It was the first day of the post-Ramadan holiday, Eid al-Fitr, at least in Cairo. There’s some disagreement about whether Ramadan’s end can be predicted or must be declared by the relevant religious authority, but for official purposes, Eid began on the evening of 14 June and the holiday lasted 2 or maybe 3 days. Dave and I woke up early to catch our train north to Alexandria.
North? I thought we were heading south across Africa! Well, we are, but it seemed like a shame not to dip our feet in the Mediterranean while we were so close.
It’s just a 3 or 4 hour ride north, so we got to Alexandria in the hottest part of the day. From our hostel cell room we could see a kid splashing water in the street in front of his shop. You see this everywhere in Egypt, it helps with the dust and keeps the area cooler.
How do you keep cool in 42 C (108 F)? You don’t. Or you jump in the sea! We tried that, actually, but there were a bunch of idling kids acting suspicious around us so we just got our feet wet instead. But technically we were in the Med, just two oceans to go!
We put our shoes back on and hiked down the waterfront to a cafe that was getting ready to show the first Egypt World Cup game. The sun was punishing but we found a slice of shade at an outdoor table, ordered some coffee, and played some cards.
Eventually the sun caught up to our table and we got tired of the street brats harassing us. Some of them started fighting in the street, whipping another kid with their belts, until the cops showed up to break up the melee. So far, it seemed like Alexandria was full of teenage thugs.
We walked back across town and found everyone in Alexandria out in the streets, getting ready for a feast and for some reason crowding the movie theaters.
The next morning we took a train back down to Cairo for a day to catch the next train south to Aswan. The cafe in the Alexandria station is a nice place for coffee and cards…
We spent the night in another mosquito-filled hostel in Cairo, getting up early yet again to catch the train to Aswan. The “first class” car on this train was very comfortable, almost spacious. We passed the 14 hours south, through Luxor to Aswan, reading and playing cards (Shithead, again).
The first thing we noticed when we arrived in Aswan around 10:30p was how bloody hot it was. I don’t remember the exact temperature at the time, but we would soon learn how hot it got here, day after day after day. We caught one of the orange-striped “tourist” cabs to our hostel. This was a mistake, they are driven by greedy crooks who try to trick travelers into massively overpaying for short trips. We soon switched to blue-striped “normal” cabs, until we eventually wised up and started traveling like locals in hop-on/hop-off minivans and converted pickups.
Have I mentioned cats seem to secretly run Egypt? They aren’t pets, they’re wild animals living in harmony with humans.
Sure, it was midnight and we had to be up early to go to the Sudanese Consulate, but we were starving. It seemed like everything was closed still, even though Eid had passed. Confused, we wandered around and eventually found a corner store offering crisps and soda.
Next time, the Sudanese visa ordeal begins.
Dave asked me to write the following: “Dave strove off into the desert with a pack of Camels, found an oasis, and saved a pack of orphans. He was bathed by the eligible young ladies of the local village. He was then feted with an extravagant dinner celebration, given the title ‘something Arabic’, and Chris was there too.”