Caitlin and I arrived at the Cairo Airport, after an interesting, if uneventful, flight from Milan.
Caitlin was lucky enough to sit next a man appearing Egyptian, trying to speak Italian, whom we and the flight attendants failed to understand completely. He was also all into Caitlin's space, couldn't fasten his own seat belt, had to hug the seat in front of him to get up. Lots of entertainment. (I most definitely had the middle seat on the way back!)
We managed our way through buying a visa, hitting up passport control and finding our cute lil' Egyptian driver holding Caitlin's name against the window glass from outside the airport. I promise we only worried about finding this guy for a hot minute after every other tourist's guide was inside the airport.
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| a cool new visa in my passport! |
We stayed out by the pyramids in Giza, and by this I mean, if I looked out the window I could see the pyramids and the Sphinx. If it's not dark. Or foggy. Or covered thickly with pollution. So, it took a full 36 hours before we really got to take a look.
In the morning we were picked up by our tour guide, Othman (sounds like 'Osmun'), and our trusty driver, Bill...as in Cosby... (nicknamed by us for the one classic sweater he was rockin' every day), and headed towards the Egyptian Museum for our first stop. The museum sits on Tahrir Square, home of the 2011 revolution. We saw tons of artifacts that we're still pretty clueless about, having relatively little background knowledge in Egyptian history. Most of the 2nd level is dedicated to Tutkankhamun, which was really cool and much easier to follow. The coffins inlaid with gold and precious stones were amazing, along with all the jewelry that was buried with the young king.
We saw the royal mummy collection. Totally weird, gross and spine chilling.
No pictures were allowed inside the museum.
I debated trying to take a picture of the scene outside the museum, but thought in the interest of my personal safety it would be best not to photograph the street lined with barbed wire and armed soldiers waiting in tanks for any possible outbreak of protests.
This is Tahrir Square back in 2011. You can see the Egyptian Museum in the back...it's the big coral-y pink building. The square was fairly empty the day we were there, but for some regular traffic. During the revolution, that central circle was filled with people camping out and then the crowds extended into all the areas you see below.
No pictures were allowed inside the museum.
I debated trying to take a picture of the scene outside the museum, but thought in the interest of my personal safety it would be best not to photograph the street lined with barbed wire and armed soldiers waiting in tanks for any possible outbreak of protests.
This is Tahrir Square back in 2011. You can see the Egyptian Museum in the back...it's the big coral-y pink building. The square was fairly empty the day we were there, but for some regular traffic. During the revolution, that central circle was filled with people camping out and then the crowds extended into all the areas you see below.
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| "Tahrir Square on September 9 2011" by Ahmed Abd El-Fatah from Egypt - Panoramic pic for tahrir Sq. 9-9-2011 صورة بانورامية لميدان التحرير الجمعةUploaded by The Egyptian Liberal. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tahrir_Square_on_September_9_2011.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Tahrir_Square_on_September_9_2011.jpg |
Next up was Coptic Cairo, which I'm still trying to wrap my head around the details. We visited the Hanging Church and a couple other churches and a synagogue.
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| a new mosaic outside of the 'hanging' church |
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| I love the intricate detail. |
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| I gotta tell ya...kids are pretty much the same anywhere in the world. |
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| Totally fascinated...by all the 'bread on the head' we saw while in Egypt. |
We were told lunch was up next. They pulled the car to the side of the road and our guide jumped out and went to get us lunch. He had previously described what we would be eating, but we were a bit surprised by the idea that we would be dining in the car. At about this point, Caitlin mentioned that maybe it was best we didn't see where the food was coming from.
Othman brought us a traditional Egyptian dish, koshari, made with spaghetti, macaroni, fried onions, lentils, chick peas, and fried noodles and had two different sauces to be poured over top.
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| Lunch...before we poured two different sauces over the top. |
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| Lunch...ready to eat. Sauces added and all stirred up! |
It was fine. Not bad, not good. Nothing really to write home about...except that it looks really interesting.
We spent the afternoon at the Citadel and Muhammed Ali mosque. It's a Turkish style mosque, with tall minarets resembling those found in Istanbul. The lights inside were similar too. I love the way the lights photograph, with their interesting patterns and curved lines.
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| If you squint through all that pollution, you might see two pyramids in the background. |
Our last stop was to the local tourist market, which was exactly what you'd expect it to be if you've shopped in Turkey, Morocco, or another similar country. Low quality goods and annoying salesmen. But, having a little experience in this area, at least we knew what to expect and could ignore most of it. We sampled some fresh juices while people watching at a cafe on the square...and I must say the people watching in Cairo is pretty fantastic.
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| What makes this even better is the idea that this guys jacket had the AC Milan soccer team logo, but yet the jacket is the colors of the other team in Milan, Inter. I guess the misprints made their way to Egypt. |
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| Waiting on our fruit juices. |
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| This truck was apparently all decked out for some festivities in advance of a wedding. Everyone gets in trucks and total chaos ensues as they drive around collecting all the items one needs to start building a life together. It was pure insanity. |
Notes:
Egyptian Museum entrance fee: 75 pounds
Royal Mummies entrance fee: 100 pounds
Citadel/Mohamed Ali mosque: 60 pounds
All hotel/tour information will be provided in the final post.
Have you ever been to Egypt? What was your experience like?
All hotel/tour information will be provided in the final post.
Have you ever been to Egypt? What was your experience like?
I spent August-November teaching at an American school in Cairo! Your posts cover Egypt at it's core.
ReplyDeleteAfter my short stint in Egypt, I'm anxious to teach abroad again! How did you come by your job in Milan? Thanks!
Hi Maggie! Thanks for checking out my blog. I actually read bits of yours before we went to Egypt. I was registered with Search Associates and went to the Cambridge fair. I left the fair without a job, but kept applying for jobs and interviewed with ASM in March and was offered the job the following day. If it's something you want, you should definitely keep trying to find the right job and location for you!
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