Egypt Day 2

Wednesday January 12, 2011

Every day on my Egyptian journey was packed full of activities and the second day was no different.  I was picked up by my driver and Mustafa after a hearty breakfast and our first stop was the Egyptian Museum.  They wouldn't allow cameras inside the museum but it was really neat.  I saw King Tut's tombe and it was amazing.  There were so many neat things inside that just put you in a state of awe thinking that the people made these things without our modern day technology.  I really have no idea how they did it but it makes it that much more amazing. 

After the Museum we had a bit of time to kill before lunch so we took a felucca ride down a stretch of the Nile and it was so nice.  You were finally able to breathe a bit of fresh air rather than the burnt diesel and dust that covers the city.  The water was relaxing and I got to see Cairo from a different perspective.  

After lunch we headed across the city to the Citadel and the Mohamed Ali Mosque.  No not the boxer. LOL Everyone around Egypt is named Mustafa, Mohamed or some other version of the name for the prophet of Islam.  This was my first mosque to go into and I was really looking forward to it.  I had seen my friend’s pictures of mosques in Turkey and just seen other general pictures and the insides of them look so beautiful with all the mosaics and open space.  The Citadel was very interesting.  Citadel is just another word for castle or fort.  It sat at the top of the hill and overlooked the surrounding city.  This would have been essential in the old days to ward off any attacks and to keep from being surprised.  It was all concrete and much smaller than I remember but was pretty much a small city within the walls.  The mosque that was inside the walls of the Citadel wasn’t one that was still in use so I, as a women, didn’t have to cover my head, hair, and arms but we did get these little surgical booties to put over our shoes to help preserve the carpets and things.  While at this mosque I learned about the different parts that a building must have to actually be considered a mosque.  You need a pulpit type structure for the leader of the prayers to stand, a little niche in the wall that indicated the direction of Mecca and this is the direction that everyone faces as they pray. You also need a fountain or some sort of area that has water so everyone can wash before prayer.  Mainly the big pretty parts of the mosque are for the men.  Women have a similar room for prayer that is in the mosque but they aren’t allowed to pray beside the men.

After visiting the Citadel and adjoining mosque the driver took Mustafa and I to the town center where there are many businesses, the regular townspeople, more mosques, and the Khan Khalili Market.  I as really excited about this because although it is known to attract tourists it isn’t like the pyramids that are ONLY for tourists.  The locals still use this market or bazaar as they call it to purchase goods of all sorts.  There are allies and allies full of different little shops selling anything and everything, a lot of clothing and home goods can be found here.  I don’t buy nick knacks for myself when I go to a different country in remembrance of it because I know that one day I am just going to pack it up or throw it away so instead I like to have the pictures as memories and also a scarf from that place.  This was the only thing I wanted to do in the bazaar besides look around and take some neat pictures.  I knew what I was looking for in a scarf.  I knew that I wanted it to be sort of neutral so I could use it with a lot of things so the first shop we came to had a beautiful Egyptian cotton scarf that I loved.  It was so soft and pretty but the price they were asking, according to Mustafa, was too much.  It was a good thing he was with me to haggle with them because I am not sure what a fair price is and they take him more serious since he is an Egyptian man. LOL I never went back there to get the scarf but I ended up finding one that was just as pretty and just as soft for a better price down a different ally. 

Between shopping and checking out more mosques we would rest at a little café type business where we would drink hot tea with fresh mint leaves and smoke sheesha (hooka).  The shop owner’s son was there helping the dad by delivering tea and refilling the flavored tobacco and he was so cute.  I guess I’m somewhat of a rarity having blonde hair and blue eyes and traveling alone and the little boy was smitten.  He was flirting up a storm and kept asking of a picture so finally I gave in and took one with him. LOL  

After an afternoon of milling around and just soaking in the culture of the town square we headed out to our Nile dinner cruise.  I recognized the area because earlier in the day it was near the place where I rode the felucca.  The dinner cruise was fun although the boat moved so slow you really couldn’t tell you were moving.  The food was really good especially the desserts.  They had these little squares that were AMAZING and I knew what it was.  Pretty much it’s some sort of dessert made from our American Cream of Wheat.  Mustafa told me that in Egypt it is called basbosa.  While were stuffed our faces with great buffet food we were entertained by a belly dancer that encouraged participation and I was one of the lucky ones who got picked L and also a tanura?  Which reminded me somewhat of a Mexican entertainer.  After the dinner cruise ended it was probably around 10 but I was so wound up I wasn’t ready to go to bed to we stopped back by the main square to drink some more tea.  After we had our fill of that Mustafa let me drive his car LOL!

 I was sort of sick of having history lessons so Mustafa took me to a night club.  It wasn’t packed but it was a lot of fun and I got to really learn how to belly dance and see more of a cultural interaction rather than just be a tourist.  It was sort of funny because the driving and the nightclub weren’t part of my tour so we sort of had to go around the driver to accomplish these activities.  According to Mustafa, the workers in all industries compete constantly with each other since money is such a shortage so if anyone ever does anything even SEMI wrong they will be thrown under the bus immediately by someone that they may even consider a trusted friend.  YIKES, sounds like KBR LOL After the dancing it was around 3 am and needless to say I was very exhausted and becoming sick from all the smoke and just the different environment so it was for sure time to head back to the hotel.