A Weekend in Cairo

Dear readers,

At long last -- my account of my trip to Cairo a couple of weeks ago! It was an awesome trip; I may like Cairo more than I like Alexandria, though I will say that Alexandria is much cleaner (mountains of trash were a common sight), and not as hot (i.e. not 100 degrees every day).

The drive there was nice; I slept most of the way, but when I wasn’t sleeping, I was talking to my classmates (in Arabic and English) about various topics, ranging from our favorite types of music (e.g. Phoenix, Joe Jackson, Israeli pop) to our favorite Arabic linguistic mistakes (e.g. mistaking “Mozz” (“Sexy guy”) for “Mooz” (“Banana”)). We stopped to use the restroom at this very unusual rest stop sort of place:

which, strangely, had a zoo area too, with flamingos, deer, llamas and -- most entertainingly -- ostriches:

Just look at that attractive face!

Seriously, though, I felt sorry for the animals, because it was so freaking hot outside, and some of the animals (e.g. the llamas) were not built for that weather.

Once we got to Cairo, we went on a cruise on the Nile! Here is what the boat looked like:

Very lovely! We also got some pretty good food, and the view of the city was wonderful when we went to the top of the boat:

And when we went back down, there was a dance performance going on! Belly dancing, sword dancing, and lots of awkwardly getting people from the audience to join in -- including kids in the program, shown below.

(photo courtesy of Amy)

Then we got to our hotel, which was REALLY nice.

As soon as we walked in, I felt like I was back in America. Not to complain about the hotel in Alexandria, but it feels so quirky and bizarre in comparison to American hotels, and it felt really good to sleep in a soft bed, in a room with an American-style bathroom and a shower area that didn’t overflow. :)

The next day, here's what we did -- in no particular order, since I don't remember the order, to be perfectly honest --

We went to the Egyptian Museum, which is by far the most salmon-colored building I’ve ever seen:

Inside it had a pretty amazing collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts, mummified remains, etc. I wasn’t allowed to take pictures, or else I would have – especially of the Russian-doll-styled coffin-within-a-coffin that King Tut was buried in, and his ornate burial mask. (Gotta admit, though, that I went through the whole museum with “King Tut” by Steve Martin and the Toot Uncommons stuck in my head!)

We also went to the Citadel, which was absolutely gorgeous:

(photos courtesy of Amy, Green, and Sean, since my camera had died by that point)

Besides the National Cathedral, St. John the Divine, Westminster Abbey, and St. Bartholomew’s (in New York), I have never been so moved by the beauty of a religious space. 

(photo courtesy of Sean)

This was one of my favorite parts of going to Cairo. I liked almost everything about that Citadel trip. Once we got into the mosque, especially; it's something about religious spaces, but no matter how hectic a place you're in -- physically or mentally -- a religious space will be calm and you can have quiet time there. No one harassed us or tried to sell us things, even though it was a tourist spot. It was really, really nice.

The view of the city from there was great too!

Two thumbs up from me!

 

Fun fact: Apparently the reason why mosques/citadels/whatever are domed, is for resonance, so that whoever is leading the prayer can be heard in every corner of the mosque portion of the Citadel.

Another fun fact: Muhammed Ali Pasha is a badass. I’m becoming more of a fan of him, the longer I stay in Egypt! It’s probably because I’m falling for the propaganda; they treat him in Egypt like we treat George Washington in America.

After that (maybe? again, I don't remember the order that well), we went to Khan al-Khalili, a famous and very old open-air market in Cairo. (Sorry I don't have photos; no one else on the trip got photos either, to my knowledge, because it was too crazy for anyone to get a chance to.) Somehow, it was both touristy, and anti-touristy, at the same time; on the one hand, it looks like something out of an old movie, or out of a spy-movie action scene where some guy is chasing an enemy agent through the marketplace and knocking over people’s wares as he barrels by.

But on the other hand, you had to negotiate for EVERYTHING. Thank goodness the conversation partners were with us, because I had to tag-team almost every negotiation I made. (Maybe negotiating would be fun if I were good at it… but I’m not, at present.) I was pretty exhausted by the end, because for me, it takes a lot of energy to constantly tune people out; there wasn’t a moment that went by where I wasn’t intentionally ignoring a seller who was yelling at me from his store.

I won’t say what I got, because that would be giving away people’s presents when I get home. ;-) But I can say that they’re pretty cool, and you will really like them, inshallah!

So that was the second day. And on the last day in Cairo... we saw the Pyramids!

(Glamour shot courtesy of Sean)

And we saw the Sphinx!

(Two thumbs up, again!)

And we actually went inside this pyramid:

Someone was singing the “Indiana Jones” theme as we were going in, which added a certain je ne sais quoi to the experience – and it made me nostalgic for the time when I went to the Lewis and Clark Caverns on a school trip in elementary school. (Non-Montanans, look those up! They’re really cool.)

And -- best part of the entire weekend -- I RODE A CAMEL.

(Photo courtesy of Amy, who was also on a camel at the time)

Twenty minutes of pure joy. I wish it had been longer!

Well that's about it; time to work on my next blog post in advance, so hopefully I'll get it posted in a couple of days. I really haven't been fair to my readers, and for that I apologize, and I will try to do better.

Ma'a as-Salaama,

Beth