Back to Alexandria, Egypt. So you've got the dance, but you also have the music, and the lighting. Unless you're the Mime Marceau (and probably some dancers I don't know), you need the music to dance to, and in order for your audience to see you well, a good lighting might come in handy.

When it comes to music, I'll pass on the actual noise of rush hour traffic, caused by an unusually high number of old cars, which make did not include silence as the primary concern, and by the high speed of them on the streets. More interesting to listen to is the actual conversations that go on between drivers. Those are primary led through the car horn.

Seriously, when you observe a driver, you realize that their hand spends more time on the horn than on the stirring wheel or the shift (not exactly reassuring, but hey...). I seriously believe that driving without a functionning horn is like driving blind (and when I actually asked the question, they said that it was the case). After three days, I was however able to recognize that there were very different uses of the horn.

Some were briefs honks, others repetitive patterns, other again long pressures. Something that could pass as morse code. The Egyptians I was with confirmed that there were actual phrases you could say with your horn, universally recognized. Those range from "hello", to "you as**ole" via "I love you". Yes, you read well, you can actually say "I love you" with a honk on Egyptian streets. I failed to note all the meanings, which I regret, but even non drivers have trouble interpreting them all.

The second means of communication between drivers are the lights. Those are mostly used during the night, which makes sense, but not much in the way I at least, use them. The default driving at night occurs with no lights, and the drivers use them to either wake up the other drivers, warn them that they're going to pass them, on the right, on the left, in the middle. The patterns did not seem to me to be as complex as the sound ones, but interesting nonetheless.

My conclusion would be that driving is a very complete activity, much like roaming, which really appeals to very many senses. Much more than it is in Europe. Mind you, the Italians would probably feel at home in Egypt, the Parisians would take just a while to adapt, and the Germans would rather die than try their luck at it!