebia, Ptolemais, and Tocra.

qasrlebia_museum.JPG

We've just left Qasr Lebia. (Qasr is Arabic for castle. Or maybe I should say castle is English for qasr.) The site was small, but really interesting, most of all for the marvelous whimsical mosaics found there. You approach the qasr from the bottom of the hill, and it looks like a little sanstone Lego castle. The landscape is peppered with bright, blooming trees and shrubs, while spring flowers (poppies, mostly) sprout underfoot. The weather is perfect. The mosaics originally resided in the eastern church, but have put under cover in a small museum. Wildly colorful, thematically varied depictions of animals (as predator, prey, and lollygagging creature) dominate, bu there are also scenes of humans (gods and mortals alike) and castles and the lighthouse at Alexandria. I suppose "folk" is the term for the content.

qasrlebia_animals.JPG

libya | qasr lebia museum mosaic

Leaving the site, we bumped into the French group staying at our hotel, yet again. I swear we're going to see them all the way to Tripoli. Meals at the hotel are quite the international affairs: French, Germans, Italians, Canadians, and us Yanks. Actually, one of our people was chatting with a Canadian who said, "I thought Americans weren't allowed in Libya." Bet that's a selling point for some folks.

Going back again, yesterday (Monday) was pretty great. Our first stop was Apollonia, right across the street from the hotel. More Roman and Byzantine riuns, all very lovely, but its location is unreal, perched on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean. So pretty, agagin. The wind was hot and fierce, though. Gale force, blowing me over a few times. (They were blowing all night before, too. Woke me up several times. And what I had initially said was rain coming down turned out to be, in fact, SAND. Pelting our hotel all the way upt o the 7th floor.)

latrun.JPG

After Apollonia, we boarded the bus for the most picturesque drive. The view was stunning. Just when I think that sea can't get any more striking, it does. Our second stop, L'Atrun had the most amazing scenery seen yet (I took at least three dozens photos so you'll see). Rolling green mountains dropping sheer down to the water below, which is so crystal you can see the rocks continue below. Dare I say, it was breathtaking. The site has two churches, probably the most exquisitely located places of worship. The marble was in excellent condition and parts of the structures have been reconstructed.

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libya | latrun sea

And then, when the elevating temperature and winds had just about gotten to me, a cool, sweet breeze floated up off the sea. It was delicious. I stood on a rock for a solid ten minutes taking it in.

libya | view from latrun

Next stop, Ras al Hillal. Another Byzantine church, or what remains of it. Nice mosaics, but by this point I'm a little churched out.

Last stop before lunch (yes, all this before lunch) was a brief peek at the largest cave in Africa. It was pretty cool, plus now I can say I've been to the largest cave in Africa. So huge, though I have no basis for comparison since I'm not a cave-dweller. Local farmers still use it in the winter months; you can see the smoke charred on the walls from their fires.

biggestcave.JPG

Last site for the day (after lunch) was Slonta. Not really a site, actually, more like a curiosity. It's a little area, about 200 sq. ft., of reliefs carved right into the stone. A grotto I think it was called? The scenes are intriguing, weeping and moourning people, the four seasons, a cow, a crying boy. No one really knows what it means or even to when it dates, but it is unlike any rock-cut scenes anywhere else in Libya. You have to rely on your imagination a bit to see some of the images, though. It's like Magic Eye in the rock.

libya | slonta

Came back to the hotel and it was still early so a couple of us walked into "town." Caused a bit of a stir walking through the main strip (all of two blocks with about two dozen shops). Got some good shots of the curious and mostly friendly people, including a butcher and a baker (but no candlestick maker).

libya | susa butchers

libya | susa bakers

Then I ate three chocolate covered cream puffs at dinner and went to bed. Moo.

handwritten post, no. 1

Sunday, March 19
9:13pm Susa, Libya

From here on out, looks like I'll be writing my journal the old-fashioned way -- by hand. I'm too afraid to turn on my computer. Sparks just flew when I plugged the power cord to the adapter in the outlet. Not going to risk frying my baby. But, it's down to about 13% power and I need to be able to dump my photos... Memory card is full. Hope that doesn't suck up too much juice. Batteries are also dead in the camera, but the battery charger seems to be working OK. So did my phone, although it got quite hot. (Another thing I can't risk losing.) Forget about the iPod.

libya | view from susa hotel

All these technical difficulties are only adding to my mounting tension. I want Mexican food so bad. Basically I just want anything that's not hummous, cucumber, and bread, so bad. I want my clothes. Very sick of wearing the same crap over and over, even if I do do that at home. Most of all, I'm getting homesick, and missing someone a lot. The absence of cellular service, contrary to what I was told, is making that worse. Didn't feel so far away when there was the magic of text messaging. I need to call my mama, too. Things were much easier in Egypt...

Which is not to say that Libya is bad, save for the barren wasteland at the border. It's quite lovely, actually. Just very foreign, to everyone. No one is quite comfortable yet.

The area we are now in, Susa, is a verdant fertile seaside town, home to some magnificent ruins at Cyrene and Apollonia. (It's the ancient region of Cyrenaica, a name that still sticks today.) There are mountains, the Jebel Akhdar, speckled with trees (trees!) and bushes, wide expanses of green farm in the valley, and -- it rains. Raining right now, in fact.

Our guides, Khalim and Mohammad, are also very friendly and jovial, cracking jokes already. I feel bad trash-talking their country, which they obviously take much pride in and revel in sharing tidbits of info on. I've already been offered Arabic lessons and a place to stay if I really want to get to know Libya.

SIDE NOTE: That just reminded me about my waiter yesterday morning in Marsa Matrouh (that seems like eons ago...). I got to breakfast, late as usual, and ate alone, as usual. The waiter came by with coffee, etc for me, then came by again to chat. What is your name, where are you from, how old are you (his name is Mahmood, he's 27). Then he says, you have very pretty eyes. Amazing the key phrases one learns of a foreign language... I complimented him on his English, which was actually quite good, and said I'd like to learn Arabic someday. He says, "You touch me... and I'll touch you Arabic." I snickered and said sure thing, didn't have the heart to correct him.

Anyway, back to Libya.

Oh, I think I forgot the rest of Marsa Matrouh. Nothing much happened since we were there just to sleep, but it was BEAUTIFUL. The town is a total resort destination, beach houses and hotels up and down the Mediterranean coast. Being that it's still winter/spring, the whole place was deserted. Think we were the only ones in the hotel (which was brand new). Didn't take away from the amazing beachfront view though.

egypt | marsa matrouh

OK, now on to Libya. Our hotel in Susa is all right. Also brand new (tourism is new here), but very stark. When I'm in a good mood, I think of how much worse it could be. When I'm in a bad mood, it feels like a prison and I want to cry. The walls are sterile white, very little adornment. It's so empty, the room echoes. You can hear every noise in the hall and from adjacent rooms. The winds are so loud outside, it's howling clear across my room to the door. Something smells in the bathroom. Fridge is empty. Dim, dank lighting. But, the bed is comfy and has a fuzzy blankie like mine at home. Food is ehh, but they compensate with dessert.

cyrene_theater.jpg

Today we spent all day at Cyrene, a vast Greek/Roman complex. A whole city, really. Beautiful mosaics, fantastic sculpture (now in the on-site museum). My favorite aspect of the site, however, was the presence of nature. It's like an open-air museum, you can climb all up on the ruins (which you could NEVER do in the States or even Europe). Grass and wildflowers and trees have just grown up and around the rubble, simply taking back their natural land. I love when nature wins.

cyrene_city.jpg

cyrene_naval.JPG

To add to that, we had a wildlife element. Here we are, touring millenia-old historic sites, and we turn a corner, and there's a cow. Just hanging out, chewing on some grass. Cows roam freely about the site, a natural lawn-mowing service. I saw a turtle ambling through the brush, too.

cyrene_cow2.JPG

Our guide at the site, a Libyan man, worked on the initial Italian excavations for twelve years, beginning in 1970. Really interesting guy, excellent English (which he spoke with an Italian accent).

Lunch was good. Couscous and veggies. Here is where Libya wins: Our bus here (after trading in the shack on wheels that plucked us from the border) is so much better than the one in Egypt. It's like being on an airplane, in Economy Plus.

OK, sleepytime.
(read: my hand hurts from writing.)

return of the internet!

Wednesday, March 22
7:16 am CST
3:16 pm, Tripoli, Libya

Well kids, I'm in Libya. The past three nights before Tripoli were spent in a town called Susa, in the eastern part of the country. The Libyan equivalent of the sticks from what I observed. Nothing, anywhere, for miles. Stunning scenery along the Mediterranean though. I wrote out a few entries about those sites (by hand, as my computer is dying and I'm afraid of Libyan voltage), which I'll transcribe later tonight.

sallum1.JPG

The actual entry into Libya was more or less anticlimactic. Took us about two and half hours to cross the border on Saturday. What we crossed into was perhaps the most godforsaken land I've ever laid eyes on, exacerbated by the fact that we were driving right into a sandstorm. Hot, sandy, fierce winds blowing over barren, desolate desert. There was a collective drop in enthusiasm around the bus, as I'm sure we were all thinking, "what the f&*k are we doing here??"

border_storm.JPG

Things could only get better from there, and they have. More to come later. Now: a visit to a few mosques, walk through the old town of Tripoli, and a shopping trip to the bazaars!

P.S. The Corinthia Bab Africa is the nicest hotel I have ever been in, and will probably ever be in, in my life. If the dark chocolate on the pillow wasn't enough, the free internet sealed the deal.

tripoli | corinthia hotel

16 March 2006

Almost forgot!

10:08 pm Egypt

One of the women I sat with at dinner tonight, who I hadn't had a chance to really talk to yet, is a lawyer who works with the Special Victims Unit in New York City.

I think my eyes bulged a little when she casually dropped that bomb. I hope my cellphone goes off when she's around. (Yep, it's the L&O theme song...)

Stabbing Westward

Thursday, March 16
1:02 pm CST
9:02 pm Alexandria

I went to dinner. But, it was a buffet so I could quietly exercise my right not to gorge. Hard to resist the dessert table though, especially after getting cheated out of ice cream earlier today.

Well, this is the last night in Alexandria. Have to pack everything up, again. Five-thirty wake-up call tomorrow.

This is also possibly the last time I’ll have internet access. We start our drive towards Libya tomorrow, stopping at El Alamein (site of a decisive WWII battle, I’m stoked for that) en route to Marsa Metrouh for a night’s rest before the border crossing sometime Saturday. No idea what the internet situation, or any situation for that matter, will be like over there. I’ll take notes and tell you all about it in April.

tisbah al-khayr!

P.S. I wish foreign words were admissible in Scrabble: Arabic’s got a shitload of Q with no U words.

I am so sick of eating.

Thursday, March 16
10:27 am CST
6:27 pm Alexandria

Another huge lunch, at the same place actually, just upstairs in the “fish” restaurant (yesterday was the “chicken” restaurant). I thought I had escaped the onslaught by denying the fish to two different waiters, left to munch on mezze (appetizers like hummous, baba ghanouj). Nope. Just as I finished my meal’s worth, the head waiter comes out with a big bowl of pasta, followed by another waiter with a plate of French fries. A vegetarian meal here apparently consists of every dish on the menu sans meat. I intentionally skipped breakfast this morning because I was grossly overstuffed from last night when it was a plate of steamed veggies and rice, spaghetti in tomato sauce, and fries – on top of the soup and mezze everyone else had! Then I get skimped on dessert because they think I don’t eat dairy, so while everyone had ice cream, I got fruit. Probably for the best. I must have gained ten pounds already, despite all the walking. Thinking about skipping dinner tonight and just ordering soup to my room.

Our day ended a little early today, a welcome change. Bus rolled up to the hotel around 4 pm. Unfortunately there really isn’t much to do around our hotel. We’re at the very end of the strip, the Corniche, bound on either side by more hotels or apartments buildings. No shopping. I’ve yet to really experience an Egyptian bazaar. Souvenirs will have to wait for Libya, though I heard shopping kind of blows there, too. There MUST be Qaddafi crap.

First stop was the catacombs of Kom el-Shugafa, a huge burial complex with some fantastic carved and painted tomb decorations. The chambers go on and on, for multiple levels, one room leading to yet another. You could get super lost in there. We weren’t allowed to. (I wasn’t wearing proper exploring shoes, anyway.) Photos were not allowed inside, so I bought a book with some nice shots.

egypt | alexandria, guard at pompey's pillar

Then we went to Pompey’s Pillar a few kilometers away. It’s a big slab of pink granite about 30m tall surrounded by a couple of sphinxes. I think Heroes’ Square in Budapest is much more impressive. This was a bit boring, like someone just put up a tall column. There isn’t much decoration on the column itself. The pillar is actually a monument for Diocletian, not Pompey. (My Egyptian and Greco-Roman history knowledge has quadrupled on this trip.)

alexandria_library3.JPG

THEN, we got to go the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the new library “inspired” by the great library of yore/lore. Just opened in 2002 in a really neat round building that has letters from 120 languages, ancient and modern, from around the world etched into its outer façade. It’s part of Alexandria’s revitalization project. (Trying to regain its status as a world cultural center.) Our tour guide spat out dozens of little factoids, most of which I remember but probably don’t need to clog up this space with.

alexandria_library1.JPG

The reading room is seven storeys and awesome. Lots of natural light. Perhaps the Norwegian architect wanted to make good use of that precious natural resource that his country lacks half the year. I would never get any work done in there, though.

We already talked about lunch.

After lunch, we only had one site left, Kom el-Dikka. There’s a Roman Odeon with the “sweet spot” still in tact. When you speak from the center stone your voice echoes perfectly through the theatre. Sounds a bit like when you’re speaking into a telephone receiver and you hear your voice echo back at you. (Or what you finally realize is your voice…) While I tested out the acoustics to confirm this, I refrained from exclaiming, “Are you not entertained?!?” Saving that one for the Libyan amphitheatre. The site also had a mosaic museum, called The Villa of the Birds, and some more artifacts that have been excavated from Alexandria’s Eastern Harbor. Water erosion is creepy, faces just melt off.

egypt | alexandria, kom al-dikka

Oof. It’s almost time for dinner and I can still taste lunch. What to do… I should go socialize for a bit, given that I’m working and all. Hisham keeps covering my bar tab so maybe I’ll take advantage of that while I still can: no alcohol in Libya!

15 March 2006

footnotes, addendum, etc

Wednesday, March 15
1:41 pm CST
9:41 pm Egypt, Alexandria

i'm mostly writing these entries on the bus, on the go, so i'm not too keen on spell checking. hanging up my grammar police hat for this one.

also, all the photos are uploaded at low-res so i don't exceed my bandwidth. so they look really crappy, but trust me they're only a little crappy. hi-res full photo album (over 600 already...) will come once i get back home.

i just ate a five-course meal and i wasn't even hungry. egyptians take it personal when you don't finish what's on your plate.

amazing alex

Wednesday, March 15
9:50 am CST
5:50 pm Egypt, Alexandria

I know I've well exceeded my limit on the use of the word "amazing" to describe something. But, it just is! I suppose you could easily insert awesome, stunning, breathtaking, cool, neat, etc at any point.

i'm sitting on my balcony watching and hearing the waves crash ashore, and it's amazing. I've taken the same photo at least ten times. It's a view, but more a feeling, that I don't want to forget. Something about being in Alexandria. This city is oozing with history, you can (well I can) just sort of feel it in the air, yet its odd in its lack of physical proof. What city is more fabled than the legendary Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great, stage of the Cleopatra, Caesar, and Antony saga, home of the world-wonder lighthouse and the greatest library in the ancient world? But there's virtually no remaining evidence of any of it, and what does remain lies at the bottom of the harbor. Except for this statue of Isis, recently brought up fom the depths and believed to be from Cleopatra's Palace:

alex_isis.JPG

There is totally different vibe in this city from Cairo. I wouldn't even know they were in the same country. On the whole, Alex is more, for lack of a better word, cosmopolitan. Cleaner, by far. I actually saw trash bins. More orderly, less overt poverty, though I did see homeless for the first time. (I think everything is run down enough and everyone is moving so fast in Cairo that you can't tell.) The walkway along the sea is awesome. Alex is a very long city, not very deep, so the bulk of the development is just off the shore. Five million people live here. Another six million show up in the summertime to escape the heat of Cairo and cities further south. It also rains here, which helps to clean up the streets, which are paved, not dirt.

alexandria | along the corniche

We started the day at the Fort of Qaitbey, which is believed to be the site of the Great Lighthouse. Well, let's back up a smidge. After a lovely sunrise, the skies turned the most fantastic shade of blue; pure cerulean, not a cloud in sight. The drive to the fort took us right along the shore line and through centuries of architecture. The fort is a bright beige stone that just GLOWED against the blue sky. It was pretty cool in an of itself, but the building and the views out into the harbor and around the whole city were just, well, amazing.

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As usual though, it was the people around the site that made it memorable. There were dozens of schoolkids running around the fort, probably on a field trip. They all shouted out hellos to us, and tested their one phrase in English, "what is your name?" The more advanced of the group delved even further with, "where are you from?", "how old are you?", and --yet again -- "are you married?" Like my own attempts at throwing out a phrase or two of a totally foreign language, they did not understand any response beyond yes or no. They all knew the word for camera though. Hams, all of them! Kids are kids are kids, no matter where you go. I got a lot of really cute shots of them all, cuz of course as soon as one kid started to pose they all came a-runnin'.

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alexandria | qaitbey kids

After the fort, we went to a tomb (the first of many...), this one was the Necropolis of Anfushi, 300 BC or so. Pretty neat stuff, death's not really my thing though. What was intriguing is that we saw that the fine art of trompe l'oeuil, or its current incarnation as "faux finish", is by far not a modern innovation. The folks designing this tomb were a little short on marble and other fine stones, so they just painted the rock they had to look all fancy. What's even more interesting, is that in this particular tomb, the faux finishers were not even the first to come up with that idea: they painted over an even earlier wall pattern lined to look like rectangular slabs of granite.

The National Museum of Alexandria was next. Very well labeled in contrast with the Cairo Museum. Also housed the bust of Akhenaten that I find so striking. I didn't know it was there, so that was a bonus. Bought the catalog.

alexandria | akhenaten

Again, made friends with the Egyptian schoolchildren outside. (Oh, that's their other stock phrase: "I am Egyptian.") Took a few more photos of the kids posing with some of our people on the tour. One of the girls spoke impeccable English, asked us the usual questions and went on to welcome us to Egypt and wish us a good journey. She asked for my email address, which I responded to with a total blank look cuz I had no idea what she was saying. How often does a 10 year-old Egyptian girl ask for your email address? And she pronounced it, "emmel". I ended up giving it to her once I deciphered the request. It'd be cute if she wrote, my little Egyptian email pal. (Is that creepy?)

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My little friend is the older girl in the pink sweater

Lunch was three courses of pure indulgence. Just as I was nearing the unbuttoning point from the main course, out came the dessert cart. Yes, cart. At lunch. There's a patisserie just next door to the restaurant, and they deliver. Profiterol in dark chocolate sauce, holy crap.

The rest of the afternoon was taken up by tomb after tomb after tomb BUT, and this is where I got kinda into it, we made a little side trip, not on the agenda, not advertised to the public, not even open (more paper persuasion) to a tomb that may, according to reputable sources based on logical assumptions, be the proposed tomb of Mr. Alexander the Great himself. It's a phenomonal structure of solid, as in one piece, fine alabaster, located just on the outskirts of an Italian Christian cemetery where some texts indicate he may have been laid to rest.

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There is no way to prove the hypothesis right or wrong. The evidence put forth by the proponents of the theory posits that, because of the extremely fine and high quality nature of the material used for the tomb, the fact that the stone was hauled up 900 miles to Alex from the area of Luxor, and the general story about his death and subsequent burial, this is a tomb that most *certainly* housed a person of great stature for all of eternity, and *possibly* could have been the man himself given all the location and other variables. Pretty effin cool, eh? The tomb sits in a little backlot overrun with weeds. No one goes there.

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View from the bus: Fishermen walking along the Corniche at sunset

So now, back at the hotel, watching the sun set over the Mediterranean. I love the sound of waves. Missing all of the people I wish could be here to see this, too. I don't get the feeling of the trip flying by, which is good and bad. I was told once I reach "hump day" (halfway point), time will fly. I say, that may be the case usually, but we will be in the Libyan desert at that point, and after three weeks away from home, camping in the sand might be the last thing anyone wants to do. I'm taking bets on who in the group is going to break first.

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