Parks, palaces and open excavations!!

Now my Monday in Alexandria wasn't all the grand. We spent the day in the apartment sleeping and watching the beach. Seriously, I could like this living just off the beach. Its quite relaxing. And you fell as if you have no worries ever. But really I know this isn't how life really is. Just watching my uncle run around and working makes me happy I'm only visiting and not living there.

My evening was a it better. My brother and I went out with our cousin. My cousin, decided that we needed to get out of the house. So we were off to the club that he is a part of. Really this isn't all that fascinating because all we did was sit and talk and drink tea till the wee hours of the morning. While I was there I spent time with his wife and two daughters. And I had ice cream. I was like yay ice cream. The weather that day was just so hot. As soon as we stepped out of the ice cream store, the ice cream melted. So, instead of eating the ice cream, we were covered in it. It was an interesting site to behold. I'm a fan of ice creamy hands...but not really. Yet, before all this happened, I should say that his sister drove us over. My brother and I had to sit in her car with he three crazy kids. My brother was lucky, he managed to escape them somewhat. He sat in the front and I sat in the back with all three of them. Their mom only recently learned how to drive. So not only was she scared of driving, she didn't know how to check and see how things with her kids were going. So it made for a horrible ride. The eldest daughter of hers, is somewhat sane. She didn't really do anything. It was her younger brother and sister. Her brother decided that whenever my brother or I spoke English, he was going to say the exact same things we did. We managed to get past this really quickly by talking too fast that he couldn't get his mouth arounds the word. The youngest kid was the worst. I have never seen that much energy in any 6 year old. The kid is a monster. She sat and punched and kicked and pulled my hair and jumped around in the back seat. I finally got mad, nearly smacked her and then told her that she was really disrespectful to her aunt, which is me. All younger cousins call me aunt. Makes me feel so old. But its tolerable, they call my brother uncle. So I can deal with it. Then when we arrived at the club I run to my cousin and was like save me. And so he took me for a drive. He was like lets go see if the palace is open. It wasn't. Turns out it closes at 4:30 and it was much later then that when we decided to go. Then he was like lets go see if the Greek museum is open. So we were off to that. When we got there we were a little saddened by the news that was given to us by the guard. Turns out the mayor decided that it was time to do some major renovations on the place. So it was going to be closed for 2 years. I was very saddened. After those 2 disappointments we decided that maybe it was better if we just went to the club. So we did and sat there for hours and hours. Grand fun. Until the wind got so cold that I developed goosebumps.

On the drive home, we decided that the next day we didn't want to spend indoors. So we schemed as to what there was to do. And the plans that arose were awesome. Thus once we got home, it was off to bed so that we could get an early start the next day. Yet, that early start wasn't to be expected. THis is due to the fact that I oke up at 10:30 instead of 8:30. But really it was all good because my cousin didn't show up until noon. We left as soon as he arrived to head to our first destination of the day. It took us an hour to get there instead of twenty minutes because of traffic. But really I didn't care because we drove along the coast. Which I must say is amazing due to the wind that comes off the sea and the smell of the water. In fact I enjoyed this ride throughly that it was the only way anyone would travel while I was in the car after this moment.

After this hour long ride, I was at the citedal of Quitbay, which I was told was a palace but it really was just a defensive tower during the war. This tower was used to attack the enemy ships as they attempted to enter Alexandria. But yes, now this little citadel is longer in use and is just a tourist attraction. I'd have to say it was one of the best places I've been to so far. I think this has to do with the fact that it was empty on the inside and we got to do whatever we wanted to and not have to worry about breaking something. We spent two hours running around the citadel and looking into every little nook and cranny. It was grand fun. I don't think my cousin thought this though. This is because while we were in there my brother would run in one direction and I would go in the other. Then he would stand in the middle of the two directions that we took off in and yell I can't follow both of you at once. Another of the incidents that happened there was that I found this window that was a foot of the ground and the top was about 3 feet from the bottom part of the window. Once I found this window, I decided to sit in it and wait and see what would happen. Turns out my brother and cousin couldn't see this window from their hieght. They walked past me a few times while calling my name. After watching them walk past three times, I couldn't help but giggle. Thus, my awesome little hiding place was discovered. I was saddened by this. As we were leaving the citadel after two hours of wandering around my cousin pointed out to me that that was the longest he had ever been in that place. He said the citizens only really go for half an hour and then leave. And then he said that he was shocked about spending that much time in there. All I could tell him it was my first time being there and I had to investigate and wander around the whole thing in order to be satisfied by my visit there. In fact I probably would have stayed longer had we not had somewhere else we had to be that day.

My next stop was going to be the jewelry museum. Yet, upon arrival to this museum I was lead to disappointment. This disappoint was because just like the Greek museum they were renovating it and this renovation process was going to take even longer. This is because the Greek museum is only being renovated on the inside. While the jewelry museum is being renovated on this inside and the outside. in fact they took the walls off on the outside so the building looked like a gutted out skeleton. This caused us to have to resort to plan 'b'. I'm a fan of plan b. In fact I wanted plan b to be plan a but my brother wanted the jewelry museum. So he got what he wanted seeing as how I picked the citadel. But ultimately in the end I did get my way. I'm rather on the spoiled side. Even when it is unintentionally being spoiled.

After the disappointment of the museum being closed we left. The plan b scheme was to go to a Roman theatre that had just been excavated. along with the theatre was the gymnasium where they were taught, the bath house and the villa that was still under excavation but open to the public at certan points during the day. I was in pure heaven. I wandered around and played. We tested the acoustics of the theatre, which to me were amazing. Just being able to experience how well it was and just being able to walk through the theatre was mind blowing. I spend numerous classes just studying the architecture that finally getting to see some of it made all those hours spent studying worthwhile. Not only did I walk through the theatre I walked through the villa and the bath house. As I walked through the area, I was able to tell my cousin and brother what was happening in all the areas, what the things in the area were used for and how it was excavated. I think this is one of the few times in my life, maybe the only one, that I'll be able to use my Anthropolgy and Classics degree. I was impressed with myself.

Once we were done, after being there for 2 hours, we were off to my cousins house for a late lunch. Spent a few hours there and managed to talk to my mom for the first time in a few days. Which for me was awesome. After we were done talking and having lunch, I left and went back to the apartment to get some sleep from the long day of awesomeness. Once again on the drive home my cousin and I schemed as to what we would do next. Tragically because all the museums were closed we were very limited. But there were still more adventures to be had.