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Mark at White & Blue, a wonderful Greek restaurant in Alexandria

Mark was in Alexandria 34 years ago so he was an old hat at knowing what to expect here. This was all new to me, though, so here’s what I knew about Alexandria before we arrived. Founded by Alexander the Great when he conquered Egypt in the late fourth century BC, it became the capital of Egypt under the Ptolemaic dynasties that ended with Cleopatra. It was here that Julius Caesar came for what was to have been the final battle with his erstwhile ally and fellow triumvir (and even his one-time son-in-law) Pompey the Great, though the locals had killed Pompey before Caesar arrived; he is said to have wept at the news. He got over his grief though with what was apparently a lovely little fling with the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, as she soon thereafter gave birth to twins.

After Caesar’s untimely demise back in the Roman Forum Cleopatra – always in search of a strong man to help her defend her claim to the throne – partnered off with Mark Anthony who was Caesar’s closest ally and most likely successor. Alas, that didn’t work out either as a certain Octavian – Caesar’s wimpy great-nephew, known to history as Augustus – claimed the heritage and ultimately defeated Anthony and Cleopatra in a great sea battle. The two lovers retreated to Alexandria where she clasped an asp to her breast and died a glorious death. After that Alexandria continued to be the capital of Egypt for another 600-plus years, though now under Roman control.

The colorful harbor of Alexandria

Through it all, though, Alexandria remained the largely Greek city that had grown under the Ptolemies. It was one of the great cities of the ancient world, home of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World – the Pharos Lighthouse – and the Alexandria Library, perhaps the greatest center of learning in the ancient world.

That’s what I knew in advance so I was sort of, without really thinking about it, anticipating something of the Greek Mediterranean here. What did I find? To my surprise (though of course I shouldn’t have been surprised) we found a lot more Africa and a lot less Greece. Certainly fascinating in its own way, just not quite what I’d dreamt of.

Walking along Alexandria’s Corniche – the roadway along the coast – we found mile after mile of these fading grand old buildings. Beautiful but certainly sad as well.

Today Alexandria is a massive, crowded, decaying city with some of the worst traffic – perhaps the absolute worst – we’ve ever seen anywhere in the world. We stayed at a hotel right on the coast so we had nice views and in fact a private beach to enjoy the otherwise somewhat limited Mediterranean experience. On our first full day in Alexandria we read about a Greek restaurant that was supposed to be good and it certainly was. The patio was up on the third floor of the city’s Greek center and had a great view of the harbor. Interestingly, it was right next to an old fort that was itself built on the site of the ancient Pharos Lighthouse. And then after lunch we walked the full six-plus miles along the Corniche back to our hotel, past the site of the ancient library, taking in the sights and smells and sounds of today’s Alexandria. The one big drawback to all that was that we needed to cross the street to get to our hotel, something that is little more than courting catastrophe. Seeing the locals do it, though, we saw how they just weaved in and out of traffic and eventually we made it too.

And that was about it for our three-night stop. Some beach time, some good Greek and later Egyptian food, some attractive old buildings but not really a lot for tourists. From here it’s down to Cairo as we burrow our way deeper into Egypt.

The beach was beautiful and largely abandoned by early November. Good Minnesotan that I am though, I thought the water was just fine. And yes, that’s me out there.

One of many beautiful mosques in Alexandria. There is something about those spires that just, well, inspires me.

It wasn’t just the buildings and the sea that made Alexandria beautiful

The view from White & Blue. Not a bad place for lunch, eh?

One day lunch was at a local Egyptian place. We were surprised that there were none of the various dips and salads that we’ve come to expect in Middle Eastern restaurants, but we coped and just ordered a bunch of other stuff. What we learned is that all those dips and salads weren’t on the menu because they bring them all free at the start of your meal. Yes, everything on the table here was free. We ended up with way too much food so if we ever come back we’ll just order one small dish and fill up on the free stuff!

And finally, here I am eagerly anticipating our Greek lunch

The pool, the beach, and across a little bay in the Persian (Arabian) Gulf to some of the cool buildings in downtown Manama

Why on earth would we spend five days in Bahrain? From Yerevan we connected through Dubai and flew on to Manama, Bahrain, the island kingdom’s capital just off the Arabian peninsula. “Why,” my Armenian seat mate who worked in Dubai asked, “would you go to Bahrain?” And as Mark went through immigration when we arrived there the agent kept asking “But what are you doing here?” as if to say “People don’t just come here on holiday.”

There aren’t really many good reasons except the one that finally satisfied the immigration agent: this was Mark’s 118th country. It’s what we do. There was a U.S. Navy base here in the 1970s and I remember from those days that I was intrigued; it was supposed to be about the worst duty station you could draw. But mostly it was really just about checking off a box. We had (modestly) enjoyed the visits earlier this year in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Oman and figured this would be similar. On top of that our goal was to fly to Alexandria and oddly Bahrain is one of the relatively few places where you can fly direct. So we flew to Bahrain and spent five days in the Persian Gulf or, as they call it here not so surprisingly, the Arabian Gulf. Arabs and Iranians aren’t the best of neighbors, you see.

Here I am enjoying the pool

What’s there to do in Bahrain? Not much to be honest. Our hotel had a nice little private beach and a beautiful pool, so we could hang out there. We found an Indian restaurant we liked so we could go there a couple of times, which beat the hell out of the overpriced food available at the hotel. There’s a national history museum that was definitely worth a couple of hours. I mean, I’d never heard of the Dilmun civilization, but now I know a little bit about it, especially their mound burial practices which made up a big part of the exhibit. And I learned a little bit about pearl diving, the mainstay of their economy over a few centuries until oil was discovered.

Otherwise, not so much to do, nowhere near as interesting as the other Gulf states (which weren’t really that interesting). The hotel was beautiful and a lot cheaper than it would be most anywhere else so that was nice. But in contrast to our stay in Dzoraget a couple weeks ago where Mark was bored while I found it pleasant, this time Mark enjoyed being laid back and I was bored. That’s OK, from here we’re off to Egypt where there should be a lot of interesting things to see.

That’s our hotel. I found the architecture a little austere, brutal even, though Mark liked it. That building in the background is interesting, though. It was reasonably close to our beach and at one point when I was lying there reading a book on genetics (A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived) that I was enjoying I looked up and thought “Oh my god, that’s a double helix from some DNA!”

The cool skyscrapers across the bay from us in twilight

Another cool new building

And another shot of the pool, the beach, and the city. See, I told you there wasn’t much here.

Not a lot to do in Dzoraget but with a kitty like this what more do you need?

From Tbilisi we drove nearly three hours south across into Armenia. The plan was to break up the drive to Yerevan and there was supposed to be a nice hotel almost exactly in the middle between the two capitals. The hotel is right on a little river in the Debed Canyon so it seemed perfect for a couple nights, a little hiking, whatever.

Well, it didn’t quite work as well as we’d hoped. The hotel was nice enough and the setting in the canyon was beautiful. But there was nothing to do. Nothing. No hiking trails, no little town, no alternative restaurants. Nothing. If we’d had a car you could drive to some World Heritage-listed monasteries, but we didn’t so there was not a lot to do. Which made two days a bit long.

The Avan Dzoraget Hotel nestled along the Debed River. A beautiful setting but definitely on the dull side.

There were still some little gems to be experienced. Mark had a cat that loved sitting in his lap getting petted. One day it was sunny enough for me to find a rock in the little stream and read. The food at the hotel was excellent which was surprising. Both days we were there a bus with tourists would pull in around 4:00 PM and they’d have a dinner table set for 25 or so; otherwise we were the only guests. That’s not typically the environment for great food but the food there really was great.

Ultimately I enjoyed our two days. If I have some beautiful scenery and a place to read I can be happy. Mark? Bored out of his mind. That’s OK, from here it’s down to Yerevan and the city will keep him engaged.

A rock, the little Dzoraget River, a valley, and a book. What more do you need?

Looking up the Debed River no more than a quarter-mile from our hotel. Would have been a great place to explore but there were no trails at all.

A lovely view across the river and valley from our room

The food here was really, really good, everything super fresh. Here we have a grilled eggplant salad, an olive salad, and a nice glass of Armenian wine. So much better than that over-hyped Georgian wine!

Somehow I always seem to stumble onto cemeteries. As I noticed in Georgia most headstones have photos of the deceased somehow impressed on the stone. Eerie.