Last weekend, my roommates and I went to Islamic Cairo and walked around a little bit.




There was this Ottoman or something house that was open for looking around, so we wandered around it and looked at the architecture.

Detailed tiled floors and ceilings.


Courtyards.
A grinding wheel or something.

A cool sitting room. I used to think that I wanted a rococo parlor, but I think I want an Islamic sitting room. I really like low couches and high ceilings and hidden cupboards.

In Cairo, stores are arranged in districts. We were walking around the shisha/minaret district, so all the shops sold shisha and shisha parts and/or those bronze things that are at the top of minarets. Apparently there is also a fire district somewhere, where they sell fire boots and extinguishers and stuff like that.
Walls.

Anyway, this weekend featured Taba Day, so we had an extra day off and so my roommate Mariya and I went to Alexandria. A lot of people call it Alex, but something about it seems kind of annoying and improper. It reminds me of this David Sedaris story in which he mentions his refusal to date anyone who shortens street names in New York (refering to Madison Avenue as Mad. Ave. for example). Anyway, I am a little bit in love with Alexandria and had a really good time there.

We stayed with Mariya's distant relative. She lived in a really really nice apartment. It was like a first world bubble. It was pretty fobby too.

We had planned on taking the 9:00 am train, but it was full, so we had to take the 11:00 train and got in around 2:00. The woman we were staying with had borrowed her neighbors driver and after we settled in our fobby room, we ate home cooked Indian food (so good) and sat around and watched real cable television with channels such as MTV. After my last major trip, which was fun but so densely packed, I was only interested in sitting around and wandering, so eventually, we took a cab to the corniche (waterfront) and enjoyed the view of the Mediterranean. No real pictures of it, because I don't believe in taking pictures of oceanic views. It was really cloudy. Also, it had been raining. It wasn't even raining that much, but Mariya and I were so excited because it never rains in Egypt.

After sitting on the corniche, we went looking for the souq (market) because it was supposed to have good jewelry or something. We found the souq:
But there was nothing there really worth buying. Lots of crappy socks, raw meat, live animals (for eating), bras, tacky clothes.

After all that getting lost, we worked up a good appetite, and found this restaurant called Hood Gondol. The tour book had recommended it, as well as our roommate Claire and Mariya's boyfriend, but had told us it would be hard to find. We found it eventually, and the directions we were given were not terrible, so I didn't think it was too bad. And anyway, it was well worth it:
It was seriously like the best seafood I'd ever had in my life. So fresh. When we finally found the place, one of the guys working there showed us these giant pots that had all of the food they offered, since they didn't have a menu. There was rice, potatoes, peppers, limes, blackened fish, fried fish fillet, clams, and fried calamari. The guy took a piece of fish fillet and offered it to us, and we ate it and of course it was good. Then he offered us clams, which we also ate. He asked us what we thought, and when we paused, he said "It's perfect, isn't it?" Seriously, it was so good and I just... am so sad that it isn't something I can have all the time. Oh, and it cost 65 Egyptian pounds for the two of us, including the cokes we got. That is roughly $13 USD.... for BOTH of us.

Then we went back to the apartment and watched the weirdest movie on TV. It was about "tough love" camps.

The next day, we had a rough itinerary of some things that would be cool to see. First we went to Fort Qaitbay, which was built on the ruins of the Lighthouse of Alexandria. It was really great. The view was beautiful and it was windy and I had packed along some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that I had baked and so it was pretty excellent.
Egyptians don't have to pay very much, if anything, to get into touristy types of attractions. As a result, the majority of the people at Qaitbay were Egyptians. And so first, there were a lot of people stopped in really irritating places, taking pictures for their myspaces. Second, there was probably worse harrassment inside the Fort than outside it. There was one point where Mariya wanted to change her camera lens and about like a million 10 year olds ran up and were all, "Hallo? Hallo? What's your name?" and then a bunch of barely pubescent boys came up and were like "Hallooooo ;) Welcome to Egypt!" Ugh. Like I don't get that enough.
Apparently, that rubbly wall in the back on the left is part of what remains of the lighthouse.

Around this part of the wall, which is a little less obvious to get to, there were a lot of secret couples. See that little niche on the left? There was probably a secret couple inside there too.
This was like, where the sewage went or something. It smelled foul, but looked cool.
There was a network of sort of secret passageways, in like, the bottom of the walls, which was also really cool.
And a mosque inside the big building part, which was also nice.

We walked back a little bit, past this cute boatyard, with really nice and brightly colored boats.

I thought it was really nice because even Egyptians were standing there, looking out at the boats, admiring the sea, or whatever.

Next we stopped in a cafe, which was nice and cute, until Mariya ordered a Greek salad, which ended up sucking a little bit. Then we took a cab to the Catacombs. We got lost looking for it, because we went down the wrong street. Then we had to pass this giant puddle of water in the middle of the road. You can't tell, but it really sucked and it was freaking huge. We managed to go around it... through a lot of gross trash.

As I already mentioned, kids here tend to be really annoying. Yes I am foreign. No I would rather not be a spectacle. But this girl. This girl really knew how to get to us. She just had to hold this puppy and we were all over it. When we finally continued walking, there were some 13 year old boys who started trying the whole "Hallooo. What's your name" thing, and we were like "Please. Don't even try. You don't have a puppy, you don't have a chance."

Finally we made it to the Catacombs. Only to find out that they would not allow cameras in. I snuck a few on my phone. But this was the only picture I have on my camera. Of course, a huge group of Egyptian men were also in the Catacombs and they were super obvious about the fact that they were taking pictures with their phones. So that was annoying. Also, they thought I was from Thailand and/or Japan. Also not cool.
Anyway, the Catacombs were excellent. There was this huge spiral staircase, that revolved around a cylindrical shaft, through which they supposedly lowered bodies. There was a room with stone benches carved into it, for the mourning families to have dinner parties in. There were a million holes for bodies. There were relief carvings of Egyptian gods wearing Roman clothes. There was a sacrificial altar. There were paintings of both Egyptian and Greek myths relating to the underworld. It was a pretty awesome place. Then we sat outside and watched some tourists come in and played "Where are they from?"

After the catacombs, we had time to waste, so we went to this restaurant at the roof of one of the super luxe hotels and ate fake Chinese food. Then we did what we always do when we have nothing to do: we sat on the corniche.
Then we went back, had more home cooked Indian food (still SO good) and caught a train back to Cairo. After Alexandria, Cairo sucks a little bit. Also the train ride was a little crappy because we sat right next to the bathroom. The bathroom that they probably don't clean. So it smelled really terrible. But Alexandria was totally worth it. It was beautiful and calming and my experience there was so relaxing and first world, it was a really nice change.

In other news:
Last week, I made some samosas and they were great. That was off topic, but I was really proud.

Luxor: Another touristy place. First we went to Karnak Temple. We hired a guide, but sometimes I didn't really listen to him because I was daydreaming about what it must have been like to walk through the temple when it was new and big and the paintings were fresh. From what I understood, I think that over the generations, every new pharoh would add on their own little hallway or obelisk or whatever, so the place is huge and represents the legacy of many different pharohs.

There were lines of sphinxes lining the entrance walkway. I thought they were pretty cool because they were for Ramses and Ramses was really into rams, so they all have the head of a ram and the body of a lion and they're all hanging out with what is I think a representation of some pharohs. I also think the guide said that all of the little men statues were destroyed except for this one, which was supposed to represent Ramses. I'm not sure though.

I think this is another representation of Ramses as a Ram man.
Part of the main hallway or something. It was supposed to have a roof, but the roof collapsed, and it has like over a hundred giant columns.
Some of the beams and columns even retained their vivid paintwork.

Our guide, some obelisks.
Our guide again, a statue. The statue was roped off, but the guide was touching it anyway to show us how the detail in the knees and ankles and toenails said a lot about ancient Egyptian sculpture.



At this point, about like half of our group decided we were too burnt out to continue on to the Luxor museum. So while some people went to the museum, we sat around the giant columns and considered taking a falucca, but then ended up sitting and eating. After that, we decided to meet up at Luxor Temple, built for like yet another Ramses. I wasn't really feeling it though.
I think part of it was the sunlight. By the time we got there, it was almost sunset, so the light was pretty terrible. Also, I think I was still a little sick of the sightseeing thing and just wanted to sit and chill.


Apparently Luxor Temple is supposed to be really awesome when the sun sets because bats come out or something. So we sat around and watched people walk by while we waited for the sun to set. There was a tour group of middle aged women who wore matching bright orange shirts. Another interesting thing: in Cairo, things are pretty conservative, so women cover up and couples don't really do a lot of the PDA thing. But in Aswan and Luxor, almost everyone there is a tourist who doesn't really know much better, so there are all these people wearing tank tops and short shorts and I feel totally scandalized when I see them - especially when a girl wearing a tube top and short shorts is kissing her boyfriend who is wearing a wifebeater.
A blurry picture of how dramatic it looks at night. I still think it looks worse though.

Afterwards, we met some other AUC students for cocktails and beers and shisha and bad food and it was a pretty great time.

The next day, our hotel arranged a guided tour for us to the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens and some other things. First we went to this temple:
I don't remember its name. Also, it might not really be a temple. This was the place one of the pharohs got mummified. But the interesting thing was that this particular pharoh was a woman, and every reference to her in this temple has been chiseled away by her son, because she sort of usurped the throne when he was a wee baby. I don't really know how we know it is her, in that case, but whatever.

Great painting jobs. The ceilings here are fantastic, and it's kind of amazing that the paint has lasted this long.

Then we went to Valley of the Kings. Of course.
They don't allow you to take pictures inside the tombs, so I can't really impress you with them. But. They were awesome. The first one we saw was Ramses IV and it might have been one of my favorites. The walls were painted white with carved and painted hieroglyphics. Farther into the hallway, the walls were covered in giant painted reliefs of slaves with their hands tied, and snakes that were meant to protect the dead and on the ceiling was the goddess who eats the sun every night and gives birth to it again in the morning. At the end were the broken sarcophagi of Ramses IV and also of Ramses V, who I guess was a lazy cheat and just tried to put his name on top of his father's and had himself buried there too.

We also saw Ramses IX, Ramses I, Ramses VI and Tut. You had to pay extra to see Ramses VI and Tut though. I heard Ramses VI was better, so I paid for that and it was ok. It wasn't as well preserved as Ramses IV, and that is kind of a big deal to me. Also there was the sky goddess again, and it's supposed to be the biggest representation of her in a tomb or something, but I wasn't impressed.

I had also heard that King Tut was overrated and it cost more, so I didn't pay for it. So we were standing around waiting for the people who had paid for it to see it, and I turned to one of my friends, with whom I just recently been talking to about getting a tattoo, and I said "Do you think it hurts to get a tattoo?" At this, this old woman near us like, turned to us and offered me her ticket. She said she had torn something in her knee and could not take the steep stairway down to the tomb, so she pretty much gave me her ticket and wouldn't let me pay her back for it. So. I saw King Tut's tomb. It's very small and deep inside, and there is only really one room with a full wall mural and his sarcophagus and one of his many layers of gold coffins. Also, his mummy is in there. He is kind of shrimpy, but it was really cool because I had never really heard conclusively where exactly Tut's mummy was. So it was an experience.

Then we went to Valley of the Queens. No pictures there either except for this one:
At this point, I was pretty burnt out anyway. We saw a tomb for some queen and her children. It was interesting because in the queen's tomb, the first room was full of images of people holding hands. Like gods holding hands with gods, queens holding hands with kings, kings holding hands with gods. It was very nice and full of love and happy emotions. Also interesting: also found in the tomb was a miscarried fetus, buried with the queen, in like a box or something. So that was on display and really fascinating. The tomb I would've really liked to see was Neferteri's. Apparently it is super well preserved and her tomb is beautiful, probably because Ramses II was totally whipped and worshipped her. But. As it turns out, it apparently costs 40,000 Egyptian pounds for a group of ten people to go see it. Of course, that is only 4,000 Egyptian pounds per person, but that is still about like $800 USD per person. So we didn't see Neferteri's tomb.

Afterwards, we freshened up and took a falucca, just for the experience. The experience was drifting aimlessly in the river while it was approaching sunset and getting really cold.



Then we ate dinner and half of us, who were not planning on staying another day in Luxor, left to take the plane home. There were some problems and in the end, after even more problems, we took a crappy train back to Cairo. Did you know that they probably haven't cleaned the train toilet since the train has been built? I didn't use it (which was difficult on a 12 hour ride) but my friend did and he reeked. Also, this was first class.

Anyway, it was really nice to get out of Cairo and do some things, as touristy as they may be. Next time, I want to just sit somewhere and eat. We have this Thursday off for some new holiday that was just declared, so that will probably be really nice and fun.