After the experiences of the last three days, I feel the need to dedicate a post to Alexandria taxi – drivers for the following reason:
1) They make you feel rich: no matter where you go (could be your hotel or the Carrefour, but if you exit the city center you’d better remember that the name of the Biblioteca is MASTABA, if you want to be brought back to the center of town), you always pay 5 egyptians pounds max.(which is the equivalent of 70 Eurocent).
2)The cab – fare meter is one of a kind in every cab I’ve been: in the first cab I took the meter was stuck on 6 Drachmaes, and had the cutest dolphin-shaped statue glued on it. The second one was stuck on 6 Francs ( and then I started to wonder if I could pay the ride , let’s say, 6 florins or 6 apples as well). There was a super technologic one, with a GPS navigator system powerful enough to detect a flock in the most remote Egyptian countryside and a remote-controlled mp3 system (I actually saw the remote, I swear). There was this super cute one who was completely fur-covered, and was like a theology essay on wheel : beside the dashboard there was a shoking purple velvet box containing the Koran plus a stars-n’-stripes Arbre Magique plus a rosary hanging from the rearview mirror.
3) Calling a cab could become an athletic disciplin: there are mainly two ways of calling a cab. The first one, best known as stop’n go consists in rushin against it as it passes by hoping it stops before it squashes you. The second one, best known as the taxi-dance consists in waving convulsivly your arms to draw the attention of the taxi driver who, as soon as he’ll detect you, will just cross the street without caring of the other cars passing by. My opinion is that there must be some kind of God that looks after Egyptian taxi-drivers.
4) Taxi drivers are super funny, especially after 9.00 p.m. and they make you really enjoy life: two nights ago we stopped a cab to be driven back to the hotel. The Egyptian taxi-driver protector God must have done a huge effort to make us reach the hotel alive, since the funny guy has driven all time chatting with us, and laughing, and clapping hands, and repeating every word we said.
God bless ( and keeps lookin’ after) Egyptian taxi – drivers!
