gaining speed

Ahoy,

We're traveling at about 19.5 knots. The most efficient this ship goes is at 21 knots with two engines running. The fastest is about 30 knots. We'd been traveling mostly at 15 for most of the Mediterranean because it's all so close to each other. We're going to Morocco now and there are 5 days between Egypt and Morocco. So let's recap Egypt a bit before I get too far away.

Egypt was so different from all the other countries we visited. You can definitely tell the poverty is there, the lack of infrastructure. It's all so third world. So different.

~ Security was heightened extensively in this city. We had to have our passports checked 3 times before we actually got out of the port. The police are everywhere but they are still probably all corrupt.

~ All the buildings look way sketchy and run down. They're mostly incomplete. The tops have metal and rebar sticking out. My tour guide told me it's because if you live in Alexandria for more than 10 years, you start to qualify to pay taxes if your house is finished. So people just never complete them to avoid taxes.

~ It's a Muslim country. Dress was way conservative. Women had their hair covered, wore many layers, some only showed their eyes. Men wore long pants and t-shirts at the very least. Even though it was 100 degrees. Women were never alone or out in the street without a guy. It was very gendered.

~ The vendors only spoke to men. It's funny how in the States, vendors talk to the women. And the guys always look over to the girls to, in a way, ask for permission, but in Egypt, the men make all the calls.

~ Trash is everywhere. They don't have a system for waste disposal or something. The streets are so dirty. I felt like I could contract 20 different diseases from just looking at the payphones. People just take it and toss it into the rivers. The city streets are the landfills. It's disgusting.

~ Traffic has no rules. There are lines nobody follows. There are a few lights no one follows. Nobody signals, they just go. They honk. All the time. They honk just out of habit. It's such a normal thing here. People just jaywalk across the highway. They cross the street whenever they feel like it. It's insane.

~ The air is so polluted here. Coming into port, we could see the layer of smog. I slept on the deck that night. Did I mention that already? We woke up to the sunrise over Africa. Then we went right back in and slept some more. It got so wet overnight from dew I guess. Everything else got moist.

~ The kids were always asking "What's your name?" Then they would giggle sheepishly and shy away. People stared at me and giggled with their friends. I guess I look funny to them.

~ The taxi drivers are so exhausting to deal with. You can never tell if you can trust them, and they most likely are giving you a jacked up price. There are so many right outside the port and they all bombard you before you've gotten past security. It's very hectic, and before you know it, you're in a taxi and you have no idea what happened.

Alexandria was fun, despite how I"m describing it. It was a good experience and I liked that it wasn't as touristy as other ports. Am I giving you an idea of what Egypt is like? I'll talk about Cairo next.

chronologically mismatched,

JT