This weekend Chiara and I went to Marsa Matrouh, a town on the Mediterranean five hours away from Alex. It is a popular holiday spot for Egyptians, and we'd heard it was beautiful, so we wanted to see for ourselves. Once we got there on Saturday we were impatient to hit the beach, and decided to go to Cleopatra Beach, which is known to be the most beautiful one. Our hotel confirmed that it was possible swimming there, but they must have misunderstood our question, as the rocky shore and the rough waves render it a quite dangerous place to get in the water. Even so, Cleopatra Beach was well worth a visit, as the colour of the water is incredible: it's so unbelievably blue.
The problem was just that after 10 minutes of taking pictures and admiring the view, there wasn't much more to do there, and our taxi would not come back to pick us up in three hours yet. We had of course not managed to save the number of the taxi driver, and no other taxi was in sight. Pretty much the only other vehicle we could see was a bus in the parking lot, so we decided to approach the people in the bus to ask if they could provide us with the number of any taxi drivers in town. They couldn't, as they were in fact from Upper Egypt, close to Luxor, and were here on a tour with their Coptic church. What they did, however, was offer us to join their tour group. That seemed like our best option, so we accepted, which I'm happy we did, as we had a very nice time with them. They were all extremely welcoming and helpful, and we made some new friends. However, I guess some taxi driver in Matrouh got very disappointed that day.
First we went with our group to another beach, which was less spectacular, but more swimming friendly. Here we spent a few hours, and I enjoyed myself in the water with some other people from the group. I tried to teach one of the girls to swim, and she really made a lot of progress, but I didn't manage to complete my tuition of her as we kept getting interrupted by people who were asking me questions or who also wanted to learn how to swim.
This was a typical Egyptian beach, where most people were quite covered up, so I was swimming in t-shirt and shorts. It felt a bit strange, but I quickly forgot about it. Once I got out of the water I became very cold, however, as it really takes a while for a soaking wet t-shirt to dry. I have to say I do prefer swimming in a bikini, but I had a good time at the beach nonetheless, albeit I guess it is the sort of beach you go to more to see Egyptian beach culture than to relax on the beach yourself. After leaving that beach we went to see the sunset at one of the more spectacular beaches. We didn't quite reach there in time, as the sun had just set when we got there, but it was still beautiful. Thereafter we drove back to town and parted with our new friends, who told us that they come to Alexandria often and promised to take us to some Coptic monasteries in the future.
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| Chiara and I with some of the Copts |
The rest of the weekend we spent on a private hotel beach, where we could tan in the strong sun and swim and just relax in our bikinis. It was very different from our first day in Matrouh, but I'm happy we got to do both: enjoy a beach holiday the way we're used to and experience how many Egyptians enjoy theirs. One of the things I love about Egypt is that you get to know people wherever you go, and on the hotel beach we met a very nice family which turned out to be the family of the hotel's ovwner. Also they go to Alexandria often and promised to contact us, so now it only remains to see if we will actually manage to keep in touch with these new acquaintances.
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| Chiara's camera can be used underwater, so she took this amazing picture of me |
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| Chiara underwater |
Ant and Flynne from our class were in Matrouh with Flynne's mum, so we spent quite a lot of time with them as well. I think we all enjoyed going to the beach, and found the sea in Matrouh incredible. We were maybe not so impressed by the town itself, however. The place has a lot of potential, as it is surrounded by such natural beauty, but it hasn't been put a lot of effort into improving the beaches and building good hotels and restaurants. I guess we came to understand why Egyptians love this place, as it truly is beautiful, but also why foerigners shy away from it, as it doesn't have the facilities we're used to. After struggling the whole weekend to find somewhere to eat, we concluced that Matrouh is not mainly a culinary destination. Last night we ate at a pizza place where our orders became a bit too much to handle for the poor owner, who couldn't fathom how to add olives to a margherita. Our soft drinks were bought from the shop next door, and carried to our table in the plastic bag. At least they didn't put much effort into keeping up appearances.
To be fair, this is not the season for Matrouh, so I guess our experience of the town would have been quite different if we went during the summer months, when it's apparently bustling. I think we would at least have been able to find a decent restaurant then. Off-season Matrouh is pretty dead, and most places are closed. This weekend was a bit more lively than the average autumn weekend, though, as it was Eid. From our hotel room we could hear wedding processions driving up and down the streets honking incessantly, firing rifles in the air now and then to celebrate. I'm sure my dad would approve of that tradition.
It's interesting seeing how each place differs from the others: Matrouh is the first place where we've seen a lot of bedouins. A lot of the men were wearing long white gallabiyas (robes) and head dresses, which I think are called "kaffiyahs". This is something you don't see in Alex, and I would say Matrouh has a completely different feel from the places we've been so far.
All in all we had a great weekend, and came back very refreshed (and tanned). And then we lived happily ever after.
THE END
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| The view from our hotel room |
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| Between Alex and Matrouh there is mostly desert |
Man, I always think I have nothing to write and then the posts end up being so long.
Amazing WATER!!!
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