So the highlight and lowlight of my day might have taken place when we took a boat trip down the Nile. It was only 2 bucks per person b/c it wasn't a private boat ride and it was only for 30 minutes. So all the women on the boat were wearing the head-dresses, showing their faces (not full burqas) but covering all their hair (as do almost ALL women in Cairo). There's festive arabian music playing and two of the girls get up and start dancing, and I'm horrified because I do have a feeling as the only white girl on the boat and as an obvious tourist they're going to pull me up there, and much to my horror, they came right to me and pulled me up despite my protests. I tried my best but lets just say I sat down as quickly as I could feeling pretty stupid! But all the locals seemed to enjoy it so what the hell.
We also had two very young girls in full burqas today ask us for a picture. They took a photo of us with their cell phones. We knew they were young by their eyes, and the school books they were carrying. I took a photo with my arms around them, but when it was Enrique's turn to have his photo with them, they both purposefully stepped further away, because I'm sure its very important in their customs not to talk to men other than their family members or husbands, etc.
Our day started out with a trip to the oldest Christian church in Egpyt that dates back to the 1st century AD. The ceiling of the church was shaped and built like the bottom of a boat, and although you couldn't tell, the church was about 50 feet off of the ground to avoid Nile floods. Now the land is all built up around the church, and you wouldn't know it had been built so high off the ground if it weren't for a showcased area that displayed the original distance from the church floor down to the ground level.
Next we visted a really beautiful mosque that dated back to about 1300s. A fortress around it dated back to the 1100s. It looked very turkish and in fact was modeled after "The Blue Mosque" in Istanbul. There were a lot of school children on field trips at the mosque and many wanted to say "Hi" to us, ask our names, and have their photos taken with us, which was really fun, and all the girls with their colorful covered heads were especially cute.
Next we visited an outdoor market/bazaar area after the mosque where we saw "a bunch of junk that was made in China" (that was Enrique's exact quote about it).
The Cairo Museum was next, where we saw the mummy of Ramses the II, who ruled Egypt for 67 years (a long time for a Pharo back in the day, when so many died so young). Ramses the Great wasn't looking too hot... actually most of the mummies were looking pretty dead... it was a little bit too horror movie for my tastes, but you can't come all the way to Egypt and not go see the mummies I guess. And if you consider that they're about 4000 years old, they were looking FABULOUS.
My favorites parts of the Cairo museum were the King Tut displays, including his gold mask, which is famous around the world, and his golden coffins that fit one inside another (there were 3), and 2 mummified crocidiles who were about 3000 years old, and they were - no lie- 20 feet long. JUST HUGE. You would not want to run into one of these while out for a swim, let me tell you.
We came upon this internet cafe tonight on a walk around the city center, which is really bustling ALL THE TIME. If you think traffic is bad in Atlanta, you haven't seen anything I promise. I'm getting tired so I need to go for now, but I promise to tell you more about the methods for driving and crossing the street as a pedestrian another time (Have you ever played Frogger?). Don't worry Mom, we're being very safe though!!
Lots of love from Cairo, Meagan
We also had two very young girls in full burqas today ask us for a picture. They took a photo of us with their cell phones. We knew they were young by their eyes, and the school books they were carrying. I took a photo with my arms around them, but when it was Enrique's turn to have his photo with them, they both purposefully stepped further away, because I'm sure its very important in their customs not to talk to men other than their family members or husbands, etc.
Our day started out with a trip to the oldest Christian church in Egpyt that dates back to the 1st century AD. The ceiling of the church was shaped and built like the bottom of a boat, and although you couldn't tell, the church was about 50 feet off of the ground to avoid Nile floods. Now the land is all built up around the church, and you wouldn't know it had been built so high off the ground if it weren't for a showcased area that displayed the original distance from the church floor down to the ground level.
Next we visted a really beautiful mosque that dated back to about 1300s. A fortress around it dated back to the 1100s. It looked very turkish and in fact was modeled after "The Blue Mosque" in Istanbul. There were a lot of school children on field trips at the mosque and many wanted to say "Hi" to us, ask our names, and have their photos taken with us, which was really fun, and all the girls with their colorful covered heads were especially cute.
Next we visited an outdoor market/bazaar area after the mosque where we saw "a bunch of junk that was made in China" (that was Enrique's exact quote about it).
The Cairo Museum was next, where we saw the mummy of Ramses the II, who ruled Egypt for 67 years (a long time for a Pharo back in the day, when so many died so young). Ramses the Great wasn't looking too hot... actually most of the mummies were looking pretty dead... it was a little bit too horror movie for my tastes, but you can't come all the way to Egypt and not go see the mummies I guess. And if you consider that they're about 4000 years old, they were looking FABULOUS.
My favorites parts of the Cairo museum were the King Tut displays, including his gold mask, which is famous around the world, and his golden coffins that fit one inside another (there were 3), and 2 mummified crocidiles who were about 3000 years old, and they were - no lie- 20 feet long. JUST HUGE. You would not want to run into one of these while out for a swim, let me tell you.
We came upon this internet cafe tonight on a walk around the city center, which is really bustling ALL THE TIME. If you think traffic is bad in Atlanta, you haven't seen anything I promise. I'm getting tired so I need to go for now, but I promise to tell you more about the methods for driving and crossing the street as a pedestrian another time (Have you ever played Frogger?). Don't worry Mom, we're being very safe though!!
Lots of love from Cairo, Meagan
2 comments:
Wow, sounds like a full day. Please tell me there are pictures of the dancing (*please tell me there are pictures of the dancing*)
Cant wait to see pics of the camel and pyramids!
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