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Published: November 12th 2007
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taxi ride
mom trying to look calm in a cairo taxi I am sorry that it has been so long since the last blog. Our internet has been on the fritz and as many of you know, mom, bernard and uncle brad have been staying at my place for the last three days.
Things have been pretty calm the last few weeks, and I really realized how accustomed I am to everything here when the family came on thursday.
I went with Hanni, our housecleaner, rat killer and personal chauffer, to the Cairo airport to pick everyone up at 1130. Dressed in his best suit jacket, Hanni rented a car and came to pick me up. Hanni has a special diplomatic pass into the airport, so he left me at the gates with the crowds and entered to go find everyone. I had shown him pictures of mom, bernard and brad, so he knew what he was looking for, but he had a sign with their names on it just in case. Later, Hanni said that he recognized Bernard right away! haha
The car ride home was quite pleasant, since it was late at night and Hanni is a good driver. Apparently, though, Im the only one who felt this way!!!! Everyone
taxi ride
uncle brad trying to show us how mom really feels was terrified with the crazy lane changes, errant pedestrians and general proximity of all the cars on the road. Of course, we made it home safely and stayed up very late visiting at my place. Bernard was hungry and made a joke about ordering pizza (it was 2 am) but I didn't even hesitate before I grabbed the Pappa Johns take out menu on our table and ordered us a large pepperoni pizza in english. Im not sure what was more surprising, the fact that it was so easy to get delivery at this time of night, the fact that I ordered from a place called Pappa Johns!! or that I talked on the phone in english! HAHAHAH!!!
Anyway, it was my weekend, so the next day we slept in late ( mom and bernard in my lumpy bed, me on the couch and uncle brad on a mattress beside the couch) I took them on a walk around my neighbourhood and showed them all the exciting things about Maadi, like where I buy my fruit and vegetables! We went for coffee at Beanos (my fav outdoor coffee shop) and ran into of the other teachers from my school...yes cairo
is HUGE, but Maadi is not and we often run into each other....
That evening I really wanted to take them to Grande Cafe ( I wrote about that place in my first blog..the outdoor restaurant on the nile) so the girls downstairs, my roomie and the family hailed some taxis for the quick ride to the corniche. However, I forgot about the Ahli soccer game! Ahli is Egypt's favorite team, as i mentioned before, and when there is a game on, you can forget about getting into any restaurant with a television, and you can REALLY forget about getting any service from the waiters because they are watching the game. So we walked along the corniche to see if we could find something else. Eventually, we gave up and took taxis back close to home to go to a different traditional Egyptian restaurant called
Abu Sid. We ordered a bunch of appys, breads and dips for everyone to share. So far, despite mom's previous insistance that she would not eat any meat, fruit or vegetables in egypt...she has had smoked salmon, lamb, beef, salad, omlettes, mangos, pomegrantes and apples...
The next day we decided to go to the Egyptian museum because I had not been their yet either. The museum is at midan Tahrir, what is considered the very central of downtown cairo. We took a taxi ride to the rotary, where the driver tried to let us out on the opposite side of the street!! the fear in everyone's eyes, quickly told me to inform the cab driver that he had to find a way to turn and get us to the museum side of the roads. It took us another 5 minutes to do this, but we would not have gone to the museum that day without this. Thankfully my arabic is improving quickly enough to direct the cabbie a fair bit now!!
The museum was incredible!!! two floors of sooo much stuff, it was unbelieveable. The artifacts were displayed very poorly and many things had no explanation of their significance. THe mummification museum was unreal!! my favorite was the animal mumification museum section. The ancient egyptians really valued animals, so they mumified pets, sacred animals and animals that represented gods. We spent most of the day there and we were all very tired and hungry when we were finished.
The next plan was to go next door to the Nile HIlton and eat at the rooftop bar/restaurant called El Mojito. however, I got a phone call from the travel agency that booked the nile cruise and I was informed that we needed to be home by 5pm to get the tickets and give the money to pay for them. It is a long, complicated series of events that occurred after this...but basically the unreliable bank machines were not cooperating and when we got home at 4:50, the delivery man was already there (seriously the first time in 3 months tha a delivery man has EVERY been early) anyway, we count the money in piles, he quickly flips through it while we check the tickets and then we both agree that it is ok. He leaves and we go through the tickets more carefully. The doorbell rings and the man is standing there, looking upset and speaking in arabic...
He tells us that there is now not enough money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we argue for awhile and I call the agency and we end up payiing the "missing" 350 pounds (60 bucks) It was quite the ordeal, luckily the lady that does the booking is wonderful!!! and she said that this man is very trustworthy and has been with the company for 10 years but that she would refund the money if we really knew that we had the correct amount. I suggested a credit with the agency, since I will be travelling again im sure...
The next day, I had to go to school 😞 and the family planned to go to the pyramids armed with all my advice and a few arabic words. They ended up sleeping in and relaxing around Maadi again. They had a wonderful day, exploring with the map and I am very, very impressed how well they did. I came home to all sorts of gifts such as plants, more cereal and milk, and bleach..yes bleach. Uncle Brad had started bleaching my light switches!! So the family came all the way to Egypt to clean up after me 😉 I LOVE IT!!
Last night, we got to go to the Grande Cafe on the nile and they loved it. THe food was great, service was excellent, mom even got a free shisha..the blonde discount!!!
THis morning, everyone left for the airport in a special taxi that I ordered the night before. Its not actually a taxi car, but a much newer, nicer vehicle with a wonderful taxi driver who speaks english. They will be on the same cruise ship that I took and will do all the same sights! I am very excited for them!!! They will be gone for five days, and return on saturday. Uncle brad stays until Monday and mom and Bernard leave on thursday for Oman.
It is sooo amazing having everyone here, I even had a dream about Erin last night!!! I havent really felt homesick at all yet, but I think that I will be very sad when they leave! More adventures and pictures to come when the fam returns!
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Shirley
non-member comment
Fantastic
Another terrific journal Leah I was so excited to see that you had written another one. It was wonderful picturing the family in all these situations - sounds like you are all having a great time. Lots of Love, Grandma