Alexandria - Beautiful City, Beautiful People.

It took about three hours for us to reach Alexandria from Port Said. The road was good and traffic lean. The presence of vast resources of natural gas in the region was evident with the sight of hundreds of outlets of burning gas all along the road, huge pipe manufacturing units, large tankers and associated industrial establishments from all over the world. In between there was some evidence of agricultural activity with large fields of date palms interspersed with mango trees.

The city of Alexaandria is the second largest city in Egypt after Cairo and stretches for about thirty two kilometres along the Mediterranean coast. Judging from what we could see, it seemed to be a  neat city, busy but not in a hurry, well populated but not congested. The city is a major tourist attraction in Egypt because of the the beautiful coastline, the five hundred years old fort and also the famous library. Since all three are in close proximity to one another the area was full of tourists both foreign and local. Boisterous but polite youngsters in groups were moving around everywhere, smoking, chattering and laughing, creating an atmosphere of happiness all over. 

Thanks largely to Bollywood (the mention of the name 'India' invariably gets the response "I love Amithab Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan")  India is very well known, appreciated and loved. Girls literally swarmed my cousine for a selfie exclaiming "Karishma Kapoor"!  

I asked these two girls, who were amongst the selfie seekers, if I could take their picture. They were thrilled. One of them snatched my phone and clicked this picture, exhibiting two classic samples of the happy, pretty faces we were seeing all around, juxtaposed with a scarecrow to ward off the evil eye!

The New Alexandria Library  2002 - built at the site which had housed the oldest library (two thousand years old but burnt down entirely during invasions of the city) in the world. It is a circular building depicting the cyclic nature of knowledge but incomplete on the right side to symbolise that knowledge is never complete and there is always scope to add to it. An eleven storied building facing west allows plenty of light but not the heat and it is sloping down to the sea level in the front symbolising spreading of knowledge to the world. 

The interior of the Library

The Quaitbay Citadel - The five hundred year old fort of Alexandria. Teeming with tourists, provides a wonderful view of the multi hued Mediterranean sea 

A view of the sea from the fort.

Another view of the sea shore which resembles Marine Drive in Mumbai. Minus the traffic and hustle and much more beautiful.

We ended our Alexandria visit with a cup of very refreshing coffee at a coffee house on the sea shore which provided a very beautiful view of the sea.

Here I am indulging in an activity I hate from the bottom of my heart. I was carried away by the flavours available on the menu for "Sheesha" - as the hookah is called here. The smokers, with the hookah in hand and their sights set at the horizon looked to be on the verge of 'Nirvana' . I was tempted to experience the feeling! It was nothing great though not unpleasant as I had expected it to be. Sorry for setting a bad example - may be it is the atmosphere at Alexandria!