Although we traveled around the middle east for 9 days, the rest of my trip was spent mostly in and around Cairo. The city is massive and filled with intense, abrasive, in-your-face people. The air is horrible, and you're lucky if you can see buildings in the distance. It was in the 100s most of the time I was there, but luckily it was a dry heat, so I managed to survive. While Celia was at work I mostly stayed in her air-conditioned apartment in Zamalek, an upper class neighborhood supposedly filled with foreigners (Celia insisted this was true, although it felt just as Egyptian to me as anywhere else). In the evenings, Celia and I usually went out for various authentic dinners, sometimes followed by drinking Stellas (not Stella Artois, please don't ever confuse the two) in seedy bars filled with Egyptian men (women don't really leave the house much, and are certainly not spotted drinking at your local pub).
One night Celia, her friend Will and I took a felucca (boat) ride around the Nile. This was a hilarious and unforgettable experience. I'm not sure how to explain this tactfully, so here goes. There isn't a mainstream gay scene in Cairo, and homosexuality is not really accepted. However, to an American, it seems relatively easy to be gay and have no one question you, because it is yet another country (so unlike ours) that allows men to hold other men's hands, walk arm in arm, etc. You can do these things all night and day and no one will ever suspect a thing. You can also ride a felucca at night, which is apparantly a huge gay scene. On the boats there is belly-dancing music playing, and teenaged boys wearing skin-tight clothes and grinding on eachother. This is the entertainment on the boat!!! It was really hilarious, especially to see the dancing contrasted with FULLY VEILED WOMEN, men with their multiple wives, and families with young children all riding the same small boat. The veiled women looked on in horror, and the young girls joined the teenage boys in their erotic dancing. What an awesome night. :)
I was really disappointed not to get a picture of my favorite dancers, who were wearing the most ridiculously tight clothes I've ever seen, but this picture at least documents that I was there. These dancers weren't nearly as good or interesting, but you get the idea.
The Nile at night
We had some other interesting nights out on the town, some of which ended at the wee hours of the morning. The nights out were all very interesting, because Egypt is a Muslim country where drinking is not really allowed, but it is done anyway (obviously). As Americans, we stood out like sore thumbs in the bar, especially since we are women. Even going out in a short-sleeved tee-shirt sends off the wrong vibe, but by the end of the trip I was able to ignore my surroundings enough to not be bothered too much by the constant harassment. Going out with males helped a lot, and some of the guys we were out with were Egyptian.
On one particularly scorching day, I actually ventured out of my cave and walked to meet Celia at AUC where she works. Along the way I took some nice pictures.
the view from Celia's apartment
some river... ;)
Celia and I had lunch, and after she was done with work we went to Islamic Cairo to Khan-al-Khalili, which is the city's largest market. There were so many beautiful and interesting things there, but I was much too overwhelmed to stop to look at anything (the vendor problem again...).
a lecture hall in the American University in Cairo
in Islamic Cairo
Khan-al-Khalili
My last full day in Cairo was probably my most adventurous one. When we got back from traveling, Celia really had to buckle down at work, so I was on my own during the day for most of the rest of my trip, and I really didn't have the courage to venture out on my own, so my days were relatively uneventful. On my last day I still had lots of things I wanted to see, so I forced myself to venture out. I spent the first half of my day at the Egyptian Museum, where the royal mummies are kept. I didn't see any of the actual mummies, but I did see the tombs they were kept in. I spent a few hours there, and it was overwhelmingly huge.
I got in a lot of trouble for taking this picture. Apparently cameras weren't allowed (there were no signs!!!) in the museum. :)
After the museum, Celia and I met up for lunch and some delicious fresh juice made by her favorite juice guy near AUC. Mmmmm... oh, and the weather was perfect on my last day as well. It was probably in the low 90s and clear blue skies. The second half of my day was dedicated to exploring Coptic Cairo (on my own!!!). I had to take the subway there and back, which terrified me, but it went off without a hitch. Coptic Cairo was wonderfully calm and peaceful, and filled with beautiful churches and cemeteries.
Coptic Cairo was really cool and I was really happy and proud of myself for going there alone. It always seems to take me until the end of my trip to be able to be comfortable enough to venture out alone. Oh well, at least I did it.
I almost forgot, Celia and I went to the Pyramids. :)
walking like Egyptians, I presume
the poor Sphinx is completely deteriorating. I'm lucky I got to see it before it's gone.
We had lots of adventures in Cairo... but I think I covered the main highlights. I feel so indescribably lucky that I got to take this trip. It was really a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I am, again, so lucky to have such great friends who live in interesting places and give me a chance to see new cultures. Being in Egypt really made me realize how much I take advantage of how lucky I am to live in a country where we have so many rights. As a woman in America I am really able to do/achieve anything I want, which is far from the case in Egypt. It was hard to watch a lot of the things that happen in everyday life for an Egyptian, but it made me appreciate my own life so much more. It was truly an eye-opening experience.
