Red Sea Home: Cairo Day 6: Alexandria Part 2

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Cairo Day 6: Alexandria Part 2

After leaving the fort we went to a small aquarium nearby. it was basically a dozen tanks in a little room. It was pretty good, except for the turtles. There was a large softshell turtle and a sea turtle in tanks that were way too small for them (maybe 1/4 the minimum size I would consider humane). We felt really bad for them, but we didn't really know what we could do. Since we only paid 5 pounds each to get in, I have trouble believing they make enough for expansions or anything. One of the young boys caught up to us in the Aquarium, and we tried to teach him that "I LOVE YOU MAN!" isn't a great thing to yell at strangers, much less stranger's wives.

Poor sea turtle stuck in a way too small tank.

After the aquarium, we got some "ice cream" from a nearby shop. Due to the number of kids around, the shop was packed. We only managed to order because the cashier saw us looking bewildered and helped us order. This ice cream wasn't really quite ice cream, it was kind of a mix between sherbet and ice cream. We both got multi flavored scoops and they were pretty tasty.

We then went to Pompey's Pillar, which was beautiful, especially at sunset. The pillar is a Roman triumphal column, and boy is it huge! There were some catacombs nearby, which provided us with the only real peace and quite we ever found in Egypt. We couldn't hear any of the honking horns, or bad mufflers, only the very gentle hum of some dehumidifiers. There was a big scary bull statue too!

Headless sphinx

Pillar and sphinx

Pillar over looking the city.

Steve at the base of the pillar.

View from the bottom of the pillar.

Quite large when compared to say, the moon!

Talking with more strangers. The older of the two girls was really forward and friendly, but the younger one was pretty shy.

Replica of the Apis Bull.

Steve playing around in the catacombs.

One of the two sphinxes near the pillar.

Pillar in the early evening light.

Steve poking the pillar.

Another taxi ride left us at the train station, exhausted. We wandered around until we found a bakery and got some tasty baked treats to eat for dinner. After getting on the train, we eventually found a car that wasn't cold enough to be confused with a refrigerator car, and took a snooze till we got back to Cairo. We're not even going to talk about how I had to go to the bathroom so badly, or how it was the most disgusting bathroom I've ever been in.