Thus, we set out very late in the morning for the Alexandria Arts Centre. This Italian villa has been fully restored and houses a theatrette and several gallery spaces. We enjoyed the art exhibitions, particularly the one that seemed inspired by pharoanic images, the book ‘The Day of the Triffids’, Shakespeare and cartoons, and was drawn in exquisite detail. There were no titles and we could only guess at what the artist was thinking for the series of over forty related pictures.
After a quick lunch we continued on for the major outing of the day – a visit to the International Garden about 7 km away from our hotel. The walk was most enjoyable since we moved out of the city centre and into the suburbs - a new view of Alexandrian life. Men regularly greeted us and said, “Welcome to Egypt,” while children viewed us as walking novelties and vied with each other to get us to talk to them or, most prestigious of all, to shake their hands. Every time we responded there was much laughter and excitement. Only in the down town area have we been approached by children begging, with one boy saying to Keith “I love you Mister, I love you. One pound.” We have given money to adult beggars but this is a tricky area – the Egyptians themselves have advised people not to give money to children since it encourages their families to use them as begging agents, and to keep them home from school.
The walk deteriorated aesthetically and health wise as we followed some freeways and eventually passed an area where seemingly all the freeways in Alexandria looped around and over each other.
Eventually we reached the International Garden and it was a strange, dilapidated, weedy, rangy park with lots of small gazebos and other, mysterious buildings that in better days may have demonstrated some sort of International aspect. Today the many secluded and abandoned nooks and crannies make the park an excellent venue for outings for courting couples. Other young people were amusing themselves getting around it on hired two seater tricycles and bikes. We met a young Egyptian couple – Mohammad and Christine. They were walking the opposite way to us and simply welcomed us to Egypt and stopped to have a conversation. Half an hour later when we were about to leave, Mohammad and another young man rushed over and invited us to stay with them for a while at a birthday celebration. We went across and joined in the dancing, all the while being videotaped for posterity. They were a friendly group and after I had given the birthday boy his request of a kiss, also videotaped, we wished them well and left the gardens. This would have to be the ultimate in getting tourists to respond to you, but it was all done in such a sweet and generous way and was, for us, a welcome chance to interact a bit more with the locals.On our way home we stopped at the Opera House – a really grand building in an imposing enclosed square with an enormous statue of Mohammad Ali in it.
Mohammad Ali came to power after the French occupation ended. In theory he was governor of Egypt on behalf of the Turkish rulers, but he took over completely. He invited the 500 Mamluk leaders, who were a threat to his rule, to a special dinner and then he shot and cut up the lot. He introduced industrialisation, public education and planting of cotton and is considered to have brought Egypt into the modern age. His face is formidable – it is easy to imagine him dining with his victims. When we inquired about what was on that evening, the lady in the ticket office said “Monsieur will need to wear a tie.” With no tie, no jacket and trousers that look a bit worn in the seat, that cut Keith out, but that was OK since the pantomime program we had intended to see was not actually on.The highlight of our meal was om ali – a bit like a bread and butter custard only better, and a speciality of Ramadam. I had chosen it as an experiment and thought the waiter had said that there were no cooked eels in it, which was reassuring. We were relieved when it arrived after 30 minutes and was delicious.
Conscious of appearances, Keith purchased a new jumper bringing his total to two, with this one not intended for regular wearing, but for best.
In contrast to the parts of Cairo that we saw, Alexandria has many areas of well maintained parkland. This park is the centre of a very large roundabout.
On the left is a set of three taps for the public to use. Some have plastic cups to use for a drink.
Not quite book heaven for Christine. This is a group of street stalls, well stocked with student text books in Arabic.
A delicious lunch at a small café can cost as little as ₤5 each ($1).
Car boot sale. In this street there were about ten cars with goods set out for sale on the boot, the bonnet or the roof. This one is actually a taxi!
Butcher shops typically have the meat on display out on the footpath.
On the left is a Christian church and on the right, just across the street is a mosque. The close proximity of the two is fairly common.
Egyptians everywhere walk on the road in preference to the footpath. It’s often safer and in this case there’s no choice, as this car repairer is working on a vehicle that is completely blocking the footpath at a very busy intersection.
Here the footpath has been completely dug up for several hundred metres. This was happening in many parts of Alexandria.
Horse or donkey carts share highways with trucks and cars and are shown patience and respect by other drivers.
Many shops and stalls are devoted entirely to selling scarves. After spending much time browsing and enduring the constant pressure of salesmen, sometimes it all becomes a bit bewildering. 
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