Aloha! Yankee Doodle Dandy

Sorry it's been awhile since posting but finding it hard to set aside the time to write. Upon arrival and check-in at our hotel we changed up and headed out to dinner. Upon a suggestion from the concierge we went to an Egyptian restaurant within walking distance. It was a perfect choice. The ambiance, lighting, people, and food at this place was fantastic. The most exotic dish ordered was two stuffed pigeons (Cox) but the rest of stuff to staples like lamb, chicken, meatballs, or vegetarian dish with noodles. After dinner we had some rice pudding and smoked a bunch of sheesha (hookah) which was really good. While it shouldn't be surprising the Muslims take this no alcohol thing to heart. We have not been to a restaurant yet that serves alcohol. While a glass of wine would be nice our $20 bill for each person after a 2 1/2 hr. dinner isn't too shabby.

Saturday was our first day touring the city. Our guide, Tarek, met us in the hotel lobby. Our tour agency has been been doing a fantastic job so far. We have our own private VW van (like we're in the 70's) and a personal security armed guard assigned to our group by the government. Yes, that's right, we have our own personal security guard that goes with us everywhere. While we feel very safe in Cairo you do see an usual level of security around town. The military and police are pretty much all over and the hotels (primarily where Westerners stay) have metal detectors and bomb sniffing dogs checking all cars coming in. Overall we feel very safe. Anyway, back to the tours...this was a pretty low key day for us to attend a Christian church, Synagogue, and Mosque. Our first stop was the Coptic Church. On the way there we passed through Old Cairo where there were lots of donkeys, horses, wild cats & dogs, and a fair amount of poverty. On our way there, unsurprisingly, we were approached by peddlers selling all the touristy souvenirs. It's been pretty unanimous that every time someone see us they say, "Oh you from America? Aloha! Yankee Doodle Dandy." It's definitely gotten a good laugh out of all of us. Once we arrived at the Coptic Church we headed in and learned about a very historical spot in Cairo. This church was built atop the place where the Holy Family (Mary, Joseph & Jesus) were thought to have stayed during their exodus to Egypt. It's a very small church and while you cannot go down to the room where they stayed due to floods that occurred recently you can see down into the room. It's pretty amazing to think that Jesus may have stayed there hundreds of years ago. Anyway, after this we walked over to the Synagogue which wasn't much to see. The population in Egypt is basically 80% Muslim and 20% Christian. Based on those percentages you can imagine there aren't too many Jews here. Regardless, we got a little background from our extremely knowledgeable tour guide then headed to the biggest Mosque in Cairo. This was a very impressive building and we headed in to the main area where prayers are said daily. The biggest prayer day when people visit the Mosque is Friday's at noon. We sat down at the mosque and Tarek took questions from us for over an hour. There isn't enough time to go into details but we talked politics, religion, dating, nightlife, family and everything else under the sun. It was a very educational and eye opening conversation getting a real world perspective from someone living in Egypt. After this we headed to the Egyptian museum to see King Tut (very impressive) and more mummies and statues than you can shake a stick at. We were there about an 1 1/2 and were pretty beat considering there was no A/C.

We showered up at the hotel and headed out to Old Cairo for dinner based on a recommendation from our tour guide. The food wasn't nearly as good as the previous night but still not bad. Some general observations: Cairo has notorious traffic and it's a well-deserved reputation. There are constant sounds of horns, cars changing lanes, people walking in and across the streets and general chaos everywhere. It's pretty amazing that more people don't die. One of the more shocking things we saw was a father on a moped with his 3 kids the youngest of which was about 4 standing in front of him and his other 2 kids sitting behind him on a busy highway with no helmets. Really unbelievable. After dinner we walked around Old Cairo which was packed with people and tons of shops. After about an hour we hailed some cabs (not easy) and headed back to the hotel, through security, and sat down to have a beer and get everyone's general observations on our trip so far. Yes, they serve beer at the Western hotels (amen). Overall, the trip is exceeding everyone's expectations so far. Tomorrow we have a big day visiting the an outdoor museum and the Pyramids at Giza. More to come....

Ryan

P.S. Apologize for any typos and the general lack of observation. Will try to provide a little more introspective posts in the future rather than just a brain dump but time is tight. Aloha!