Cairo

• Posted by: Geo Kearley
• Comments: 1

It’s amazing how staying up for 20 hours in 54C weather helps you sleep on the train… We arrived back in Cairo yesterday after taking the overnight train from Luxor and said goodbye to our travel companions before heading off to the Victoria Hotel.

We actually have a fully functioning, clean bathroom with toilet paper! It’s a bit of a luxury in Egypt – it seems like the hotel star rating system is based on the grandiosness of the lobby – like it is in China (despite the fact you may be kept up all night by the rat under your bed eating the matress ~ that’s only a China reference so far…)

We bummed around in the old Islamic section of Cairo yesterday, which is to say we dove into the warren of market streets and got lost in a fully satisfying bargaining bonanza with the local touts selling all manner of clothes, scarves, jewelery, perfume oils, brass works and Egyptian kitch (Hey! Where you from? Canada? Canada Dry! Never Die! Let me show you something – just look, for free! I have another shop… you want T-shirt? lamp? spices? silver? You have beautiful smile… etc. You get the idea.) I did pick up some beautiful prayer beads to add to my collection and I really have to stop buying them, but there’s something about them that’s irresistable. We also stumbeled on a genuine perfumer’s shop (believe me, there’s several fakes out there…) where I couldn’t resist some ethereal sandalwood and jasmine oils.

When we exhausted our ability to bargain, we stopped at an amazing old coffe shop in the middle of the market streets called Fishwali’s, where we sat an enjoyed a mint tea surrounded by apple and rose scented shisha pipe smoke, cats who live in the market, and ornately carved cedarwood mirror frames that hold mirrors as big as a set of french doors. We sat under a filthy Venetian glass chandalier and a stuffed Nile crocodile and took pictures of the world going by. It was good fun, and the only way to deal with the heat of the day.

We spent all morning in Coptic Cairo, where we visited the “Hanging Church”, the church of St Sergius, the church of St George, and a beautiful mosque. It’s amazing that the site where the Holy family stayed for three years while fleeing from Herod is not a bigger item on the tourist agenda here, but it simply isn’t. It seems like all of the tourist marketing in Cairo is geared at getting tourists to markets, and taking them to see the pyramids and Pharonic Egypt,. The incredible Christian and Jewish history that’s here is overlooked. It was surreal to stand where the Holy family stayed – try to get your head around the idea that you’re standing in the middle of a dirty, overpopulated city and say to yourself “This is where Jesus stood” while listening to the traffic and hamman calls from the Islamic mosques.

Here’s a few observations about Egypt in general that are interresting.:
1. Many Islamic men have calluses in the middle of their foreheads from praying five times a day.
2. People here are genuinely friendly – not just hussle for you cash friendly.
3. There are well fed stray cats everywhere – the Pharoahs would be pleased. There are descent looking dogs laying in the shade of many of the big monuments.
4. Ancient, amazing buildings with intricately carved facades are abandoned in the middle of the city, and left to decay in the polution. The same buildings in North America would be declared historic properties, restored and protected in an un-alterable state.
5. The population here is so dense that aside from the pyramids at Giza, people still live in what are essentially historic properties – ie: the crumbling old medina around the church where the Holy family stayed. There are modern fridges and stoves ballanced on uneven old stone floors, worn down throught the ages, and straw mats on the floor beside them for the families to sleep on.
6. Every surface is filthy dirty – it’s smoggy, polluted, and dusty from the desert, and it’s too hot for anyone to care enough to clean it up. Regardless, nobody seems to mind.

That’s about it for today – thanks to everyone who has been mesaging us – mom, Laurie, Kelly – we are getting your notes! As usual, we miss our families, friends and doggies (Kylie, let us know how they are… tell them we love them!)

Noel & George

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Date posted :	Jul 11, 2008
Last modified :	Apr 9, 2009
Categories :	Egypt, Middle East
Tags :	Cairo, Luxor