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Published: April 12th 2006
We stayed in Cairo for 3 or 4 days just getting ready to end our trip. It sounds funny, but its true. All of our old clothes, the ones we used for backpacking, had to go and we needed to find replacements and warm clothes for Europe.
We also visited the Citadel and the famous Muhammad Ali mosque, the street of the tent makers and finally got to see the mass at the hanging church in coptic cairo.
The previous time we had gone to coptic cairo we actaully visited a greek orthodox church, which we thought was the hanging church. We only found out after looking at a tourist pamflet with pictures and lables in english. So we had to go back to see this church. It was incredibly old (15c I think) and filled to the brim with people attending mass.
The citadel was filled with screaming children, so we didn't stay long. We visited the old mosques and the police museum, both of which were interesting.
The neatest part for me was the fact that up there on the hill you can see the edge of cairo.Cairo is massive. At the edge of Cairo are the pyramids, it was surreal to look around and see nothing but city and then not so far away look and see the pyramids with the desert looking inthe background.
We basically just hung out and took it easy for a few days. For Pauls birthday we traveled by train to Cairo arrived inthe morning and took a nap, went and had lunch and hung out in our favorite cafe. That night we bought Paul a suit.
Yes, a suit. Why? Because we could. Paul came to my university graduation in ratty cordoroy pants, his biking shoes and a t shirt. One of my grad pictures is on this website somewhere, check itout for yourself. I wasn't having anymore of that outfit. My sisters grad is right after Paul arrives home, so we figured not only can he show off his new duds there, but if he ever decides togo for a proper job or gets invited to a wedding or funeral, or something he'll have something to wear besides cords.
Suite, shirts, ties, shoes. Semi casual outfit. We ditched our plastic clogs that we have been wearing all over Africa (Hey Batswell, tell pammy the shoes are gone) and both got some sneakers and dress shoes. We used our long lost consumerism skills to the maximum.
We hopped a cab to the airport at about 11 pm. The cab ride was scarier than any other that I have been on. We drove through a 3 km tunnel with two lanes in each direction. This, by itself, is not so bad. Add in the fact that people do not use conventional 'lanes' there, if you want to pass you just creep up behind the person blare your horn and squeeze in between the two cars, a 2 lane tunnel becomes a 3 lane tunnel. add in that it was curvy like a video game racetrack. add in the fact that the minimum speed was 90kms. we survived.
Amsterdam.
We arrived in the morning after very little sleep. We dropped our stuff at our hostel and went insearch of breakfast and adventures.
Last time we werehere we couldn't find the redlight district to save our lives, this time, our hostel is right inthe thick of it.
Also, its bloody expensive in europe. How inthe hell do kids right out of high school afford to backpack here? Do they rely on their parents credit card? We are staying in a crappy area, in a cheap hostel and a dorm bed costs 23 euro per night in an 8 person dorm. Thats about $40 cnd. I nearly died paying that much for a freaking dorm. In Cairo our hostel cost us $30 for 3 nights for two people. and that was expensive for Cairo.
Its really cold here, in Amsterdam, we actaully had to buy Paul another jacket so he wouldn't freeze to death while he hangs out for another week.
I'm headed home in about 4 hours. Because of the time change, I leave amsterdam at 3:15pm and arrive in Vancouver at 4:15 pm. I guess I just keep passing through timezones and I stay at 3:15 pm for 7 hours or so.
I know its time to come home, I've caught another little cold. I just home my ears don't explode during take off and landing.
What a trip! What a crazy, unbelievable adventure. I don't regret a minute of it. Everything happend for a reason, and I'm so glad to have shared it with Paul and everyone else via internet. Thanks for all the encouragement and great comments.
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wayne
non-member comment
Im glad you survived the tunnel, sounds damned crazy! but cool in retrospect. Im glad you guys enjoyed yourself, got to see a chunk of the world so very far and removed from "beautiful british columbia" I still can imagin what cairo is like, dispite your discriptions.. hell, i dont know how possible it is to imagin something so very different, as it sounds. But you guys have your experences and memories and those are priceless. thanks for all the stories and discriptions! We'll see you when you get back! -wayne