Cairo and home

Monday March 20
On Monday, we flew to Cairo and checked into our sweet old hotel, the Nile Hilton. Our room was enormous and not at all the sterile, place-less space I've come to expect of high-end hotels. We had a little balcony overlooking a court yard and some of the city beyond.

We were also a stone's throw from the Egyptian museum, and we headed over there for an afternoon tour, our last from our guide, Essam. The museum is not enormous, but it is stuffed full of things. In fact, at one point, I looked up and saw a little blue pottery hippo. It turns out this guy is fairly famous, but it was about five feet up on top of something else, with a typically badly typed piece of paper explaining what it was.

The museum contains tremendous treasures, including the contents of Tutankhamun's tomb, so valuable, that I'm sure they have no possible assignable value. It was a thrill to see them.

An amusing thing happened in the bath room. It was located at the landing half way between the first and second floors. I went in, and saw a sign in four languages that said "Please no tipping." A woman handed me about six squares of toilet paper and asked for money. I pointed out the sign and she said "No, that's only for *this* bathroom" and pointed out the one with the picture of a wheelchair on it. At this point, I was used to Egyptian logic, gave her some money, and went to the bathroom area for able bodied people. On the way out, she again pointed out the sign and as I walked the rest of the way to the first floor, I mused about how someone in a wheelchair just might climb half a flight of stairs to get to that bathroom. (Or a full flight of stairs to get to the second floor, but I digress.) But how thoughtful of the Egyptians to provide one wheelchair accessible bathroom for which you didn't have to tip for your six squares of toilet paper.

I finally stumbled out and went back to our room via a few shops. It was then that I noticed the tremendous police presence in the area. I'm not sure if they were protecting us, or the museum, or if it was because Prince Charles was in town.

Tuesday March 21
We went to Coptic Cairo by subway (cheap and convenient if the subway goes where you're headed). The settlement in this little village goes back to about the 6th Century BC, and it's where many Christians worship (there are more than 20 churches in one square kilometer). You find one of a few entrances into the old wall and duck almost underground to a series of narrow alleys, and then just stumble on churches. Most are Coptic; a few are Greek orthodox.

It's also home of the Ben Ezra Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in the country. When we left the synagogue proper, we walked around the grounds a bit. We stumbled on a little house and went inside. It's apparently the third largest Jewish library in Egypt, with 3000 volumes. The man who welcomed us said that they have books in Arabic, Hebrew transliterated into Arabic, Ladino, Yiddish, Hebrew, and perhaps a few other languages. He even showed us a 300-year old book published in Italy, that at least the worms have been enjoying.

We met a Jewish vendor on the street who told us that there are 42 Jewish families living in Cairo. I'd heard that the synagogue was no longer in active use, so perhaps there's another temple where they can worship.

Also, at a Christian church, we saw a man in long black robes with a black skullcap. People were coming up to him and kissing his ring and his robe... while he was talking on a cell phone.

The churches were beautiful, with lots of inlaid mother-of-pearl, light, and surprisingly, live birds. There's of course a lot of history, with one church claiming that Jesus, Joseph, and Mary came to its crypt when they were wandering around Egypt.

For lunch and some shopping, we went to Souk al Foustat, a fair trade crafts center that's enough off the beaten path not to receive a lot of visitors (at least while we were there). There were some very lovely items, including cross-stitch, hand-made body lotions, wooden toys, cut metal lampshades, and so on.

Wednesday March 22
For our last day in Cairo, we headed to the huge souk, Khan al-Khalili. We first went to the Street of the Tentmakers, which required us to go through a souk where Egyptians go for their table and bed linens, clothing, and so on. This is a very old part of the city, with narrow winding streets, vendors spilling out of their shops, mosques everywhere, hand-carved wooden grills, garbage in the streets, wild cats, lots of crowds, and of course, the occasional car or mule and cart pushing through it all.

After going through one of the city gates, we were finally on the SotTM. They do still make a few tents there, but now, it's a street where people sit in the dark of their shop embroidering appliqued banners and pillow covers. The work is all very fine. Some of the designs are bold and colorful with few pieces; others are intricate and just stunning.

Then, back to the Khan al-Khalili. By this time, things were starting to heat up -- more people were out, more vendors were open. The Khan is immense, and people sell everything, both to Egyptians and to tourists. You can get all sorts of brass and copper items, tee shirts, stuffed toy camels, scarves of any variety, leather hassocks, expensive jewelry, beautiful antiques, collectibles, carpets, glass, stationery, belly dance supplies, spices, and on and on.

You'd duck down one narrow alleyway and be overwhelmed by tourist tchotchkes. We ducked down another alleyway and were suddenly in the land of spices, about two blocks long. We turned down an even narrower path and there were more spices, though not aimed at the tourist trade.

We finally sat down in a little coffee house (not the famous one, but the lesser one which I think is right next door). We were seated on benches and chairs on a corner outside, so we could watch the entire world go by. A mute shoe shiner came up to us but had little luck with our hiking boots. Various vendors tried to sell us leather wallets, badly made hassocks, fake rolexes, and so on. And a little kitty came over to visit and climbed up on my bag. I finally put him next to me where he went to sleep for a while, shutting out the hustle of the marketplace.

We went into a jewelry shop, where our companions seriously looked at some serious jewelry, and said they'd revisit the decision on the store's web site.

Finally, another woman and I decided we couldn't take anymore (shopping is exhausting after all), and we settled into an overpriced coffeeshop on a busy square while the menfolk went off to a local mosque and got a great tour. Another member of our tour group joined us at our table for a while before drifting off.

Thursday March 23
And home. We got up early, ate breakfast, and got on the bus to head to the airport. It was then that our tour organizer realized that when he'd gone to confirm our flight, the airline had failed to return one of the tickets. After a half-hour delay, we left for the airport, where we sat in an entry hall for an hour and a half while the tour leaders tried to sort out the mess.

With half an hour to go before takeoff for New York, all our luggage was wheeled to an inspection chute, where we also placed our carry-on luggage. As soon as we each gathered our own luggage, we took it to the checkin desk. We then proceeded to a passport control desk, and then down long halls to the gate, where our carry-on luggage was inspected again. We finally got on the plane with moments to spare. Early in the trip, someone called the experience of being in Egypt as one of "organized chaos." This last bit of incompetence certainly cemented the observation.

We were home 21 hours after getting on the bus, and were glad to see our own personal beds once again.