This weekend was full of guess what-- even MORE touring! We took a bus to Alexandria in northern Egypt, stopping on the way at a Coptic Christian monastery and getting the tour from one of the monks there. It was interesting, and very different from anything I've seen before. When we got to Alexandria we had free time because we weren't touring until the next day so we walked in the area around the hotel and found a Four Seasons Hotel, with a MALL inside of it. A five-story mall, to be exact. It was insane--we walked around for hours just to cover all the floors and we got yummy gelato. It felt nice to be in a mall and it almost felt like we were back in the United States. Apparently the malls in South Korea will put this one to shame though, according to some other people on Global. Can't wait to see those.
The next day (Saturday) we went to Qaitbey Citadel, which is a fort standing on Alexandria's Royal Harbor in the Mediterranean Sea. It's the site of the old Lighthouse of Alexandria which was one of the ancient wonders of the world, but was ruined so Qaitbey built a fort where it used to stand. This fort was one of my favorite sites so far because it reminded me of my dad (he likes to take us to see forts) and it had a gorgeous view of the sea and fun rooms everywhere to explore. And cannons. I like cannons. We took tons of pictures and I felt like we didn't have enough time there, but we headed over to the catacombs of Alexandria. They were rediscovered in the 1900s when a donkey fell into them, and they were spooky and half full of water--the third floor down into the earth is blocked off because it's entirely flooded. After this we went to see Pompey's Pillar, the only remnant of ancient Alexandria that is still intact in the city, and then to a Roman amphitheater. This was really fascinating because it is the only Roman amphitheater in Egypt and it's pretty small but there is a circle in the center that amplifies your voice through the whole theater when you stand on it. It sounds like you're in a cathedral all of a sudden when you stand there! We had a lot of fun with that. Finally, we went to the great Library of Alexandria. The original library was ancient but it burned down and they built a modern library in 2002 but it's still extremely amazing and very modern looking. The whole building was designed by a Norwegian architect to look like the rising sun and there is a planetarium next to it that, from an aerial view, is meant to look like Earth circling the sun (the library). The whole idea is pretty cool, and the library was huge and had multiple museum exhibits inside, as well as five levels of computers and books. I loved it there and I wish I had brought a book to be able to read in the Library of Alexandria. We got a lot of looks there from all of the college students and many young Egyptian girls came up and asked to take pictures with the blonde girls in our group. It was funny. After all this touring a couple of us went to the market, bought pomegranates, and ate them by the Mediterranean Sea.
Today we woke up and saw the World War II museum, the World War II cemetery, and the German memorial from WWII. It was completely new to me to learn about WWII from an Egyptian perspective!
We got back to Cairo safely and now have class tomorrow again. It's been a good and eventful weekend!