AlexandriaVisiting modern Alexandria is like opening a novel near the end and randomly reading a page . It cannot really be appreciated without knowing what went before. Of course one can enjoy it at face value; the smell of sea and exhaust, the view of the crescent harbour,

the morning and evening sun pinking the cream buildings along the waterfront for miles, the stroll along the Corniche with crowds of Alexandrians, the taste of fresh seafood, the exploration of narrow streets, the grandness of wide boulevards, the architecture of the new library, the feel of autumn weather on the Mediterranean. But there is constant allusion to previous events and you really feel like you have missed the best part of the story if you don’t flip back to the beginning of the novel and catch-up.

Ancient Alexander is described by the Lonely Planet guide book as ‘almost as intangible as Atlantis…a place of legendary status connected to half remembered tales of Cleopatra, the Seven Wonders and the great library.’ The city captures the imagination, sending it back and forward in time, fascinated by the different faces that Alexandria has worn during the centuries since its founding by Alexander the Great in 331BC. While the streets of Atlantis are currently unavailable for exploration, Alexandria has not fallen into the sea –yet.

As we sat one evening at the window of an upstairs restaurant looking out at the lights of the city curving around the dark water of the harbour, I imagined watching the lights melt away as time turned backwards through Egyptian independence, English occupation, Napoleon’s landing, Ottoman-Turkish rule, Arab conquest, the rise of Christianity, Roman times, back to the Greek Pharaohs; the ancient city where the lights were few and the lighthouse bright. The city shrinks and grows as her outskirts, walls and population ebb and flow with the fortunes of the times.
Later that evening while drinking tea out of a glass cup, the taste of the fresh sprigs of mint and sweetness of sugar in my mouth, I read Harry E. Tzalas, a Greek Alexandrian describe the resurrection of the city:‘Like dreams where anything is possible, the modern works of man are erased and the neighbourhoods of the past re-emerge…Great mosaics made up of priceless stones taken from generation after generation, and yet perfectly matching. The district of Brucheion is unconcerned by the presence of the Basilica of Saint Athanasios or the Serapeum rubbing shoulders with the Mosque of Omar, the steeples and the minarets in the neighbourhood of the Museion, the Timonium, the Caesareum, the Arsinoion. They were all places of worship weren’t they? They were inhabited by gods made in the image of man.
The majestic avenues of Alexandria stand alongside the narrow alleyways of the Arab city, perfectly in tune with each other, enclosed as they are by the wild sea and mellowed by the desert. This is, I say, the Alexandria searched for in vain by the foreigners who have loved and praised her without knowing her.’ from the short story Alexandrea ad Aegyptum in Farewell to Alexandria by H.E. Tzalas.

I wanted to walk Alexandria with past and the present around me all at once. I stood at the door of Qayt Bey Fort, built during Ottoman times on the site of the lighthouse, touching granite columns that were originally part of the building that rocked the ancient world and saw the Pharos, the lighthouse above, as it was before the earthquake plunged into the sea. In the streets constantly wondering if I might be standing over the ruins of the Library, the Museion, Alexanders’s Tomb, Cleopatra’s Palace or the sites of a thousand historical events and other pieces of history buried beneath the present city.

Night at the Khan al-Khalili

Cairo is a city that stays alive well into the night, especially during Ramadan when folks are up late feasting, and out visiting family and friends. Nowhere is more alive the the Khan al-Khalili, the market area that has been around since the 14th century. Each year one of the teachers from CAC books a hotel room that over looks the Khan. We joined the tradition this year and spent a few hours looking out over the chaos from our spot on the balcony.The view over Hussein Square...

Down the Alley to the left...

The Tea Shop Below...

And the rest of the tea shop to the right.We had fun watching this bread delivery guy (center with a crate full of flat bread on his head) weaving through the mayhem! Mel and Kendra enjoying the evening.

Our Lives in Cairo

It sounds so exotic, living in Cairo, Egypt!

Marc and Mel at top of the ancient city gate Bab Zuweila
The reality is that our day to day lives are really pretty "normal". We love living overseas for all the fun and different things we can experience and the lifestyle bonuses such as not needing to own a car and avoiding winter. However, the reality is we still get up, go to work, shop, cook, eat, exercise, watch TV and sleep. Since this is rather mundane, and we want you to look at our blog, we tend to fill it with the highlights of our journey.
This blog is dedicated to showing you the setting of our day to day lives in Maadi, the area of Cairo in which we live. Maadi was set up by the British and is really a haven in the crowded, noisy, busy, green less city that most of Cairo's residents experience. I hope these photos give you some context for the stories we tell of our journey.Digla Midan (even has a working fountain at night - sometimes). This is the closest landmark to our building. This is our street, Road 17. Our building is on the right close to this end of the road.
This is our building taken from the park that is in front of it. Our apartment is on the 3rd floor (which is the 2nd floor by the US way of thinking about it) and the main balcony faces this park.We love our apartment. This is our living room (before our shipment arrived and curtains were fitted). The front gate of Cairo American College. The school has a wall around it and the grounds inside are very nice and after school are used extensively by the community. See pictures of inside the grounds at the school's website, http://www.cacegypt.org/ Marc busy at work in his office at CAC.

OK so in the end it was too much for me to just post this without any fun so here is Mel at the local market. There are actually supermarkets where we buy a lot of our groceries (and we could get all there) but this is too much interesting not to be part of.

Dry goods and spice shop. They have a range of spices in drawers (behind my head) as well as big bins of rice, lentils, flour etc. They also have a good range of nuts and dried fruit. You buy by weight.

Local small animal and bird butcher. You choose it from the cage and watch them prepare it for you on the spot. There are chickens, ducks, rabbits, pigeons and turkeys.

A section of the local fruit and vegetable market. Lots of great produce to choose from.