Alexandria

       The first view we got of the Mediterranean Sea, and her gathering might. Choppy waves, and chaos. That's what I initially thought.The churning froth from the heaving waters had us awestruck for where I come from, the waves are more subdued  - though no less beautiful!
       Disembarking from the van we were hit by the salty tang of the sea, and cold spittle rained on us from even 3 plus metres away. 

       Then we got closer to the water's edge. The fine spray and the way the droplets danced and shimmered as wave upon wave pounded on the cemented walls around the periphery of the city left us breathless. Breathless from her majestic power and also because we were running for cover!
Note : Running for cover was a futile attempt because we all got drenched anyway :P
       The pounding of the waves was rhythmic and almost orchestrated, and the thunder of the waves drowned out all thought from us. 

       We waited a full 2 hours and more to watch the receding waves. That platform you see in the picture above had been submerged underwater the first time we got to there. 
       We could finally hear each other speak again but none of us did much talking  for some reason.

       This was our parting shot as we left to go to the library (No, not the original library by Alexander the Great, that one got sunk long ago!) 
       I love the shoreline formed by the crests of the waves, that huge white curve upon the sand.
       I genuinely believe that if I had been an atheist, I would have succumbed to animistic beliefs after that day, for the sea truly seemed to have a soul of her own. The sea having a soul thing was much talked about after our trip, when our tongue-tied-ness had worn off, but one thing we all agreed on was this: never had any of us seen any other body of water with such character, such attitude before!
       And our translator assured us that she was like this every single day. Such immense power, it was a trifle scary. 
Yeah, we had a translator :), since the only decent word we knew collectively in Arabic was 'shukrat', which means thank you... and that wouldn't have gotten us very far!