Goodbye to Roma

Friday, January 9, 2011

I had a post written describing the activities of the past three days but it was lost in the eternal ether as I transfered it to the posting page from Word. I ran out of internet minutes at that precise second and the whole thing was eliminated from both locations. Quel dommage! We have had a very pleasnt time here this week. We went twice to the Gusto Pizza restaurant, once for their buffet and once in the evening for the pizza itself. I marvelled at the appetites of my fellow consumers. Mark and I split a pizza while each of the parties around us had a whole pizza/person as well as appetizers. We had a fine visit to the museum constructed around the archeological remains of the marketplace built by the Emperor Trajan in the 2nd century AD.

I can't piece together my lost post right now. We are beginning to pack up our clothing and all of the accumulated paraphenalia that we have been lugging about with us. We will receive a wake-up at 3:30 tomorrow; 4AM -- the taxi; 6:30 -- the plane to Munich; 11:50 -- Air Canada to Toronto. It's hard to believe that this period is really over. I mourn leaving Rome and its wonders, but we shall return as McCarther famously said. This will be the last post on the Italy and Egypt blog. Thank you for your interest and for the messages received. Arrivaderci.

Back In Rome

Tuesday morning, January-11-11.

Yesterday was a total travel day. The flight from Cairo to Rome is just 3 ½ hours but from hotel to hotel it took ten. All the usual stop and go stuff. But we are back and more or less settled into a more pleasant room at the Marco Polo hotel near the train station. Just before we left for Cairo we found a good grocery store just two blocks from here. We went over there last night and got a few staple items for the next couple of days. The Canadian dollar is worth about 5.7 Egyptian pounds and about .77 Euros. When buying things we have to be aware of the math.

Wednesday, January-12-11

We had a pizza place, Gusto Pizza, recommended to us by Jon and Wendy while we were touring with them. It is in a square across from the mausoleum of Augustus Caesar. Yesterday morning we set out to find it. We took the subway to the Flaminio stop so that we could walk again through the wonderful Piazza del Popolo. We went through there and over to the Tiber to walk along its embankment. A couple of blocks along a car pulled up beside us in the heavy traffic. A well-dressed gentleman in a good car asked the way to the Piazza that we had just left. He waved his map saying, “Never rent a car in Rome!” We told him how to get to the piazza. He said that there was a gas station near there that he had been trying to find for almost an hour and feared running out of gas before he did. He asked where we were from.... Canada. Ah, my wife is from British Columbia. What work do you do (to Mark)? Ah, an architect! You must be interested in design. Look what I am doing. He pulled out a catalogue of beautifully designed clothing and said something about working with Armani. Lying on the seat beside him was a shopping bag with a garment in a wrapper. To Mark, “How tall are you?” Five feet six. “Oh, this is your lucky day. Look what I have here.” He pulled the garment part way out of the bag. It was a jacket. Feel the material. This jacket is worth 1400. Here, it is for you.” He gave the package to Mark. “Give me something for gas,” he said – this was after a few remarks about me being a special woman that Mark must be sure never to let go of. I pulled some cash out of my pocket and he took 60 Euros and was off. It was all hilarious. What this really was all about we puzzled at length. The guy was not a street pedlar. The jacket is a really good one though the label is not Armani. It is a couple of sizes too big for Mark so we’ll give it to someone else. For sure it’s worth more than 60 Euros – c. $78 Canadian, but we still don’t understand the whole episode. Just one more strange and funny tale from our travels.

It was amazing to walk along the embankment yesterday. The discrepancies between the places in Cairo where we had walked and this place were enormous. Across the river and its embankment are lofty, beautifully cared-for 18^th and 19^th century buildings. The river is wide but low during this season. Plane-trees line both sides; the air is cool and delicious even with the traffic at the left side. I kept thinking about the centuries of history along these shores. Rome is an amazing city. It never fails to captivate one with its beauty and diversity, its history poking out at one at every turn. Mark went into an arts’ museum which holds the actual tomb of Augustus but I stayed on the embankment, still having had my fill of tombs and monuments.

We found the Gusto Pizza place and discovered that it was even more than expected. Aside from their extensive menu of pizza possibilities, they offered a luncheon buffet, very good and quite reasonably priced. It was a charming restaurant with a most European flavour, not the fast-food-Americana spot we had envisioned. We will go back again to try the pizza.

From the restaurant we walked over to the Spanish Steps. Because of the chill in the air there were far fewer people milling about though there still were some young people on the steps, having fun together. I wanted a cup of tea to warm up so we examined the menu of a century-old tea shop next to the steps. It seems to specialize in arcane and expensive blends, however, when all that was desired was a hot cuppa. The first McDonald’s in Italy was just down the street. I suggested going there for tea but Mark was not inclined. Why not go to a nice restaurant, he said. But Elizabeth and I had eaten there, or certainly had used the facilities there in 1987, the year after they had opened and I wanted to see it again. A great deal has been done to make it ever so Italian. At the front is a McCafe, serving expresso, cappuccino, hot chocolate, tea, plus a terrific variety of beautiful and well-priced pastries. Mark was astonished. We ordered and took our tray with china pot and cups and our excellent chocolate soufflé to a cafe table, relaxed and enjoyed. Most impressed.

After a rest and nap at the hotel as well as supper purchased at the local grocery store, we went back to the Piazza del Popolo, taking a night walk the length of the Via del Corso, one of the streets radiating off the piazza. It runs down to the large monument to Victor Emmanuel, the first king of the united Italy. Few cars were on the street so it felt like a pedestrian mall. The Via del Corso is a major shopping area, all style, fashion, and money. I realized as we walked that in Cairo, away from the tourist areas, women would look at me because I was so exotic in their world. In Rome women look at me to see what I am wearing – as they look at every other woman, of course. Tres fashion conscious here! We turned off before reaching the monument to pay a visit to the Trevi Fountain, throwing our coins in over our backs. On our way back to the hotel we passed two movie theatres that are playing English-speaking movies. We might see one while we are here, though we have only three more days and Rome is such a wonderful place to walk about.

Chio!!

Last Days in Cairo

Saturday, January-08-11 5:00 PM

Our time in Egypt is coming to a close. As we go about now we both feel a kind of anticipatory nostalgia for Cairo, as though we have already moved on. We no longer feel ambitious about getting to new places but are just enjoying the areas that we have come to know. As yesterday was Friday most businesses, all schools, and some shops were closed. We went back to Talaat Harb St in the downtown for a walk. At noon hour many of the shops that were open closed for an hour of prayer. On some of the side streets and alleyways large carpets had been laid out. Men came from their shops and knelt there together to pray as the amplified sounds of the Koran came from surrounding mosques. Some stores remained open though and some people were walking about as usual.

We had seen a station in the subway map called Giza Suburban and thought of going out there to see if it is anything like the kind of area we would think of as suburban. I was travelling in the women’s car and Mark with the men so when there was a mix-up about how many stops to go, we ended up on different trains. We did find each other out at the “suburb,” however, and could see from the station that it was just more of the city, a bit further out. We back-tracked then to the Cairo University, thinking to walk around their buildings but the entire complex was closed behind locked gates because of the holiday. That was a surprise.

We had met a woman from New York at breakfast in the hotel dining room. She had flown in the night before from Tel Aviv where she had been visiting a friend. She has only this weekend in Cairo and was looking for some pointers. We took her to the local grocery shop that we discovered near our former hotel and helped her to book a tour for today out to the pyramids. Last night the three of us took a taxi to Zamalek to walk about and have supper. We visited Thomas’ famous pizza restaurant, located there since the late 19^th century. None of us were very hungry though and the prices were relatively high so we left without ordering and returned to a street shop with very good, inexpensive chicken schwarma in a pita – Arabic bread, they call it. Afterward we walked about the Cairo Marriott hotel, looking through their classy shops. We walked back to the hotel along the Nile on the east side of the island. There is a continuous walk-way on that side with great views of the river, delicious fresh breezes, and relative freedom from the noise and exhaust of cars.

This morning we walked south along the Nile on our side of the island to see a museum in a beautiful mansion with its amazing collection of Impressionists and post-Impressionist paintings, left to the city by its owner and collector. There were a couple of guards sitting out front who told us when we arrived that it was currently closed for renovations. Later Mark read in the local Egyptian newspaper (in English) that a painting of poppies by Van Gogh, worth about $50 million, was stolen in August. There has been a major stink about the theft because most of the security cameras in the place were not working properly and the number of guards had been reduced earlier. There is now an on-going an inquiry about security related to all of Egypt museums as a result.

We continued south to the Cairo Zoo which is set close to the Nile just below the city`s botanical gardens. The zoo covers a very large area with exhibits centrally located amid surrounding pathways. There were many families with children in the zoo and, like everywhere, the kids were having a grand time looking at the unusual species. For some kids this included Mark and me. The little ones especially would stare at us as at alien beings; the older ones would say sometimes say hello. Young girls would smile and then giggle if I said ‘hi’ to them. We were asked to be photographed together with some children by one set of mothers. It is the fifth or sixth occasion on which people have asked to be photographed with us. We took lots of pictures of the animals and birds as well as of families and kids. It was fun.

Some of the families had brought picnics which they shared on the benches along the way. By the time we had seen quite a bit of the zoo we were hungry also and had noticed the gorgeous Four Seasons hotel across the street. Adjoining it is a very high end mall – strictly for the very wealthy visitor, most likely from Saudi Arabia. In the lobby area is a cafe and we treated ourselves to one of their tasty lunches. Most decadent but still not expensive by Canadian standards. I`ll put in a picture of the cafe in the several story high atrium.

Sunday evening:

Today really is our last day here. We’ve done some organizing things: checking the flight time; arranging a taxi to the airport; and, paying the balance on our hotel bill. The latter wasn’t much – some laundry, a couple of phone calls, and a few beers. Speaking of the latter: because Islamic people don’t usually drink, it is not an easy thing to buy alcohol here. If you eat at a hotel or a higher-end restaurant, you can order a drink. Otherwise, nothing. Mark got a couple of beers here at the hotel through room service every couple of days. He ordered wine at a dinner once but it was quite horrible and very expensive.

This morning we took the subway to a second island on the Nile, Roda, which is south of where we are staying. At its southernmost tip is a Nilometer constructed in the 9^th century to track and keep records of the height of Nile flooding from year to year. It is essentially a deep and wide well connected to the river bed, cut out of the bedrock of the island with a massive central column marked off in units, a total of19 cubits (the length of a man’s forearm and extended hand). Flooding in August and September was measured by the changes from the normal levels and taxation rates were gauged accordingly: Not enough flooding or too much flooding lead to poor crops so less taxation; the right amounts for good crops or for excellent crops – taxes that would reflect these harvests. The keeper of the place took us in and explained the process with pride. It is a beautifully made building with steps cut right down to the base which Mark negotiated in order to get some pictures. Surrounding the well and nilometer is a wide platform surmounted by a high wooden ceiling ornately painted in Arabic script of black and gold.

After this visit we returned to Talaat Harb St for a last walkabout and some lunch at the Cafe Riche. A taxi to Zamalek gave us a chance to pick up a couple of last purchases, and then back to the hotel. We have now moved into travel mode and are anticipating our flight to Rome and getting settled at Hotel Marco Polo for our last few days of this terrific holiday/travel.

Cairo Mosques

Thursday, January-06-11 9:20 PM

In an earlier post I spoke about our visit to the Ibn Tulum mosque. I was mistaken. I have no idea which of the dozens of mosques in Cairo we did visit then but today we went to the real McCoy. It’s difficult to adequately describe these places and pictures don’t capture their essence. In the mid-9^th century Ibn Tulum seized power in the region and built a city with a palace and with this vast fortress-like mosque at its centre. In the 11^th century when the city was besieged by the invading Franks, the vizer ordered the city burned. The mosque is all that survived. In the 19^th century it served as a military hospital, a salt warehouse, and finally a debtor’s prison. Toward the end of the century it was declared a national monument and work continues to the present day to restore it to its original condition. There were few others in the mosque during our visit so it was possible to walk along the corridors that fringed the immense courtyard. Doing so I reflected that over a thousand years ago this building would have been pulsing with life, much as one sees in the mosques and bazaars that are in use in today’s Cairo. We climbed to the top of the minaret, the only one in Egypt with an external staircase – a much easier climb than the interior one that we attempted over a week ago. Because the air was clear we had an excellent view of the city.

Beside the mosque is a museum called the Gayer-Anderson, named after a former British army officer who lived there from 1935 until the outbreak of WWII. The museum is in fact a luxurious old Cairo house, or I should say, double house, as it is in reality two houses joined together by a bridge on the third floor. The buildings belonged to the Egyptian Antiquities Dept when permission was given to Gayer-Anderson and his family to take up residence. He was a medical doctor who joined the army in 1904; soon afterward he was seconded to the Egyptian Army and moved here in 1907. He retired from the army in the 1920 but continued to live in Egypt with his wife (whom I presume he returned to England to meet and marry), and their son. He was an avid collector, gathering a trove of antiquities of Pharonic, Roman, and medieval Egypt periods. When he moved into the dual Antiquities house, his collection was catalogued and exhibited throughout. He returned to England before the beginning of WWII, eventually bequeathing his considerable collection to the Egyptian people.

The houses are of medieval construction. Entering the first, one comes upon a courtyard where servants would prepare food, clean clothes, and perhaps supervise children. Above was a comfortable summer room open to the courtyard but only for the use of men (not in Gayer-Anderson’s household, I’m sure). Inside was another, more sheltered but equally comfortable space for men to use in the winter. Along a hallway one comes to a much larger, beautifully appointed room with couches, chairs, tables, and the latticed windows from which things could be seen but little revealed. This was the women’s room. The tour of the house took us up into the third floor, across the bridge to the other house. There were bedrooms in Turkish, Persian, and Chinese decor, each done with antique pieces. Cabinets of exhibited collections lined halls and rooms. In the centre of the house was an immense gathering hall, the dimensions of which surprised us. It was at least as large as a medium-sized church. Outside were gardens. The first of the two houses in particular gave us a sense of the way of life of a wealthy family of the late medieval/early modern period.

From the museum we walked along another succession of streets to reach the mosque of Sultan Hassan. This vast building is set across a square from the Citadel. Its size and grandeur remind one of the cathedrals of Europe. Hassan was the son and grandson of earlier Sultans, living in the mid-12^th century. At the age of 22 he began this enormous project by gathering architects from throughout the Middle East and abroad, with whom to confer. Three years later he was assassinated and the mosque was never completed in the fashion that he had envisioned. Nonetheless, it is a powerful and beautiful building. A large inner room off the courts holds his tomb. An Iman sang some prayers for a couple of tourists while we were visiting. His lovely music rang off the surrounding walls.

Leaving this mosque we found our way through the Egyptian bazaar once again to the Khan Al Kalili. On our way we were accosted by a formidable gentleman who insisted that it was his duty to guide visitors to Cairo. He pulled a notebook from a pocket of his robe to show us letters of recommendation from other travellers. We knew our way and our destination well enough and had no inclination to being picked up once again. He refused to be put off by my rejection of assistance, however, and turned to Mark to persuade him to make use of his services. He was genuinely affronted when we finally just moved on through the bustling streets of the bazaar.

At the souk we had a bite of lunch and then went to confront once again my watch salesman. I refused to take another watch from him in place of the second one that had ceased working. He protested that he could not return my money and that he had no other goods to give to me in recompense. An older man in the same shop then took over, saying that he would solve the problem by giving me one of his blouses. These, however, being so excellently well-made (they were very lovely) would cost well over the 120 EL I had paid for the watch. I could give him the difference. I was in no mood for putting out any more cash into that particular den of thieves and let them know this quite clearly. Finally there was little choice other than to accept another watch. Both men promised that if it failed me before we leave Cairo on Monday, my money would be returned. We shall see. At any rate, this was all conducted quite amicably, with lots of “my sister,” to me, and, “my brother” to Mark, as well as bits of, “your magic eyes” from the younger fellow. In the meantime another young lad from a shop close-by came in to tease the two men and to chat with me. His English was pretty good and he was very amused by all of the jockeying back and forth between me and the two salesmen.

We went back to the El Fishari cafe for tea and to try to get photos that would grasp some of the atmosphere of this place. It’s a lively experience being in the midst of such activity and such an international crowd. It was fun. We headed back to the hotel via the Egyptian Museum gift shop to buy a book on Egypt and a portfolio of drawings by a 19^th century traveller that we had seen earlier. It was a long, tiring but very interesting day.

Back to the Egyptian Museum

Wednesday, January-05-11 9:30 PM

After breakfast this morning we took the subway back to the Egyptian Museum. It is on the other side of the Nile very close to the main downtown shopping area. Because we had had our guided tour there with Maged, we didn’t attempt to look at the museum in any organized fashion. Mark was interested in seeing the Royal Mummy room which required another entry fee so we separated and met an hour later in the main entrance. I walked about avoiding the tour groups that crowded from one major exhibit to another. I spent some time looking at the full-sized wooden boats that were unearthed in the past century as well as the small objects from tombs that give so much information about the ways of life of the people 4-5,000 years ago. There are, for example, small figurines of clay or lime or other stone that show women making food or clothing. They are nicely done with different expressions on the faces of the women. There are also figures of men working in stone or in carpentry. I went in to visit the large scribe figure that I really liked when we were there last. Scribes were important figures as they recorded not only for accounting purposes but also details of the lives of royalty and of the society in general.

After our visit to the museum we walked over to Talaat Harb St, one of the main downtown shopping places. It was fun being there. We found a couple of places that had ice cream cones – the first we’ve seen in Egypt. There are other places to get ice cream but only in a bowl. The cones were popular as a steady stream of customers was lined up for them. We did some shopping – a couple of cotton long dresses for me – good for Mexico, a shirt for Mark, and some touristic pieces – at better prices than we were able to get in the tourist areas.  We lunched at the Cafe Riche, a famous downtown spot over a hundred years old. Apparently the plot of the 1952 revolution was hatched and planned here. We had a really good lunch of Greek salad, lentil soup, French fried potatoes (only fried once so they tasted like potatoes), and a vegetarian mousaka. We shared all of it; most delicious. To underline again how inexpensive things are for us here because of our strong dollar, that meal with a beer for Mark and a bottle of water for me, plus 8 EL cover charge and an 11 EL tip for the tuxedo-wearing waiter, was 90 EL, about $17 or $18.

We returned to our hotel in the late afternoon for our regular lazy period: nap, tea, and messing about on the computers. About 8:30 we walked down the street to a Koshary that opened just this week to have small bowls of that tasty and nourishing dish. From there to our local grocery store for water and more ice cream. We stopped at the tiny shop of a seller of a variety of practical and tourist pieces. We picked out a number of things but found that we hadn’t enough money with us to buy all of them. The owner of the store was most polite and gracious. He put the other things away for us until tomorrow night when we will pass by his shop again.

The longer we stay here in Cairo the more at home we are feeling. I have to retract some of the bad report I gave in an earlier post about the streets not being cleaned. I think that our area might be one of the worst, but even here we do see cleaners out in the morning with large brooms. In the downtown area the streets are very much cleaner as are the sidewalks. Also the last two days have been relatively windy; the wind seems to have cleared away much of the polluted air that had hung over the city previously. We have only a few more days here as we leave early next Monday morning for Rome. Then we return to Canada on Saturday, Jan 15.

Remember to scroll down to the bottom of the long page for a few more photos. Cheers. Brenda.

The Citadel

Tuesday, January-04-11  9:15AM

Not again to be dissuaded, we went directly to the Citadel yesterday. It is a vast fortress, within, like a town composed of mosques, palaces, and housing for lesser beings. We climbed first to the main mosque, built by Mohammed Ali Pasha, the ruler of Egypt from 1805-49. The Citadel was founded in the 12^th century by the famous Salah-ad-Din, Saladin as we know him, the great fighter in the time of the Crusades. Egypt, being so centrally located at the junction of Africa, the Middle East, and by extension, Europe and Asia, became a major trading area, one fought over by warriors from all of these disparate lands. One of the groups, people from the Black Sea area, gained control not long after Saladin’s era. Known as the Mamelukes, a vast mercenary army in origin, they controlled Egypt up until the early 19^th century. Though they were defeated by the Ottoman Turks in the early 16^th century, they continued in power as vice-regents. In 1797 Napoleon famously invaded Egypt, further weakening the Ottoman connection. The French remained only about five years though their administrative reforms took some root. In their wake Mohammed Ali seized power. He himself was a mercenary from Turkey, the son of a tobacco merchant, and a member of the forces sent from Istanbul to reassert the Ottoman regime. He built up his position in Egypt and then set out to overthrow the Ottomans in other parts of their empire. Assisted by the British, however, the Ottomans defeated him in Syria. As a consolation prize he was allowed to become the “hereditary viceroy” in Egypt, where he became in reality the de facto ruler.

In 1869 the Suez Canal was opened for international traffic. Its enormous cost made Egypt not only indebted to European powers but in various ways subject to them. Finances were placed under the joint supervision of the French and British. The resultant outbreaks of violent protest led to a British bombardment of Alexandria and the occupation of Cairo. Thereafter Egypt continued to function with the hereditary Pasha as ruler of an Ottoman province, though in fact under British supervision. After 1914 the connection with the Ottomans was finally severed and Egypt became a British protectorate with a nominal monarchy. This situation continued until the 1950s when the monarchy was overthrown and General Nasser took control. The Brits didn’t contest this event, as it coincided well with their own devolution of empire, the main agenda since the end of WWII.

All of the above gives a tiny bit of the complicated and often bloody history of this area. The Citadel in a way reflects a great deal of that history as it was the central locus of control for each regime. Mohammed Ali built a number of the fortifications, as well as the immense mosque named after him which dominates the skyline, and, a palace in which he and his family lived, called the Harem palace. The latter is now the site of a museum of the Egyptian military. We walked through its halls and sizable rooms during our visit. The exhibits consisted mainly of large paintings showing battles and renowned fighters as early as the era of Saladin. There are busts of important figures: 19^th and 20^th century pashas, generals, and other leaders. A special section rehearses some of the events of the military take-over in 1954 with special mention of Nasser and Anwar Sadat. Military costumes and medals over the centuries are visible in glass-encased cupboards. Outside in the courtyard are actual fighter planes used in wars against Israel, most, if not all, of Soviet origin. We were quite alone in our walk-through, though a large group of school-aged children left just as we approached the palace, so a significant feature of our visit was taking in the grandeur of the former home of Mohammed Ali and his family.

We looked for another museum written about in our guide book, the Police Prison Museum. We only found one small area off to the side, close to the terraces that overlook the city. The doors were closed and locked. A man standing nearby beckoned to us to follow him. He took us literally through a barrier – we stooped to go under one section and over another. From there he led us into two enclosed alleyways. On either side were individual cells of former prisoners. On one was a plaque showing the cell in which Anwar Sadat had once been a guest of the British. On another was a sign indicating that Mohammed Ali had been a prisoner there as well. Our guide, who indicated things to us only by pointing, took us into one of the cells which was not locked. It was small and barren with no light other than that coming from a hole in the rather high ceiling. He pointed to a rack on the wall, rather like a clothing rack, where a prisoner could be tied with his arms extended while he was whipped. Another area seems to have been one where prisoners were hung. It was a chilling visit. Our guide brought us back to the terrace area. I gave him some unsolicited baksheesh, we thanked each other and moved on.

We left the Citadel not long afterward, going over once again to the Khan Al Kalili for a take-away lunch and another visit to the mosque. From there we walked a couple of miles through the east side streets to the Metro and back home. Late this morning we headed over to Gezira, the island in the Nile close to our hotel. At the north end of the island is the tony Zamalek area that we have visited several times. At the extreme southern end is the Sofitel. We planned a lunch on the floating restaurant that is just off their ground floor terrace. We arrived an hour before they were ready to serve but waited in their comfortable wicker chairs on the terrace, surrounded by greenery and cooled by the breezes from the Nile. It is a quiet and peaceful spot, a respite from the noise and chaos that is most of Cairo. The lunch was an excellent meal, eaten right at the edge of the restaurant, immediately overlooking the Nile, a wide and brown river at this point. Just as we were about to take our places an enormous flotilla of police motor and pontoon boats came racing along the river in our direction. They congregated in the vicinity of a huge fountain several hundred meters away. Our head waiter said that they were “doing a show,” that is, were making their presence obvious in the area because of recent tensions.

There clearly has been an increased level of police and military alertness in the city over the past several days since the car bomb was exploded at a Coptic church in Alexandria. Tomorrow is the Copt’s Christmas Eve and the police are striving to make a strong showing in preparation. As we passed by the Cairo Marriott hotel in Zamalek today we noticed that each car coming into the entrance is given a brief inspection with a sniffer dog. Our hotel has good security at a much lower level --  a security guard sits at the door, greeting us as we go in and out. But we don’t have the kind of wealthy, international clientele that might draw the attentions of anyone wanting to make a statement against the government. We are so far below that kind of radar as to be non-existent.

I hope all are well. Scroll down for some photos of the Sofitel and the Citadel. Cheers. Brenda.

Seeking Ethnology

Sunday, January-02-11 8:30PM

Today has been an unusual day for us. We have not been out as much and have no particular adventures to report. We intended trying the Citadel again but we were dissuaded by a fellow who approached us close to the hotel to invite us to his shop. He said that given the recent violence in Alexandria, police are seriously stepping up security. He believes that places like the Citadel would be closed for a few days. We decided instead to head for an Ethnological Museum on the east bank. Our guide book said that its exhibits were focussed on the ways of life of the Egyptian people. We took the subway to the area shown on the book’s map. Though we had the actual address we had a very difficult time finding it. Except for main streets most are not signed; if they are the signs are in Arabic. We were clearly within a block or two of the place but no one whom we stopped knew of it. Perhaps they knew it under a name different than “The Ethnological Museum,” for no one understood. We were directed this way and that all to no purpose. It became quite funny after a time.

We spoke to a couple of soldiers and to a fellow emerging from a grocery store without getting any clearer. One group of teens chatting beside some cars suggested a large building close by. It was an impressive place with antique figures decorating the exterior and with lovely gardens. We climbed the stairs to speak to the lone figure sitting at a desk at the top. His head was on his arm and he was half asleep. The price of admission was 2 EL. We paid and went in. It was an enormous mausoleum, beautifully detailed with marble and with high arching ceilings. There were no others visitors; the only thing within was a centrally placed marble tomb. It was definitely not the Ethnological Museum. Across the street was a school which we gathered was associated in some fashion with the occupant of the tomb. Perhaps he had endowed it. As we passed a gaggle of pre-teen girls called out “hello.” I stopped and asked them about the museum. They shook their heads in total incomprehension, dissolved into giggles, and ran across the way. A passing man took up the challenge, indicating that the street we sought was the one further down the block. From there, he indicated, turn left. We did so, walking at length in that direction without seeing anything promising.

As we went along we were constantly hailed by children and men – waving, saying hello, smiling and shouting out, “Welcome to Egypt.” It was like being rock stars. Most westerners who come to Cairo are tourists who tend to congregate at the usual touristic locations. When we walk around other areas or use the Metro we rarely see others dressed like or looking like ourselves. This is especially true when we visit strictly Egyptian shopping and housing areas. There is a lot of awareness of us there and it is all very friendly and fun.

After our last effort to find the museum, speaking with a couple of people emerging from a centre for journalists, we decided to give up on it and to think of it as an actual, real-life ethnological experience. Instead we headed toward the Nile and into an area called the Garden City. This is a heavily gated space along the Nile south of the bridge near our hotel. Many large and beautiful homes there are surrounded by fences and have their own private security in evidence. Some are embassies, apparently the Canadian Embassy is there but we did not see it; others are probably the homes of wealthy Egyptians or perhaps foreign business people. We came across a nice little pastry shop/cafe and stopped there for lunch. As we walked along the Nile corniche afterward, we saw feluccas just below. These can be commissioned for a private sail at about 50 EL/hour. We plan to go out on one at dusk, possibly tomorrow.

We visited the Sofitel at the tip of the large island nearby on the way back. It is a beautiful and comfortable place, like all hotels here surrounded by heavy security. As westerners, however, we are able to walk into any place like that without challenge. It is assumed that we are guests. We took a look at some of their facilities and sat briefly on a patio alongside the river. Mark is keen to go back there for lunch. We have been told that there is a restaurant on their top floor which commands a terrific view of the city and the Nile. I think that Mark is more interested in sitting out on one of the patios, however.

So that is about our entire day. A plan changed, another thwarted, but little adventures along the way. We walked out an hour or so ago to a local pastry shop for a pizza and some baklava. Supper in the room; CNN International; reading and writing. A pleasant and relaxing time. Remember to scroll to the bottom for more photos. Take care and keep in touch. Brenda.