The Pearl of Egypt, Alexandria!

Alexandria, a pearl on the face of Egypt, shining with its remarkable and rich history of peoples, places, events, turmoil, literary works, scholars … and the list goes on. Simply put, a city of legends, known to have produced Euclid who sired geometry; Aristarchus deduced that the Earth revolved around the sun. Not to mention, the young Alexander the Great.

This piece just elaborates how I spent my time and found my visit intuitive as well as jaunting in this magical (cheesy? I know!) city. I could go on and narrate what sites to go to, how to get there and what you should do, but all that is easily available there through the tour guides in various languages. I will stick to my education, experience and views on how this was a good trip (closer to my expectations) based on the internet search I carried out before booking! (Chuckles)

If you are a cultural enthusiast, the important thing to keep in mind is, you do not necessarily have to go to Egypt only for this visit by booking cheap flights to Egypt, and you could book a flight to (say) Turkey, Lebanon or Jordan. This way you could plan multiple cities and multi-cultural experience in just a single trip. The seawall with ice cream, the western end of the Corniche, kids’ pony rides and shisha tobacco are the highlights of each night.

Alexandrians in this generation, worn out of the reminiscence for the city’s European history, try to renew this city in bits. I met a famous artist (so I heard and had read about) by the name Khalid (don’t know if this is his real name or pseudo); he runs Contemporary Arts Forum, Alexandria and believes the place is an attraction, not just for tourists, but students as well. Many have come by as tourists and left as pupils of art and history!

The 19th century saw it as the hub of commerce, particularly the cotton trade, drawing a multinational mix of Greeks, Italians, French, Jews and Levantine Arabs, who brought their languages, architecture and food. Then Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal, causing military attacks by Britain, France and Israel. In its outcome, many foreigners left or were barred from Alexandria, and the city’s cultural magnificence depreciated.

In recent years, however, preservationists and the government have taken certain pains to re-establish the city’s grandeur. The first sign of Alexandria’s renewal was the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the radiant sight in steel and glass that opened on the Corniche in 2002.

The Bibliotheca is built near the site of the original Library of Alexandria seeks out the resurrection of that lost gravestone with eight million books and an immense granite wall inscribed with what officials say are characters from all the world’s written languages. It is perhaps the ancient world’s greatest, with an unrivalled collection that included original manuscripts of Euripides, Aeschylus and Sophocles. As I mentioned earlier, I had searched the net before I left; I read that it is nothing but a Mediterranean extravagance awaiting the hungry tourists longing for a unique experience – trust me, its true!

The nearest airport from the downtown area is a couple of miles away, approx. 60 minutes drive. It serves a variety of airliners, Turkish Airways, Royal Jordanian, British Airways, Lufthansa and Emirates are a few to name. You would love it if you stayed at the Four Seasons Hotel Alexandria (San Stefano is the city’s most upscale hotel) with a luxurious spa. If your main interest lies in site-seeing, the Sofitel Cecil Hotel is the only choice. It presents a magnificent sight of the Eastern Harbor.

One more sign of the city’s revival is the splendid Four Seasons Hotel Alexandria. Opened in July, it has 9 restaurants, a large infinity pool and 118 plush, modern guest rooms, many facing the Mediterranean. In this storied city, the hotel (among other additions) reminds an emblem from the past. The Four Seasons was built on the site of the original San Stefano Hotel, once Egypt’s supreme grande dame, which was demolished in the late 1990’s.

The cappuccino from Café Trianon is worth trying! It is on the ground floor of the restored Metropole hotel, don’t forget to indulge yourself with the dessert called “om Ali” while clinging to the great views of city life and enjoy free Wi-Fi. White and Blue Restaurant a.k.a “the Greek Club” is in the Hellenic Nautical Club. A full dinner together with grilled sea bass, presented in a pleasant Egyptian manner or the Greek way, in just 120 pounds.

If you have not drawn any plans for your next trip, just add Alexandria to the list before you search around. I am visiting again this summer, the only difference is, am going with my recently added better half!