Ok, so lets skip straight to the weekend as nothing of great importance happened during the week. ( I went to class, did homework, etc. etc.)
Thursday: Being in egypt has put a whole new perspective on Thirsty Thursday. We all headed downtown for dinner and drinks, not really having a game plan in mind beyond that. We ended up at a great little local place, where we were soon to learn they did not take kindly to foreigners. First of all, we sat at the bar for about 30 minutes while plenty of tables remained open. Then, once we were finally seated, the maitre' dee informed us that we had one hour to eat. We thought he was kidding. To our surprise about ten minutes after receiving our food, we were presented with the check. I should note here that by we, I mean Ben, the only male in our party, and the only one with whom the staff would communicate. This is not uncommon, but still rather annoying. After Ben was presented with the check, we were all hurried out of the restaurant as quickly as possible as a new group had just entered. Outraged, we left and swore never to return. In order to lick the wounds of our damaged pride, the group wandered over to Deals, our friendly, local neighborhood bar. Sadly, the barkeep knows us by name. As we sat in the back booth and made plans for how to continue our night, someone suggested Mojitos, the bar at the top of the Nile Hilton, very swank. As we all agreed this would be our best bet for late night dancing someone mentioned that there was a 200 LE cover charge, or about $40 American. Not wanting to drop $40 just to get in the door, our group split between those willing to pay and those not. I was among the later group. So we spent the next three to four hours sitting in the back of Deals enjoying our Stella (truly awful Egyptian beer, but its cheap). Next, we made our way to Mikey T's apartment for after hours drinks, Mikey is currently in the Naval Academy working towards an intel. position. After a 4 a.m. cab ride back home, it was time for bed.
Friday: Not so much to report, mostly we just wandered the city looking for my friend Gordon's apartment as he was supposedly having a party. Well, after him not answering his phone for three hours, we decided to give up and go get a shisha. (Gordon texted the next day that he had started too early and passed out before the party began, way to go Gordon) This was a nice relaxing evening especially since I had to catch the bus at 9 a.m. for a field trip the next day.
Saturday: By far my best day in Egypt yet! We started off the day with a field trip to the Nileometer, which is how ancient Egyptians would measure the changing tides of the Nile and plan their crops accordingly. Descending down into this huge cylinder with only small steep stairs devoid of a railing standing between you and your plunge towards death is an experience I hope everyone gets to have at least once in their lifetime. Next, we ventured forth to the Mosque of Ibn Tullun, the first mosque ever built in Cairo. It was built around 834 A.d. and most of the original structure remains. I climbed the stairs all the way to the top of the minuret from which I could see all of Cairo. It was amazing to see structures that had been standing for over a thousand years contrasted against the urban development of the past decade. Once inside the mosque, we were requested to wear little booties over our shoes and also that the women covered their hair. As it was already noon, we were able to see prayer services first hand.
After that, we were dropped off downtown and a group of us decided to stay and spend the day in Zamalek. We had lunch at Khan al Khalilli market, the same one where I had my marriage proposal, and luckily we had Andrew with us who is an Egyptian American. His arabic saved us from getting ripped off at lunch as the guy told him point blank that he usually makes ridiculous charges on foreigners checks. After lunch, we decided to get lost in the city and did just that. We made decisions on which road to take based on the noise level and the flow of traffic, we tried looking for street signs but Egyptians don't believe in such frivolous things. It was a great time to see "real" Cairo away from the touristy places. However, due to the fact that we were in "real" Cairo, extra security measures were put in place. There were five members of our group, Andrew I already mentioned, is a very funny American Egyptian, Max, a total sweetheart from North Dakota, Kristina, from small-town Connecticut, and Jeremy, from Kentucky and myself. First security measure was the make up of our group, two guys for every girl in the group is a must, also when walking, we went single file boy, girl, boy, girl, boy the whole way. This is not to say that we were still not harassed, oh no, but it did cut down on the physical harassment quite a bit.
You see because Saturday was Valentines day, we had many requests made of Kristina and I. Actually, at one point one guy pointed to Max and called out "Oh, two Valentines! You very strong man!" I think this made Max's day. Once we returned to Zamalek, we decided to take a falooka cruise of the Nile. It was sunset and absolutely breathtaking to be on the water, we travelled up and down the banks for about an hour. All the while, the passing boats which were all decked out for Valentine's day and full of couples, so we decided to have a "romantic" photo shoot on the boat at sunset. After walking for about six hours straight we decided to head to the Pottery Cafe for dinner. Along the way however, I made the most amazing discovery, I found the Irish embassy and a pub next door (of course). So I have already started planning my St. Patrick's Day extravaganza and I fully intend to show these Egyptians what a great time March 17th can be!
Well, that was this weekend, the only other noteworthy thing I did this week was venture back to CityStars, the world's second largest mall, after the one in Dubai. We watched "Yes Man" with arabic subtitles and for some reason they put an intermission in all movies, and they also have assigned seating. It was weird but fun. So thats the latest update for now, if anything exciting happens you will be the first to know! Ma salama, Bridget
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