Destination: Cairo.
Since we were largely staying in the city, we got a slightly later start to the day (I've largely been ignoring any jet lag, but waking up a little later was fabulous). Our major attraction of the day was the Cairo Citadel, which is the largest in Egypt. We got there by eleven, and proceeded to explore. The Citadel is set up on a hill, so the views of the city are stunning. I was surprised to see just how huge Cairo is. Later, when the haze (apparently it's all pollution) cleared up a little bit, you could see all the way to the pyramids.
Inside the Citadel, there are several smaller museums, and a huge (and functional) mosque. The first mini-museum that we went to was the guest palace. Egyptians have the palace thing pretty down pat. It was quite luxurious. Next, we walked along one of the walls that overlooked the city. The Citadel is in the middle of the city, but high enough up so that even the honking horns seem more peaceful.
After trying to go in the exit, we were able to locate the correct door and make it inside the mosque. It was quite large, and the ceilings in particular were very ornate. I was prepared and brought a head scarf, but I was really surprised by the number of women (foreigners) who went in to the mosque without them. I thought that they would be called out, but I guess not.
The other mini museum that we went to was the Police Museum. It was... interesting. Some of the displays were really random, but I appreciated the fact that even the random displays were in English too. For example, they had an exhibit room dedicated to forensic evidence. One of the displays was on the uniqueness of fingerprints. An it showed all these pictures of people who didn't really have fingers... Also, there was a drug display. It didn't really give any explanation, just displayed drugs like marijuana, shrooms, and peyote (really, that's a problem in Egypt?).
After the Citadel, we did some more shopping. I got myself a camel (Mini Joey). I got other people stuff too, but I want to build the suspense. For lunch, we went back to Farah's house, where I had some authentic Egyptian food. The soup had a very, very odd texture, but was good (and apparently very healthy).
The next thing on the agenda was to go to the Cairo Tower, and to try to hit it at sunset. Well, we made it to the tower, but traffic was bad enough that we made it just after the sunset. Actually, the ride there was quite exciting. Our cab driver seemed to feel that he was participating in NASCAR, and I was in my first (VERY minor) traffic incident in Egypt. It was a fender bender. No damage. But our cabdriver got out in the middle of the road and looked pissed off for a few minutes.
The Cairo Tower itself is quite nice. Apparently, America wanted something else built, and the leader of Egypt at the time took the money, claimed to be building the something else, and instead built the tower, in a "Hahaha" moment. They then charge foreigners (including Americans) $10 more than natives. Oh well. Even missing sunset, the views from the tower were amazing. We went downstairs to sit in the cafe and admire the view. I had a piece of cheesecake that was fabulous.
At this point, we were largely killing time before our restaurant reservations, so we wandered around through a bookstore for a while. The bookstore was very nice, and I found a few books that I might be interested in reading when I don't have to carry them with me on a plane. Dinner was at Sequoia, which is a very nice restaurant. It's outdoors, on the Nile. They have all these fire tubes everywhere to keep the temperature reasonable, and have sheets to block out the wind. A very cool experience. Several people came out with us, and it was really nice to just sit and chill. The food was really good too :)
I'm working on getting more pictures up. The ones from the Citadel and Tower might come before the Alexandria photos. We'll see. I'll post the link as soon as that happens. Have a nice day!
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