Cairo Days 1 and 2

Saturday, August 14th and Sunday, August 15th

I've been grumpy recently. We took the night train Friday from Luxor to Cairo. Very cool, although I was afraid we wouldn't wake up for our stop, so I didn't sleep very well. Since we've arrived in Cairo, I've been hot, unhappy, and altogether have an unfortunate view of the city. The people at our hostel are very nice, but here are some of the factors contributing.

We arrived at 6:30 in the morning, 45 minutes after we told the hostel we would be there. After searching for the driver they had sent, we hired our own taxi, thinking the driver was not there. Nearing our hotel area, the driver didn't have a clue where to go, so we got out on the street with our huge backpacks and small bags, totaling 7. Josh left me with the bags near some policemen guarding something. All fine and well until a few (45?) minutes later they started to really wonder what I was doing there. After a lout of shouting to each other, they found a guard who spoke English and I explained to him. Just after this fiasco, Josh returned, having finally found our hostel down a back alley.

We spent the morning and afternoon in the Egyptian Museum of Cairo, a beautiful building full of glass and wooden containers. The museum holds many interesting treasures, including most things found in King Tutankhamun's tomb. Unfortunately, most artifacts are stored in poorly lit glass boxes. The museum is not climate controlled, and most displays are not labeled. A whole corridor is filled with sarcophagi, only in old glass boxes. The lack of interpretive information severely limited our understanding of what we were looking at. Several exceptions include the animal mummy room, which gave explicit details about animal mummification. The royal mummies room, at a cost of 100 pounds, had the bodies of many famous Phaorohs, including several whose tombs and temples I have already seen. We saw Ramesses II, III, IV, V, IV, Amenhotep II, Hapshetsut, Tuthmosis III, and several others. It was most interesting to see Ramesses II, famous Phaoroh of the old testament. Although we couldn't learn a lot about the artifacts themselves, or about their excavation, we did see many amazing things from Ancient Egypt.

One of the most fascinating were the Roman mummies, preserved as the Egyptians did it, but with painted faces in Roman style.

After the museum, we walked to an island on the Nile which we had heard was more western, and might have restaurants open before 6:30. After walking for several hours from the museum, we weren't able to find anything. Finally, we got in a taxi and directed him to a street which had a restaurant. He, in arabic, explained to us something like "it's closed" and dropped us in front of a shop with meat hanging in the window (sans glass). After a round of misunderstanding, the waiter brought us something unrecognizable, bread, and tahina. We ate the bread and tahina and gave the shredded lamb, chicken, fat, intestine or something to the men gathered on the street breaking their fast.

Finally, we walked further down a row of embassies (yes, the meat shop was within two blocks of the Algerian embassy) and found "Euro Cafe." Maybe our food experience is funny now, but it was one of the most expensive meals we've had here and we couldn't even eat it.

Cairo is crowded, dusty, stinky and full of trash. Some people are extraordinarily nice, but it's become hard to trust anyone after continual attempts to cheat us. This perception continued while we visited the pyramids today, as camel drivers and touts continually offered us rides and souvineers, sometimes relenting only after 17 attempts.

We're going to walk to a nearby park now. Last night's walk afforded some good shade and green areas, until the dinner fiasco. We're going to go explore, but it's difficult not knowing where I will be eating tonight.

A recap of the pyramids will have to wait. Just know...they're big. It's sandy. There are lots of police officers. The step pyramid of Djoser is really interesting too, and accompanied by a well done museum about the architect and related finds. I'm also fascinated, but it's exhausting and I can't articulate enthusiastically what I find intersesting. I'll try again soon!