Cairo - Day 3

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The early morning torture continues. Since we were going to arrive in Cairo at 6:30am, we needed to be up at 5:30am in order to once again enjoy the fine bread, bread, and bread breakfast offered on the train.

We ended up back at the Zayed Hotel, where we learn that Mina will once again be our Tour Guide. Yeah! More secrets and surprises! The first time around, we were a little leery of Mina and his enthusiasm…but honestly, he has been our best tour guide during the trip. We are truly excited to have him as a guide again.

We are told about Mina at 7:00am…and then told that our rooms are not ready, so we cannot take a shower, and that we will start the tour at 9:30am. It was going to be a funky day. We spent the next couple of hours lounging around the hotel restaurant and using the internet. I finally got the chance to be repatriated with my long lost luggage. It has a few more dents and scratches, but everything seems to have made it intact, including my scuba gear, liquor, and most importantly, Milkshake. And yes Joyce, her virtue is intact.

The Citadel

Time for me to get my religion on. The Citadel was built by Saladin starting in 1176 as a fortification against the Crusaders. It was further expanded upon by the Mamluks and Ottoman Empire. The Citadel is situated high above Cairo, so it has some nice views of the city. We came to the Citadel to visit the mosque of Mohammed Ali, which is built using classic Turkish architecture. Milkshake felt so moved, she decided to pray. I am probably going to a very fiery place for taking that photo.

The cool fast fact to remember about the Citadel is how the French screwed the Egyptians once again (look @ Luxor - Day 1 for another example). In exchange for the priceless ancient obelisk that Egypt gave to France, and which is in Paris at the Place de Concorde, the French gave the Egyptians a broken clock, which is housed at the Citadel. It is still broken.

The Hanging Church

Another site, another religion! The Hanging Church, called so because it is built over an ancient Roman water gate, is a Coptic Christian church. Coptic Christians are some of the earliest Christians, and have their own Pope (Shenouda III) and headquarters in Alexandria. In stark contrast to Muslims, which shun idolatry, the Coptic Christians seem to love it. The church and souvenir shop was covered in it.

When we were visiting, a wedding was going on. Much like the tourists we were our group all gathered around the wedding ceremony and snapped photos.

Ben Ezra Synagogue

Oy Vei! Although Egypt only has about 100 Jews remaining today, it was at one point a bustling place for Judaism. The claim to fame for the Ben Ezra Synagogue, besides being the oldest synagogue in Egypt, is that is contains a well behind it that is purportedly the site where Moses was plucked from the Nile, and is also where Mary drew water to wash Jesus.

Egyptian Museum

Although they call it the Egyptian Museum, it really should be called Pharaohs Museum, since it contains:

• Statues of Pharaohs
  
• Mummies of Pharaohs
  
• Paintings of Pharaohs
  
• Sarcophagi of Pharaohs
  
• Adornments of Pharaohs
  
• Furniture of Pharaohs
  
• Sphinxes of Pharaohs

Here is where most of the tomb of Tutankhamen (a.k.a King Tut) is on display. The golden headdress, sarcophagi, jewelry, etc. I popped on the iPod and spent a couple of hours exploring this cool museum.

Dinner

I was supposed to do the Sound and Light show tonight…but since most of the tour group is leaving tomorrow, and none are continuing on to Dahab with me, I decided to move the Nile River Dinner Cruise that I was supposed to do my last night up so we could all spend the night together. The food was rather bland, and the desserts hard to find, but it turned out to be a fun night. We were seated right next to the performance stage..which is simply a 6’x6’ square of wood in front of a band.

Our dinner entertainment had many, many wonderful parts to it. First up was a dwarf and man doing the whirling dervish dance, which is supposed to be used to help enter a transcendent state in order to know god better, but was used here simply as a source of entertainment.

Next were a couple of gentlemen who did a variety of dances meant to warm us up for the main part of the show…the belly dancer. One of the dances involved the twirling of canes…the guy was a little rusty, as he hit a table, the ceiling, and a light with the cane. He came within 6 inches of whacking me upside the head, which prompted me to back away from the stage.

Finally, we got to the belly dancer, who could have used some Abs of Steel work for her midsection. Their was a picture of her outside the dining room…but obviously this was taken before she had eaten one too many McDonald’s cheeseburger. After her first dance, which was done with bare mid-section, she did a quick costume change into a tight fitting black leather dress that helped to keep her stomach contained.

At one point during her performance, she pulled me up onto stage to become part of the performance. She took a cane and then balanced it on her chest. She then motioned for me to do the same thing. Using my neck fat and man boobs I was able to accomplish this feat. Next, she balanced it on her stomach. With a little help from my Buddha belly (a.k.a. the Continental Shelf), I was able to do this too. Finally, she balanced it on her side. I knew I couldn’t do this, so quickly improvised, and looped the cane into my belt loop. At this point, she dejectedly let me sit back down at my table. Part of this was caught on video using my camera…although I believe one of my fellow tour participants, Balaji, got the whole ordeal on video. Look for this to sweep the Internet like the Paris Hilton video.

You would think that after this, she would be done with our table…but you would be wrong. The belly dancer exited and then came back in with the two gentlemen dancers in a horse costume. She grabbed Irene to give the horse a kiss. Irene was laughing so hard she just couldn’t do it, but finally managed to give the horse a peck, which caused it to faint. Next, the belly dancer grabbed Mammen to try and revive the horse. He proceeded to give the horse a fierce, passionate kiss…which probably scared the crap out of the guys in the horse costume, but caused the rest of us to laugh and cheer.

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