al-Iskandariyya

My trip to Alexandria went off without a hitch--almost. The night before we were due to leave we ate at Arabica, and in the morning, Drew discovered that he had left his bag there. His bag had a copy of his passport and his train ticket, and without a copy of his passport, he wouldn't have been able to stay at a hotel. I ended up taking the train in with just Mazin. Safa' met me at the train station and brought me back to her home. I felt nervous at first because the apartment buildings looked somewhat shabby from the outside, but the apartment was beautiful. I was so grateful that she offered me food right away because I was hungry. I met her husband and my professor's old friend, Paul (or Abdul Karim), and their young sons, Malek and Abed. Everyone was nice! It was sunny, high 70s, and breezy, so we went to Mamoura Beach. The boys rented and rode bikes while I walked with Safa' and Abdul Karim prayed. The gates to the beaches were closed because it's winter, so we hopped over a little gate and I dipped my toes in the Mediterranean! I collected some seashells too!

Afterwards we went back to their apartment and ate dinner. It was delicious! She made grape leaves stuffed with rice, artichokes stuffed with hamburger in a red sauce, khofta, pickled turnips, and rice. For dessert, I had strawberries with cinnamon. Later on that night I read parts of Matilda to Malek and went for a walk on the bridge. Abdul Karim said that when lower class Egyptians in the city married, they took photos there, and sure enough, we saw four newlywed couples.

In the morning I saw the Tombs of Mustafa Kamil. There are ruins from hundreds of years ago right around the corner from their apartment. The complex was built on top of an old Roman cemetary. Next Abdul Karim and I took a minibus to Issa, a bakery, and he bought me fateera for breakfast. It's a flexible, flaky crust with butter and sugar beaten into it. It was incredible! Then we went to a book fair and several really nice exhibits in the conference center across from the library. We took a tram to the train station, and then I came back to Cairo.