The last time we were in Alexandria was 28 years ago, in 1996. At that time, we had a walk down memory lane in the city where Dimitri was born. We also stayed with our friends Abdul Moniem and Alyea at their apartment before we moved to the Mercure Romance.
Our 2024 visit was very different. We stayed at the Four Seasons Alexandria at San Stefano (which wasn't built then and it would not have been within our budget anyway). This visit was only five days and Dimitri had a wish list. Our days were packed (which is not at all like our usual travel style)!
To get to Alex, we flew business class on Egypt Air from Sharm. We were served a sandwich lunch for the flight that was over an hour late in leaving. After we got our luggage and exited, we could not find the Four Seasons representative or our driver. We finally figured out that we had to go outside and walk to the parking lot where our driver was waiting with a sign. Oh well, fortunately we are still mobile. The drive to the hotel was under an hour and, after a bad road under construction, the road became a good one.
When we arrived at the hotel entrance, there was a group greeting us. We were shocked to see someone we knew at the entrance. There was Belal Nadar, whom we had met at FS Kuala Lumpur where he was Assistant F&B Manager! At that moment, we knew we knew him but we couldn’t remember the property where we had met him. Habiba at the Concierge helped us and then it was “of course, that's Belal”. We had become friendly with him in KL and he had given us very good restaurant recommendations there. Also at the door were the Hotel Manager, the Executive Chef, the Chief Concierge, the Director of Guest Experience, and the Front Desk Manager. After photos, we were brought to our One-Bedroom Sea View Suite (an upgrade from a one-bedroom beach suite for US$451.00 per night all in). We were happy, the view of the Mediterranean was magnificent.
When we walked in, there was an entry hall with a powder room (which we love having) and a closet. Audre described the decor as "1950's Fifth Avenue New York style"--very traditional with heavy fabrics and drapes. Dimitri said it was a very old style Alexandria from the colonial era. The living room, with a dining table, was equipped with two desks as we had requested. Across from the sofa was the TV and a large console with all of the mini bar stuff and lots of storage. Off of the living room was a balcony with a table. On the coffee table to greet us were mangoes and sweets.
Off of the bedroom was another balcony, with two chaise lounges. The bedroom was large with a comfortable chair and ottoman, as well as a vanity table and a chest of drawers. The closets were in a hall that ended in a built-in luggage storage area with two drawers underneath. The master bathroom was small and had only one sink, so Dimitri used the sink in the powder room and gave Audre the master bathroom. The room was personalized and Alexa worked straight away. The room worked for us.
Breakfast was a long, long, walk away at the Beach Restaurant, next to the sand. Ahmed was our server and tried hard to make everything perfect for us. The buffet was also outdoors and contained items similar to Nile Plaza and Sharm. Mohamed, the breakfast chef, did everything he could to make sure we were happy. We thought he was going to cry when the fas mangoes that he handpicked were not ripe enough and we didn't eat them. Another item on Dimitri's wish list was foul medames. He could have it Alexandrian style at any breakfast buffet in Egypt (and it was much better than any foul Audre had ever made for him).
At our first breakfast, Belal came to talk to us and gave us an excellent restaurant recommendation: Blue and White at the Greek Club (where Dimitri and his family used to go in the 1940s and 50' and where we went when we were in Alex in 1996). Another morning Nihat, the General Manager, of the hotel came to sit with us at breakfast. He was very charming and he talked with us for over an hour. Having breakfast outside was a pleasant temperature although later in the day it was really hot outside (but not as hot as Sharm).
On our first day in Alex, we went to the new Bibliotheca Alexandrina and had an excellent tour with Nadine (US$12.17). It was amazing. The architecture and the layout were beautiful. The collections described by Nadine were impressive and growing. Everything about it was exceptional. We noticed that the Bibliotheca was hosting the Summer Festival and that there were cultural events. On the following day, Omar Khairat, a very famous pianist was performing at 8:30 pm in the main hall of the conference center at the Bibliotheca. We bought tickets for orchestra seats (US$39.43) and decided we would go and have a late dinner afterward.
After the tour of the Bibliotheca, we went to the restaurant recommended by an Uber driver for falafel. On Dimitri's wish list for Egypt was falafel as he remembered it to be. And "bingo" Gad Restaurant provided taamaya/falafel Alexandria-style (meaning small balls) and it was truly like falafel nowhere else in the world. It was very, very crisp on the outside and had very soft, mashed fava beans (with lots of spices) on the inside. It was served with tahini and bread on the side and was excellent. For US$8.22 we had falafel, tahini, Greek salad, and mango juice.
After checking off falafel from our "to-do" list, we went back to the FS and used the outdoor Jacuzzi. We asked for the temperature to be raised to 100° but otherwise, it was very good. We even sat on a chaise lounge above the Corniche road, which was unbelievably noisy with all of the honking.
That night we took Belal's suggestion and went to the Blue and White Restaurant at the Greek Club. We had a very good meal and Dimitri spoke Greek with the restaurant manager. He told us that there were only around 100 Greeks left living in Alexandria (not surprising to Dimitri). Still, on the first floor of the building where the public Blue and White Greek Restaurant was, there remained a members-only Greek Club. Our complete fish dinner with soup and meze cost about US$20.
Dimitri was saddened as we drove around Alexandria. Buildings were either see-through or looked like they were crumbling. It was tragic to the max. In 1996 the city looked pathetic, but in 2024 it was heartbreaking. The gorgeous 19th-century buildings were in ruins. The reason could have been that Naser's rent control resulted in people paying 10 cents a month for rent and the landlords letting the buildings disintegrate. There were new buildings, like the Four Seasons and the Bibliotheca but mostly the city was in ruins (we are not exaggerating). Dimitri would say "tut-tut" like a true colonial.
Speaking of the Four Seasons building in Alexander, we thought that it was, architecturally, a monstrosity. The Four Seasons is a small part of the humongous building of apartments that are not managed by the Four Seasons. Looking up at it from the swimming pool, the balconies look disheveled. Some have laundry hanging. There was a rug draped on the railing of one of the balconies overlooking the Jacuzzi that annoyed Audre. The owner of the Alex FS property (and 3 of the current 4 Four Seasons in Egypt) is Hisham Talaat Moustafa, a convicted murderer and ex-con who received a presidential pardon. We wondered about the Four Seasons being so close to someone with that background. And, there are more Four Seasons in Egypt opening with Hisham's company (TMG) owning them. By the way, it turned us off that all of the TMG advertising billboards on the highways have Silvester Stallone's picture endorsing TMG's projects.
Another item on Dimitri's wish list was to eat sea urchins (called ritsa in Egypt). Executive Chef Wael Essam provided sea urchins for lunch and he had gotten many sea urchins and filled the shells of 12 to the brim so that they were full of the sea urchin roe. They were fabulous. He also served us crab with crab roe and salad. It was a delicious lunch.
That night we went to the Omar Khairat concert at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Summer Festival. We were told the concert would start whenever he felt like arriving. The theater was impressive and the seats were cushy but uncomfortably close to the row in front. We were entertained by the woman sitting next to us who spoke great English and was the wife of the Kuwaiti ambassador to Egypt. The concert started one-half hour late and there were still seats empty until 9:30. People were entitled to disturb an entire row by arriving late. Omar was an energetic 75-year-old—with rock star status. His music (he composed it all) was a cross between ballroom dance and Star Wars. It didn’t sound Egyptian to us with the exception of one piece played by an AB Orchestra member playing an oud. There was an intermission at 10 pm and we left, not because we weren’t enjoying it, but because we wanted to have dinner.
We went to Branzino, a restaurant recommended by Galal (our Uber driver who took us to New Cairo). It was very good and we were back at the hotel by midnight.
Dimitri still wanted more sea urchins at Zephyrion, the restaurant in Abukir that he used to go to with his family on weekends in the 1940s and 50s (when it was owned and run by Greeks). After that, it was “nationalized” and now it is owned and run by Egyptians. We went there in 1996 and had sea urchins and they were excellent in January. August is not the season for ritsa but the Four Seasons concierge called and made sure they would have them for us on the appointed day. Abukir was a tiny place, even in 1996, it is now a small, squalid city and the beach in front of Zephyrion has been expanded with reclaimed land and sand from somewhere. Zephyrion was no longer on the water.
When we entered, there was a big display of fish on ice to choose from. We chose squid roe, small clams, red mullet, some small fish, crab, and fish roe. Then we waited for the sea urchin. The squid roe was good and unusual although not special. The clams were tender enough and very tasty. The red mullet was very good. The crab was taken out of the shell and sauteed with bread crumbs and crab roe. They were very good. The tiny fishes were also very good but fish roe was dry and never to be repeated. Then we were told there was no sea urchin. We sent an e-mail to the Four Seasons concierge and asked them to call and “give Zephyrion Hell”. Magically, moments later, the restaurant manager arrived and told us they would get us sea urchins from the outside vendor (the way it had always been done in the 40s and 50s (and 90s, for that matter). He also apologized and told us they would be complimentary. When they came, they were indeed small but absolutely delicious. We were happy. The restaurant brought us sugar cane juice and that made us even happier (sugar cane juice was another item on Dimitri's wish list). We spent US$32.16 with free sea urchins. The Uber driver who brought us waited and took us back to the Four Seasons for a direct payment of E£400, US$8.10 (without involving Uber). Another two items were checked off Dimitri's wish list.
The next day we went to the newly re-opened Greco-Roman museum in El-Raml quarter. This museum, just re-opened in October 2023, was an outstanding, world-class display of gorgeous artifacts. The third and fourth-century BC creations were artistically displayed providing a graceful stroll through history. We did not need a guide; the descriptions were excellent. The size of the museum was excellent too; just two floors and a courtyard with a colossal statue. The museum was organized chronologically and thematically which made it easy to navigate. The buildings surrounding the museum had been renovated too and the 19th century buildings looked beautiful. Boy, that was Alexandria the way the entire city should have looked.
One evening we took the tram that little Dimitri always took. For about US 15 cents we traveled to the El-Raml area and went to the cafe called Delice (where we had met cousin Rita in 1996). It looked the same but there was nothing there that we liked. We never did find good baklava in Egypt.
We ate melokiyah at about 15 different restaurants (it's one of Dimitri's favorite dinner items) throughout our 30-day stay in Egypt. We thought that the melokiyah that we had at Zitouni at the Four Seasons Nile Plaza was the absolute best melokiyah!
Then it was time to leave Alexandria. The Four Seasons Alexandria arranged for a Mercedes Viano and driver to take us for the 3-hour drive to Cairo (US$472, discounted from US$590 which amount we complained about). The Cairo-Alex desert road was very good and empty once it became a toll road. The Viano was comfortable enough although it didn't seem as if it was a real Mercedes. Halfway we stopped at a restaurant rest stop and it was large and packed (we couldn't figure out where all the people came from) since the highway seemed empty. When we arrived at the Four Seasons Cairo First Residence a welcoming committee was waiting for us. We love that kind of attention!
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