Alexandria, Egypt, where the old and the new meld

I once spent a few days in Alexandria, Egypt, and found it to be the most intriguing town in the country… and Teresa Levonian Cole’s account of her time there takes me right back:

It is the Alexandria of nostalgia, captured in the poignant poems of Constantine Cavafy, where the architectural whimsy of cornices, friezes, pediments and columns, languish sooty and crumbling like loveless Miss Havishams at the city’s heart. It is an Alexandria where cars, trams and donkey carts choke the narrow streets, the smell of cardamom coffee and falafel perfumes the air, street vendors twist skeins of dough into delicious pastries, and women buying bright gold jewellery and sparkling gewgaws crowd hidden alleys.

If you can get hold of it, also read “Justine”, by Lawrence Durrell, which offers another – very unique – perspective of the town (as does, probably, the whole “Alexandria Quartet” of which “Justine” is one part of).