Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Day 11: 2nd Day at Alexandria

Today I was feeling alot better and feel like I am able to endure the day long tour of Alexandria. First stop was the Roman catacombs and I thought it was awesome. Felt like I was a character in Diablo! I have to say I enjoy Roman architecture more than Egyptian. There is just something about white columns that attracts me. As well, apparently they also bury the horses with famous generals in the catacombs!

After the catacombs, we went to Pompey's pillar and the Roman theater. And also went to the library of Alexandria. The story behind Pompey's pillar is pretty interesting. Apparently there used to be 400 pillars at the site (instead of just one). The other 399 pillars were moved from this site and placed at the bottom of the sea to prevent ships from getting close to Alexandria way back when there was a war.

The library of Alexandria is supposedly this super library back in the day (this super library burned down hundreds of years ago), so they built a new one in 2002. And well, it looks just like the Toronto Public Library! The most modern structure yet in Egypt! Almost felt like I was home. One interesting thought is that they could change the sloped ceiling from windows into solar panels. A guide had thought of the library had thought of this before, but they dismissed her idea as too costly... but I think it's definitely doable!

For lunch we had seafood for 60 EGP, not too good a price until I realized it's equivalent to $10 USD!!! We had salad, soup, shrimp, calamari, fresh fish and blood orange... not too shabby!

After lunch, we got stuck in traffic for 2 hours. Then went to play soccer with the locals on the beach. Result: 10 minutes, Team Canada 5, Team Egypt 0! We whipped those kids' butt good! haha! We got applause (and standing ovation...since there were no seats at the beach) from people who stopped to watch the game. lol!

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