Airbnb on the Corniche, Alexandria

After nearly a month in Egypt, Alexandria would be our last stop. We made the last-minute decision to squeeze it into our itinerary because it would be the perfect segway to transition to our next country, Greece.

It was a short flight of just over one hour from Hurghada to Cairo. From Cairo, we still needed to make our way to Alexandria by road. We arrived in Cairo in the morning and waited for our van to pick us up. During our travels, we have found hard-boiled eggs to be a great travel food. Eggs are available everywhere. It is simple to boil them and they are nutritious, filling and don’t spoil easily. It was taking longer than expected for the van to arrive and the kids were getting hungry so we took out the hard-boiled eggs to eat. The kids were entertaining themselves with the eggs and started to use their own and each other’s foreheads to crack the shell. It was so silly that we were all laughing so hard. They asked me to make a video of them doing it to themselves so they could see what it looked like. They even convinced me to make some slow-motion videos for fun. Kids are creative and resourceful, sometimes with hilarious results.

After we each ate an egg, we had exactly three eggs left. Nobody wanted to eat any more eggs so I got the idea to pass the time by having an egg hunt. Since the kids were young, we have done Easter egg hunts in our home every year. We sometimes dye our own fresh eggs or when we are short on time, we just draw on them or reuse plastic eggs that we save in our toy basket. The kids love this tradition and insist on doing it year after year.

We took turns hiding the three hard-boiled eggs in the waiting room of the airport and took turns searching for the eggs. We found some great hiding places in planter boxes, behind corners, in between rails and behind stairs. And then sometimes, as Leo says, “the best place to hide is in plain sight.”

A few hours on the road and we arrived in Alexandria. It felt like a totally different world. It didn’t feel like we were in Egypt anymore. Was it the moist coastal air? Was it the relaxed atmosphere? Was it the wide views of the sea?

The Corniche is the 15 km waterfront promenade that hugs the eastern coastline of Alexandria. The coastline was expansive and grand. It is easy to imagine why upon seeing it, Alexander the Great found this to be the perfect place to establish the new capital of his Egyptian dominion that became the greatest city in the known world.

Our Airbnb was in the best location right on the Corniche. It was in an older building that had seen better days, but we could tell it must have been grand in its day. It had a teeny tiny elevator and we were grateful it even had an elevator at all. We walked into the apartment and were immediately drawn to the sliding glass doors that led to the veranda. The views were simply magnificent. We could see almost the entire length of the Corniche and beyond that, the stunning turquoise waters of the Mediterranean Sea that seemed to go on forever.

The living room was cavernous with several large couches and a dining table. A super long hallway connected the four bedrooms to the front of the house. It’s no wonder the apartments were configured this way to allow each unit to have access to the views of the sea. The bedrooms were simply furnished and since we were only staying two nights, we barely touched the kitchen. The real star of this apartment was the location and the views.

The location of the apartment allowed us to do a lot of exploring on foot. Across the street was a restaurant called Luna Park that we intended to go to, but didn’t make it there. On the day that we arrived, we enjoyed lunch at a seafood restaurant close by called Branzino. We were joined by Dina, our guide for the next few days. We hadn’t had seafood for almost the entire duration of our time in Egypt so we splurged on all different kinds of fish and shrimp cooked in different ways.

On our last night in Alexandria, which was also our last night in Egypt, we walked a few kilometers of the Corniche and had a simple dinner at a local seaside restaurant. It isn’t just the tourists who are drawn to the Corniche as we saw lots of local Alexandrians, families, couples and groups of friends, enjoying themselves. For a centuries old city that has endured the test of time, it is the sea and the endless horizon that have remained a constant, immutable presence in the lives of the people of Alexandria and of the city itself.