John and I spent Saturday exploring Alexandria in more detail. First we walked a couple of blocks to the Graeco-Roman Museum, which I cannot honestly recommend to anyone because of its dilapidated appearance and very poor labelling.

They have various statues (or parts thereof) and pots and all the usual things one might expect from a museum but the presentation is lousy and uninspiring. Why anyone would find ancient history or archaeology at all interesting after a visit to the museum is beyond me. The most interesting thing in the museum is a full-sized mummified crocodile, but there is also a giant statue of a bull (the god Serapis) and some beautiful pieces of glass (though poorly shown).

I highly recommend visiting the much more interesting catacombs across town. In ancient times they dug these shafts and tunnels and niches down a hundred feet or so and made spaces for some 300 people to find final resting places. The place looks like an Indiana Jones setting of some sort, and provides for a great time exploring. It's too bad the bottom level lies below the water table!


Main burial chamber in the catacombs

We caught a "SuperJet" bus back to Cairo -- literally getting the last three seats -- and cruised in relative comfort compared to the minivan, although it costs three times as much. Perhaps that's to pay for the attendant who sold refreshments aboard.

Riding and walking about Alexandria brings one face to face with the practially indescribable. I'll just string a whole bunch of thoughts together free-style and you can get an idea of what stuck in my mind: good, bad or otherwise. Perhaps walking through certain parts of south central LA would bring out these same views, but I think some of it would remain a great deal different. The language barrier would, for certain.

Choking diesel smoke and other vehicle exhaust no matter where you go. Vehicles and pedestrians merge and zoom and just all somehow manage to go en masse mixing and mingling without incident. Cafe after cafe with men of all ages smoking with big water pipes (but their smoke smells nice: it comes in many kinds of sweet flavors like apple and Coca-Cola -- really!). Store after store and one sidewalk display after another of junk -- not tourist stuff, but various cheap trinkets and cheap plastic household gadgets like one might find in the "all for a dollar store."

Tubelights everywhere, tacky though they be. Poverty in places, and lots of run-down dirty crumbling junk-filled buildings. Other structures that people obviously live in that overhang the street as in the Middle Ages, bedecked with laundry. The sounds of prayer calls. Women often in completely black outfits head to toe except for an eye slit, but always dressed modestly. Odors and aromas of food being cooked and served on the side streets. NOISE of horns and brakes and trams.

Donkeys pulling cars that carry most anything from fresh fruit to steel pipes. Boys without shoes pushing other carts with the same sorts of things on them. No one cleaning up after the donkeys. Blue-lighted ambulances blaring sirens, and no one moving for them. Men arm in arm with other men, and women likewise -- not because they're gay, but just because they're friends and they hang out together.

A shivering little dog in a wall niche along the sidewalk, intimidated by all the people and traffic rushing by. I feel immensely sad for it and regret that the image is going to be one that sticks with me for this trip. Kids who say "hallooo" and stick out a hand or give a tap on the hip for money. Taxi drivers constantly soliciting our business. Filth everywhere, litter, and smells to go with it.

I give up. Too hard to put into words. And of all of this, not a single photo. Way too hard to bring out a camera and try to capture this in pixels. It would never work, in the first place, and in the second it would draw conspicuous attention, which I do not desire. Had I a good zoom lens it might be possible to get some of this. Perhaps I will brave it in Cairo later. But it's a reason to travel, and I would have to define it as culture shock. Everyone American should give it a try.

Just a few other things of note seen on the way home: mosques with minarets illuminated with neon green and purple tube lights; McDonald's restaurants with bright red and yellow Arabic signs; and a truckload of camels, who seemed relaxed as could be, reposing on their knees and gazing around them as their truck took them to market.