The Real Agami

I have been in Alexandria for almost three weeks now and until last night had yet to experience the "real" city. When I was in Luxor, the boys and I walked around mostly residential areas, allowing me to see how real Egyptians live. Had I not been with the boys, I never would have experienced this.

The same is true of Alex. Luckily we have a few native friends who were nice enough to take us to the Souk (the market) or what they call, the "local area," meaning a place tourists don't frequent. Let me tell you, it may have been one of the most interesting experiences of my life. There were people everywhere, yelling and pushing each other out of the way. I have never experienced a level of noise that compares to this. Mostly people were interested in us, we got the usual stares and cat calls, but nothing out of the ordinary. I assume this is because, literally, we had men (as in our friends) surrounding us on all sides to be sure, as Mohamme put it, that no one bothers us.

After walking around for a while, one of our friends invited us to his home, something we were reluctant to do but decided to accept. I have experienced Egyptian hospitality on several occasions, however, this was the first for the rest of the group. They were so welcoming and warm, offering us drinks and food even after we refused several times. We took some amazing pictures of the area and met some great people, overall one of the most interesting experiences I've had in Agami thus far.

Kisses for everyone,
Meg