A pop song blasted by sudden in the early morning. My body jerked as I heard some incoherent mumbles from the other bed. F is waking up and my body felt drained from my short nap because we both slept late the night before.

I snatched that bloody phone, scratch my bedside and looked at the time.

"Damn. Wake up, it's already eight!"

I bolted towards the bathroom while F was taking her time. We tried to pull an all-nighter but we dozed off the minutes we prayed for Subuh.  

Half an hour later, we strapped on our sneakers and ready to explore the city. Stepping out of the apartment, we were immediately swept up by the buzzing of motorbikes, the yelling drivers and the constant drumbeat that seemed to pulsed from all corners. F and I walked along the local train station and crossed over to the other side.

Then, as I sauntered up to the taxi's passenger window, F sputtered "Wait. Do you wanna try Careem?"

I turned to look at her. The taxi driver was starting to sounds impatient. "Bisur'ah, lau samah!"

I took a quick look on my Careem account and saw seventy Egyptian Pounds balance on my online wallet. I bid the taxi goodbye, muttering sorry while the driver shouting profanities towards us.

F and I look at each other and shrugged.

"So, where do we go first?"

I explained a little about our activities of the day while waiting for the Careem driver to pick us up near to a big chai place. Fifteen minutes later, we hopped in at the back of the car while the driver was trying to communicate with us in his broken English with thick Arab accent.

"You been here before?"

F answered yes while looking out the window. "But it was like six years ago, so I can barely remember this city anymore."

I was awe-struck. Alexandria has been different from my last visit. Beautiful as it was, I quickly learned that the city's aesthetics had nothing on its characters. We bid him goodbye when we arrived at our first stop - Pompei's Pillar.

The autumn in Egypt is not so different than summer. With temperature ranging about 30-37 degrees daily, it felt like summer never ended. 

It was two days before Eid Adha that I first suggested to a close girlfriend of mine about going to Alexandria. We were sitting on the floor while watching Modern Family in her room. She looked at me for a few seconds before shrugging her shoulders and agreed.

"What do you say if we spend our holiday in Alex for a few days?"

Pregnant pause ensued.

"Yeah, cool. I haven't been there since our first year."

After we celebrated Eid Adha on the 12th, I sat on the floor of my bedroom to pack my backpack, close to midnight. With the budget of 400 Egyptian Pounds for three days and two nights, we were trying to be as cheap as possible.

I even bought a toothbrush for two freaking pounds because I forgot to bring mine on the trip.

The clock turned to nine in the morning when we finally took off to Alexandria. We sat at the back of an old black Peugeot with other locals, which never would have happened without a little bit of luck and a lot of spontaneity. 

We arrived at the main station in Alex around noon. The three-hours car ride took us through the string of small cities and vast lands. F and I would look out to our respective windows every once in a while to see the unfamiliar surroundings, commenting on the things that we saw.

We bought a mineral water and a couple of Molto for the journey and then we took a taxi to get to our accomodation as soon as we arrived.

"Ya Ammu, maugud 'adat?" 

The taxi driver immediately shook his head no. 

I was contemplating to take another taxi that will use meter ('adat) but we didn't see lots of taxi there. We hopped in and prayed that the charge wasn't exorbitant.

But, there's no such luck.

Cheap my ass.

Once we got there, we checked in and rest for while. It was almost three in the evening when we settled down and most attractions will be close by five. After a casual discussion (we discussed while lying on the bed and laughing on The Big Bang Theory), we decided to go to the main mall in Alex and bought some foods and supplies. 

We took a tremco (minivan) for three pounds each near to Mubarrah, a little close to the railway station. We arrived at the mall twenty minutes later and heading to Carrefour. We took what we need and paid. We took the same route on our way back (we saved a lot of money because it can go up to 50 pounds per taxi ride), ate our dinner and watched The Big Bang Theory until midnight.

"So we're gonna have a full day tomorrow, eh?"

I nodded while keeping my eyes on the screen. "Maybe. We can still go on our last day if we have no time for all of the places tomorrow, no worries."

F hummed with approval.

"Sounds good."