Sunday, September 16

We just returned from a 3 day weekend at Almaza (a beach resort on the north coast of Egypt). 9 of us journeyed to the resort which is situated right on the Mediterranean approximately 250 km from Alex. It is located in a remote desert area and caters to European visitors (primarily from Italy and Germany). We left Thursday after school and after we got out of Alex, there was virtually no traffic. It is so odd to travel outside the city on a major highway such as this and rarely see another car.

During the weekend, we enjoyed some nice walks along the beach and around the resort. On Friday evening, we ventured into Marsa Matrouh (a clean coastal resort city) located approximately 40 km from Almaza. One of the members in our group remembered eating at a fish restaurant in Marsa Matrouh a couple of years ago and we tried to locate it but without any luck so we spotted what we thought was an authentic little open air place along the sea. The man who greeted us told us that they could serve us within 10 to 15 minutes. It was a neat little place with wicker couches set up around tables. We ordered our food and thought it was strange when 3 men near the waiter took off in a red car – later we found out, they did not prepare food there and the men went off somewhere else to possibly get the food. We are not sure if they ever brought the food back or not – we waited nearly an hour and decided that we had waited long enough and left. We ended up at McDonalds located with an open air eating section right on the sea. The streets in Marsa Matrouh had unique speed bumps with flashing lights built right into the pavement to warn drivers to slow down.

All in all, we had a nice time: playing cards with the others, walking, reading and enjoying the sea and hospitality of the resort.