Old stuff, mummies, lovely Alexandria 10/28/18
We had a yummy breakfast again, my favorite meal of the day. We first walked through Tahrir Square (Liberation Square). Not much to see, just to know this was the location of the revolution that unseated Mubarak. We finally got our chance to cross the streets which was terrifying. One time we followed a policeman as we played frogger. Other times we were able to cross ourselves (when there wasn't much traffic), or have some old ladies be the first line of sight for the zooming cars. Then we went to the Egyptian Museum. We walked through the different dynasties of Egyptians including some Roman sculptures. We saw colorful tombs, sarcophaguses where royalty placed after mummification, jewelry, giant stone structures with hieroglyphics, and the coolest part were the mummies. The mummies of pharaohs were really amazing. You could see the nails on their fingers and toes, teeth (some had really good teeth), skin (even eyelids), and even hair (some brown, some golden- white hair that was colored during the mummification process using a turpentine solution). We also saw animals mummies. Some were pets, other animals were raised and killed only to be placed in the coffins to protect the pharaohs in the afterlife (their necks were snapped showing they were not pets).
Back at the Steigenberger to check out by noon. We walked to the metro to go to the train station. Sunday is the busiest day of the week since most people don't work or have school. A taxi would have taken 30 min instead of the normal 10. The metro was at Tahrir Square and so easy and super cheap. One yellow ticket gets you through the turnstiles for anywhere you want to go, it's a one-way ticket. It's easy to navigate and go across the city. It took us right to the train station in Cairo and only took 10 min. The locals looked at us puzzling. I guess not a lot of tourists take the metro.
We had to put our backpacks through the scanner, like you do with every building, to get into the station. The officer didn't know English, but he didn't like the knife in Andy's bag, so he was making a sawing motion trying to communicate. It's Andy really nice, small, sharp knife. I was worried he wasn't going to let us take it for whatever reason. Andy had to put his bag through again, but first he had to get back through the metal detector. There was a line of people constantly coming through, there was no break. Andy decided to push several guys back and out of the way to get through. I thought he was going to break the detector. The policeman just laughed. That's what you have to do around here, push your way.
We got into the station. It's a beautiful station inside. Someone pointed us to the ticket counter as we looked lost. It's just outside the center and not easy to see. We bought two tickets to Alexandria for just $8. We had time to spare so we grabbed some KFC for lunch. We waited for the sign to let us know which platform the train was on to change back to English from Arabic about every 30 seconds. It didn't really help since none of the platforms are labeled. With the help of some strangers and another policeman, we found the right train. The other trains were old, really old, and rusted. Our train was a bit newer. We got the VIP tickets. Not sure what that means, but our seats were roomy, assigned, and there was plenty of aircon. The ride was supposed to take 3 hours but it only took 2.5. We arrived in Alexandria at 4:30. We opted to take a cab for $5 instead of the hotel's Mercedes E200 for $30 (per their email).
We drove down the road that goes along the beach to the hotel. This city is much more relaxed than Cairo, restaurants and shops along the strip. I let Andy pick the hotel this time. He picked the freakin Four Seasons. Yep, for 2 nights were are living it up. This hotel is ridiculous. We hit up the pool immediately. Then dinner and relaxation to wrap up our trip. I could get used to this.
