Under the agreement that Isis wrung out of her hotel, I had the room until 6 am. This was not the best timing, but on the other hand, it meant that I would be up and out to do something with my remaining time in Egypt bright and early. So I got up as agreed and left. I asked how best to get to Alexandria. The guy at the desk told me that it was cold there and it was probably not a good idea to go. I don't know why everyone keeps telling me these sorts of things. First of all, I have a different conception of what is cold. I probably wouldn't agree with them. Secondly, I WANT TO GO, so stop trying to convince me otherwise. Listening to all these people tell me what I ought to do and how led me to being fairly disappointed in my activities to date, so I wasn't about to listen. He gave up trying to convince me not to go, and it was eventually worked out that the best option was to take the train to Alexandria. I made sure that there were no disruptions to the service. Like he was talking to a child, he explained that it was a different line and there were no disruptions. I really dislike when people talk to me like that so, like I was talking to a child, I told him that trains running in the direction away from the disruption at Dandara were also disrupted when they had no reason to be, so I was just making sure.
He also got a tongue lashing when I paid him for the room. He had told me he wanted 20 dollars, and I gave him 120 pounds, according to the prevailing exchange rate. He gave a small laugh as he said, in a voice that rang with incredulity, that I got it right. Well, it's not effing difficult, bozo. I informed him that tourists are not stupid and he really shouldn't laugh like that at his guests. It tends to annoy. He backtracked a bit and tried to apologize. He explained that many tourists came to his hotel after weeks in the country and didn't know the conversion rates. I let him know that not all tourists are like that. And I let him know that the customer service focus in the country would need to change if they expected to gain tourists back after the trouble. He was nonplussed about my rebuke, but he didn't say much. I was perhaps a bit harsh with him, but it really is annoying to feel treated that way. I do realize that there are lots of stupid tourists who are used to having everything done for them, but we are not all like that. Grrr...
I went out and rode the subway for far longer than I needed to in order to find the station at the train depot. I had been looking for Mubarak subway station, which I realized later was foolish. With Mubarak having been ousted and angrily so, it only occurred to me after I got the former Mubarak station, that the name had obviously and with good reason been changed. I was on a train by about 8:30 and on the way to Alexandria.
It is difficult to deal with trains here in some ways. There is no reason for them to do so, but there is very little English signage. So it is hard to find the correct track and train, when I have a ticket with tiny little Arabic letters and big English letters on it, trying to match those tiny little letters to the boards around the station. I really do want to learn to at least read Arabic before I return to the area, so that I can function more on my own, without having to rely on strangers to help me out.
After arriving in Alexandria, I went to the tourist information office in the train station. They were very nice and helped direct me to the hotel I had read about on the internet. They also gave me an information pamphlet about Egypt that I wish I had had a week and half ago. I saw all kinds of things and places that sound interesting. They will be good for a future visit.
I headed out more or less in the direction of the hotel and eventually stumbled across it. The Acropole Hotel, right near the waterfront, is very nice and friendly. It had a nice atmosphere and they were very helpful when I asked directions to various spots.
Alexandria was one of Alexander the Great's contributions to world cities. He actually built many Alexandria's and this one in Egypt was one of the greatest. He made it the capital of Egypt, and today it is still an important port and city in Egypt. It is the country's second largest city at 4 million people and is arranged along the northern coast of Egypt and to the west of the Nile delta.
The first spot I wanted to visit was the Alexandria Library. Alexandria was the location of one the ancient world's best libraries. It was said to hold the world's largest collection of scrolls and knowledge in the Greek world. It probably also held plenty of stuff from the Arab world as well, but nobody will ever know for sure. Somewhere along the way the library was destroyed. (I don't remember if it was sacked or if it was accidental or a natural disaster of some sort.) Along with it went untold riches of knowledge.
Recently, the library was brought back to life. A competition was held to design a new library. From all the submissions from around the world, the new library's design was chosen. It was quite striking.
There is apparently some kind of move to close the library by some politician. I couldn't read the Arabic on the signs, but there was a message in English everywhere. It was, “Save Our Library!” And there were posters everywhere with the opposing guy's face on it and big X's over his face. I think there may be a vote soon on the future of the library. I wish them luck saving the library. Something that beautiful shouldn't be closed and dismantled.
I went to the ticket booth and bought a ticket. It was only a dollar and a half (much less for locals), but I still found it a bit sad that a country would make an entrance fee to visit a library that ought to be public. Nevertheless, I was pleased with the way the inside looked as well. It was definitely a nice building.
They also have one of the only mirrors of the internet in the world. Somewhere in California is a complete archive of the internet compiled from 1996. There is a copy of every webpage ever made since that time. And it is stored on some kind of storage system in California. There are a couple of backup copies in the world, and one of those is in the library at Alexandria. Their sign says it is the only complete archive copy in the world. Of course, it also says that it holds the archive from the time of 1996 to 2007. It has been a little while since then, so maybe it's not quite complete. But it is still impressive. The room is huge!!! Part of my entrance ticket included two museums that were located under the library. They were accessed by exiting the library and going down outside. So after updating my Facebook status while in the library, which I thought was very cool, I headed out and into the museums. I couldn't take photos in there, but the first one was interesting. It was an antiquities museum. It contained a lot of Egyptian and Greek and Roman artefacts. There were a lot of statues and even some recently unearthed pieces of the original library. There were some incredible mosaics that had been part of the library floor. They were quite amazing.
There was also a section on the artefacts that have been found on the floor of the Mediterranean Sea along the Alexandria waterfront. Recent explorations have turned up an incredible trove of ancient treasures from statues and other carvings to actual treasure in the form of gold and silver jewellery and coins. And there is so much more waiting out there to be discovered.
The other museum I kind of wish I hadn't added. It was a manuscript museum. I'm sure some would find it interesting. And some of the books were very old, up 1200 and 1300 years old. But to me they were just old books. And not very interesting ones either. Oh well.
Having finished up with the library, I headed back to the hotel to get some rest. The previous two nights had been too short for me with the lack of sleep on the train, and then having to get up at six that morning after Isis' deal that she had reached. It had been a long day, but Alexandria felt like a great city and it just acted lots friendlier. I was happy to be there and in defiance of all the people who said I shouldn't bother with it.
No comments:
Post a Comment