Out & About: El Montaza

Since our school friends -who have gone abroad for college studies- came this summer holiday to their homeland,Alex, we decided to make a re-union . Destination : El Montazah !!

Former residence of the King of Egypt, now one of several Egyptian Presidential Palaces. In Alexandria .The meaning of the word Montaza is to be far, untouched, unblemished, and free. It is famous for its vast royal gardens , beach and several things .

After contacting as much people as we could, 14 people were able to make it, which was great since they were my closest friends during school!

The Montaza main entrance (It has 2 other entrances)

The entrance from the inside, or rather the exit now :)

It lies on the very east of Alex, were one stands almost at the edge of Alex, viewing the rest of the city that's on the seaside.

The water was soooo inviting, too bad we didn't get our bathing suits :( And that, would be King Fuad's Palace..no visitors are allowed entrance, because it currently serves as a place for the President to receive his guests or maybe come and enjoy himself ..LOL

A friend of ours had access to one of the cabins, were we put our stuff and had our own private area were we played some racket.

It not really that cheap to get a cabin there, it was my fist time to go to one actually, when I used to go with my college friends, we simply hang out at the public gardens,or I went on some occasions were I was a volunteer organizer of a certain event.

so, it was cool :D

After playing, we were hungry, we had each got something to make a dish party,and this is how the layed table looked like.

Drinks:Water,Coke,Juices( 4 flavours ,if you wanna know, oh well, grapes, pineapple,apple & the final is my first time to try Orange and carrots mix, it was okay.. but pineapple is my fav.)

You might be wondering about the dark think in the middle of the table..ehm well that is, " Mahshi Waraa' Enab" i.e grape leaves stuffed with rice .It's more delicious than it looks, every Egyptian is a fan of it.I's also well know in Greece, since they're a mediterranean Country as well.

I got Macaroni Salad, I actually made it, whenever there's a dish party, that's my trade mark!! It's Easy, Tasy, & Healthy. I'll probably make a post of it later!! Maybe you'll find it handy as it requires minimal kitchen knowledge, but saves the day when you're hungry !!

Another pal made chinese rice & chicken sweet and sour, that is always my favourite when I order at the chinese restaurant, and it was as tasty as the restaurant's,I salut you my friend for your great talent :)

We then decided to abandon the cabin area and go to the famous Montaza Bridge, that appears far away in the pic below.

It was quite a distance ,but we made it!!

It was really fun to see those people whom I haven't seen half of them for five years now. And it was as if we were back in high school with the same spirit .

Wishing those who are heading back to Australia, USA, & Netherlands a safe journey!!

Out & About:Farah al Bahr festival 2009

The Anna Lindh Foundation held the Farah El-Bahr 2-days festival, the first annual Mediterranean cultural festival taking place at Qaitbey Citadel in Alexandria. The programme constituted of a variety of cultural activities, including traditional dancing of Palestine and Greece, theatre performances, storytelling and handicrafts presented by artists from around Egypt including Cairo, Assiout, Siwa and Port Said.Furthermore, gastronomy also featured in the Festival and was presented both through traditional Egyptian cuisine and demonstrated by members of foreign communities living in Egypt.

In the picture above, THAT was my cotton candy :) Luv it !!

During the Anna Lindh Festival a number of special activities was dedicated to children including puppet shows, henna tattoos, caricature artists, calligraphy, kite flying, a fire blower and a magician.In the evenings renowned contemporary Egyptian bands including Massar Egbari, Sout fl Zahma, Nas Makan, Station Band and the Egyptian artist Ahmed El-Sawy performed within the Citadel. The festival also included a joint performance between the Egyptian artist Mohamed Antar and the Spanish guitarist Fernando Perez who presented a fusion between traditional Egyptian music and Euro-Mediterranean music.

I hope this year's festival will be as exciting as the previous one!!

Out & About: Green Plaza

Yesterday I took my siblings to Green Plaza, to see Toy Story 3 at the Cineplex.

I love this place because it's open, and green. I'm not claustrophobic,but why go to a mall, with all these people walking under the same roof, when you have a spacious open air place to have a walk , shop or dine at the same places you'd find at the mall !!

l;

There's all the usual brand shops, and some regular ones.

We dined at Pizza Hut,

Then there are the numerous cafes where you can sit and enjoy a drink, dessert or whatever you want while watching people pass by. or if it was the World Cup season, like now, you can watch the game on the big screens with alot of football fans around you.. I personally hate football. It makes people act so irrationally .

I love this flower shop.. It always brings a sense of joy to me , just watching it and watching people go in and come out with different bouquets ,wondering who they are ment to be given to :)

This colourfull, castle-like building is Karamantas, the gaming area in the Plaza.I enjoy it most with my friends, my favouritees are , air hockey and the laser storm. There is also bowling, crashing cars, video games, trampoline,..etc

The top level "2nd level" of the plaza is dedicated to the Hilton Hotel.

It's a nice place to stay in, since you're basically surrounded by everything.



"Piece of Egypt", the antique shop.

And we finished off the day by some ice-cream. I had a pistachio and mango ice-cream :D

The place seems a bit deserted, because it was before 3pm.. people start storming in around that time. But I'm an early person, so we started our day at 11 am. Almost everyone was still asleep at home.

Out & About: Radisson Blu

During our vacation at the North Coast, which is a 1 & half hr drive out of Alex, Dad had a meeting at a hotel on the way, called " Radisson Blu". Knowing that I liked to see everything new , he took me with him :)

First impression: it resembeled a stadium !! With it's circular like structure, and the fact that it's situated in the middle of no where surrounded my mounts of sands .

The circular building turned out to be hollow from the inside, with a court yard-like space, and the rooms are all these cells in the structure, with blue glass on the balconies.

I enjoyed the lovely latin music that was beeing played by the pool area, while seated on the chaise lounge with a nice strawberry juice emm, it's my favourite drink !!

This is the golf course, & beyond it is the high way, then a lake which I really don't know anything about it, and far beyond are factories.

so, when I went home and looked it up online, I found that its original branch is in the US, and that it's a world wide chain of 435 hotels in 61 countries !!

Radissonblu.com is the site if you wanna check it out in any country.