More from Egypt

I know I'm probably scaring people away by adding so much from our trip to Egypt. But it was just such a fun trip, and I want to be able to remember it. I mean, I guess this is sort of my version of scrapbooking, eh? So, on with the remaining picts from our trip...

SABBATH DAY IN CAIRO
In the Arab world, the Sabbath day is actually on Friday, and the weekend is Friday and Saturday. Yes, even members of our church have Sabbath on Friday. So, we got to go to the unofficial Cairo branch of the church on Friday morning. It was great! They were doing Seminary graduation for the youth, so all the speakers were the graduates. Then, they had their annual branch photo, which they invited us to join. We stayed for all the meetings, and chatted with members after. Most are expats from the US, just in Cairo for a few years. Brian only knew two people from his time there seven years ago -- high turnover rate, it seems.

We got our traditional photo in front of the building. Brian loves to take pictures of our church's meeting houses around the world. This one is a large villa, transformed into a very nice chapel with classrooms and other meeting rooms. I was surprised to see a bathtub in the women's bathroom, until Brian explained how they converted it from the villa several years ago.
After, we walked over to where Brian used to live, just a few blocks from the church. It was really nice and well kept. There were some old men in front shining shoes... 10 - 12 pair lined up on the ground waiting to be shined. They wanted to shine Blaine's, but he declined.
FINAL DAYS IN CAIRO

The next day we went to the Egyptian Museum, a fascinating, memorable experience. Below, we're sitting in the courtyard in front of the museum. It's a gorgeous building, but a little tired inside. They have over 120,000 artifacts inside -- mummies, coffins, death maskes, vases, cases, chairs, beds, necklaces, bracelets, and on and on. Most of the pieces are just sitting around large rooms, many completely unmarked. If they are marked, it's only by old typewritten sheets of paper in wood frames, not matching and hardly readable. We kept commenting on how the Egyptians would do good to partner with a world class museum, like the NY Met or something, to properly display their amazing works! No photos inside the museum. But I borrowed this one below, from the museum's web site, because it was by far the most amazing piece we saw -- Tutankhamun's (King Tut's) death mask, made of solid gold, weighing about 22 pounds! It was quite a remarkable piece to see, much more arresting in person than in a photo. The room where they keep it also contains the sarcophagus where he was laid, brightly painted and preserved in so many gorgeous colors.

After the museum, we went up on the hill to the Citadel, a fortress that dates from the 12 or 13th century. Inside is the gorgeous Mohammed Ali mosque, which we didn't get to tour because it was already closed. But we got some great views of the city. And walking down from the Citadel, we passed a place called the City of the Dead (pictured below). It's where the people are so poor they actually live in the ruins on top of the tombs of their dead. It was very sad to see the absolute poverty of the people.
We spent some time that evening relaxing in a gorgeous park near the Citadel, overlooking the city. Parks are hard to come by in Cairo, Brian says. So wherever there's a nice park, it's bound to be mobbed by people. This one was no exception, with the grass looking rather mauled. There were lots of families and young couples... all of them loved watching Samantha.
And Samantha LOVED wandering around, even though she kept falling over because the hill was too steep. She didn't mind a bit!
We went back to the main market of Cairo that night, and Brian took us through the section where they sell spices... cumin, pepper, paprika, fennel, coriander, sesame, garlic, parsley, tamarind, etc... all sitting in huge barrels. They had black pepper corns, as well as green ones, red ones, and mixed. Blaine bought a big bag for just over a dollar. We couldn't stay too long, because the aromas are too strong. Lisa and I were coughing and sneezing like crazy after just a few minutes. But it was really fascinating to see. I didn't even have to pay to take this picture (a first, it seemed!)

That night we got to see a performance of the Whirling Dervishes. They're more famous in Turkey, I think. But they do a free performance every week in Cairo for tourists. It was great! It's basically a bunch of guys in long robes with skirts tied over the top. They spin around and around in circles and dance around the stage to loud Arab music on drums, horns and tamberines. One of them spun for 22 minutes straight in a counter-clockwise circle, and then stopped on a dime without even looking dizzy! Sadly, our camera broke that night. So we only got a couple pictures, before they started spinning. Oh well.
And that brings us to the end of our trip. The last day we saw more pyramids, which were amazing. Samantha saw yet another camel and cried her eyes out the whole time we looked at the pyramids nearby. That evening we went for a cruise on the Nile in a felucca boat. It was really nice and peaceful, and Sam loved dancing in the middle of the boat.

We went back to our hotel for a few hours that night and then packed up and headed to the airport for a 3a.m. flight (ugg). We had a layover in Amsterdam with just enough time to take the train into the city for a bite to eat and a quick look around. We were home by early afternoon, and ready for bed shortly thereafter! What a fun time, thanks for listening. :)