Can we take photo with you?

They point to you….then to the camera. I think, “sure, I will take a photo for you.” I reach for the camera, but they hand it to someone else. Suddenly, I am in the picture.

Fleur, the Dutch woman I am staying with explains that people in Alexandria always take photos with Western European-Looking people. As I think about it, I haven’t really seen any white people, and as the day progresses at Fort Qaitbey we end up taking photos with at least ten different groups of people. It is not just hormonal teenage boys, in fact it is mostly women and families that want to take photos with us.

…it is so weird. Grinning little girls say, “Hello” and go deer-in-headlight when you respond, “Hi, How are you?” The look on their faces says, “wait…it talked back..”
Kind of adorable for now, though it could get kind of annoying if I lived here…

Aside from taking photos with a million people, Fort Qaitbey was super interesting in its own right. Built around 1500, the Fort was placed on the site of the former Lighthouse of Alexandria (which had been ruined in an earthquake), using some of the same materials.


These are the fishermen that you see around alexandria. I took this from the fort, because it was a great angle to really view it.