Cairo Day 3
I suppose this will have to be a tarantino, because I do not yet have the pictures from day two and I think it would really throw you to start with day one. So day three:
I woke up at 7 am to spend the first half of the day wandering around Cairo and the museum of mummies on my own. I think I tried to move my head first and then my arm maybe. It could've been my arm to turn off the alarm clock. It didn't really matter because I couldn't move any part of my body to anywhere. So I went back to sleep. I tried again at 9 and then again at 11. By the time I was actually able to move my body, and by move I don't mean that the pain decreased only that my will got stronger, so by the time I was actually able to go, it was time to meet Kitten for lunch.
We went for the local meal: macaroni, rice, spaghetti in a tomato sauce with lentils and chick peas topped off with fried onions. A carb fest as Kitten calls it. Strangely italian and american for the most genuine egyptian meal, but tasty nonetheless.
I was then passed off from Kitten to Alex, to wander around Islamic Cairo. Alex had the great fortune of letting me lead the way even though he had been living there for nearly 6 months. And I of course lead us straight into the slums. Never much for tourism, I opted to make nice with some locals who insisted on sharing their tea and cheese dip??? and cigarettes with us. really really, mamash, mamash, the poorer people are the more generous. Its amazing. Alex told our new friends stories in arabic about how we had recently been married in the states and we were waiting to have children till he came back from studying in cairo. And I subtly switched my ring from my thumb to my ring finger...not that I know which one that is... At one point they insisted I eat their cheese dip and as alex tried to excuse us from what would inevitably be our intestinal doom, I refused to mind my husband's word and dove right in. As I explained to Alex the night before, when you're traveling through the countries I've been traveling through, you come to accept diarrhea as a norm, it doesn't become a reason to literally not experience the world. (too much info. too bad, I'm the one who had to live through it). Anyways, on the occasions where I am lucky enough to meet local people who want to share their food and time with me, it is my custom to always accept. So, because I dove in, of course my 19 year old husband had to follow suit. Couldn't have him lose face in front of our new friends. (Sorry Alex)
Beyond losing our intenstinal sanctity, which I had lost so many countries back, we had a really lovely time chatting about cairo and marriage and police brutality and corruption and all other things that you would think to discuss over tea and cheese dip.
Alex and I continued to get lost until it was no longer fun to be lost because the men folk began to get a little too interested in my presence. let me rephrase, the men folk were perfect gentlemen, the boy folk however, were crossing many lines. So we journeyed on to meet our other friends for SUFI DANCING!!!!
For those of you who don't know, and for those of you who do please feel free to wiki my text, the Sufi's are a spin off (tee hee) of Islam. They maintain the same five tenants of the religion, but they have some really important and I think beautiful distinctions. They believe in an individual connection with the divine. They also believe that this connection can be reached through hot or cold energies. A famous example of this hot energy is through spinning. The Sufis have developed a form of dance based on spinning. They spin and spin and spin until they see god. or puke. but I think more often they see god. i've spun a lot in my day and definetly seen pretty colors and lights and stuff, but I don't think I've ever ever spun like these guys spin.
I don't know why but for some reason the music and the dancing really affected me. The sufi dancers and especially one musician who stole my heart, seemed to carry so much joy in their faces and their expressions and be so full of love for what they were doing that I couldnt help but laugh really loudly at inappropriate times and clap my hands like I had no understanding of social graces. It was simply joyful. And the idea that they could connect to the divine by spinning out of joyfulness, was also joyful. It was just a damn good time.
Oh, and before the Sufi dancers began their dance Kitten handed me her paw complaining of a sprained finger, that within ten minutes through reiki, I healed. neat, huh?
Afterwards, we walked to the main night bazaar and enjoyed some egyptian falafal/fava bean sandwiches and carried on to buy heaps of crap like coffee mugs with mummies on them and little wooden sphinxes and other such nickernackers that you imagine you can only ever get in cairo and therefore must buy there. Its okay, cause they cost next to nothing, but still highly unnecessary and mainly enjoyable only because haggling is like a national past time and it gives you a chance to interact with people and have a little fun.
We eventually settled in a restaurant called Fishawi's for some hookah and some crazy drink that tasted like liquified rice pudding, only chunky, so maybe not so liquified. Fishawi's has been open, non stop, day and night for over 200 years. Isn't that a fun fact. Really if you think about its pretty freaking amazing. They have not closed for even an hour in over 200 years. No holidays, no wars, no need to clean or renovate. So it was more than interesting to sit in a place that had such a unique history and soak in the atmosphere as i tried to soak up my pudding.
We got back by arund 1am and I had to be up for my bus by 5:20am, so my friends made the executive decision that I was not going to sleep. Alex and I wandered off to a loungy bar where the matre di served us fancy bottles of beer while they played very eclectic tunes of the breakfast club and sweet dreams. We then wandered the streets discussing politics and ex's while we searched for sugary things which we found procured and brought back to the dorms in mass quantities. And the hours passed in these ways, talking and getting high on sugar. It was lovely. Lovely.
Eventually the witching hour came and I rode off into the sunrise to get back on a bus that would inevitably take ALLL day, my body still aching but my heart nice and full. three cheers for cairo. and my sweet sweet friends.
I woke up at 7 am to spend the first half of the day wandering around Cairo and the museum of mummies on my own. I think I tried to move my head first and then my arm maybe. It could've been my arm to turn off the alarm clock. It didn't really matter because I couldn't move any part of my body to anywhere. So I went back to sleep. I tried again at 9 and then again at 11. By the time I was actually able to move my body, and by move I don't mean that the pain decreased only that my will got stronger, so by the time I was actually able to go, it was time to meet Kitten for lunch.
We went for the local meal: macaroni, rice, spaghetti in a tomato sauce with lentils and chick peas topped off with fried onions. A carb fest as Kitten calls it. Strangely italian and american for the most genuine egyptian meal, but tasty nonetheless.
I was then passed off from Kitten to Alex, to wander around Islamic Cairo. Alex had the great fortune of letting me lead the way even though he had been living there for nearly 6 months. And I of course lead us straight into the slums. Never much for tourism, I opted to make nice with some locals who insisted on sharing their tea and cheese dip??? and cigarettes with us. really really, mamash, mamash, the poorer people are the more generous. Its amazing. Alex told our new friends stories in arabic about how we had recently been married in the states and we were waiting to have children till he came back from studying in cairo. And I subtly switched my ring from my thumb to my ring finger...not that I know which one that is... At one point they insisted I eat their cheese dip and as alex tried to excuse us from what would inevitably be our intestinal doom, I refused to mind my husband's word and dove right in. As I explained to Alex the night before, when you're traveling through the countries I've been traveling through, you come to accept diarrhea as a norm, it doesn't become a reason to literally not experience the world. (too much info. too bad, I'm the one who had to live through it). Anyways, on the occasions where I am lucky enough to meet local people who want to share their food and time with me, it is my custom to always accept. So, because I dove in, of course my 19 year old husband had to follow suit. Couldn't have him lose face in front of our new friends. (Sorry Alex)
Beyond losing our intenstinal sanctity, which I had lost so many countries back, we had a really lovely time chatting about cairo and marriage and police brutality and corruption and all other things that you would think to discuss over tea and cheese dip.
Alex and I continued to get lost until it was no longer fun to be lost because the men folk began to get a little too interested in my presence. let me rephrase, the men folk were perfect gentlemen, the boy folk however, were crossing many lines. So we journeyed on to meet our other friends for SUFI DANCING!!!!
For those of you who don't know, and for those of you who do please feel free to wiki my text, the Sufi's are a spin off (tee hee) of Islam. They maintain the same five tenants of the religion, but they have some really important and I think beautiful distinctions. They believe in an individual connection with the divine. They also believe that this connection can be reached through hot or cold energies. A famous example of this hot energy is through spinning. The Sufis have developed a form of dance based on spinning. They spin and spin and spin until they see god. or puke. but I think more often they see god. i've spun a lot in my day and definetly seen pretty colors and lights and stuff, but I don't think I've ever ever spun like these guys spin.
I don't know why but for some reason the music and the dancing really affected me. The sufi dancers and especially one musician who stole my heart, seemed to carry so much joy in their faces and their expressions and be so full of love for what they were doing that I couldnt help but laugh really loudly at inappropriate times and clap my hands like I had no understanding of social graces. It was simply joyful. And the idea that they could connect to the divine by spinning out of joyfulness, was also joyful. It was just a damn good time.
Oh, and before the Sufi dancers began their dance Kitten handed me her paw complaining of a sprained finger, that within ten minutes through reiki, I healed. neat, huh?
Afterwards, we walked to the main night bazaar and enjoyed some egyptian falafal/fava bean sandwiches and carried on to buy heaps of crap like coffee mugs with mummies on them and little wooden sphinxes and other such nickernackers that you imagine you can only ever get in cairo and therefore must buy there. Its okay, cause they cost next to nothing, but still highly unnecessary and mainly enjoyable only because haggling is like a national past time and it gives you a chance to interact with people and have a little fun.
We eventually settled in a restaurant called Fishawi's for some hookah and some crazy drink that tasted like liquified rice pudding, only chunky, so maybe not so liquified. Fishawi's has been open, non stop, day and night for over 200 years. Isn't that a fun fact. Really if you think about its pretty freaking amazing. They have not closed for even an hour in over 200 years. No holidays, no wars, no need to clean or renovate. So it was more than interesting to sit in a place that had such a unique history and soak in the atmosphere as i tried to soak up my pudding.
We got back by arund 1am and I had to be up for my bus by 5:20am, so my friends made the executive decision that I was not going to sleep. Alex and I wandered off to a loungy bar where the matre di served us fancy bottles of beer while they played very eclectic tunes of the breakfast club and sweet dreams. We then wandered the streets discussing politics and ex's while we searched for sugary things which we found procured and brought back to the dorms in mass quantities. And the hours passed in these ways, talking and getting high on sugar. It was lovely. Lovely.
Eventually the witching hour came and I rode off into the sunrise to get back on a bus that would inevitably take ALLL day, my body still aching but my heart nice and full. three cheers for cairo. and my sweet sweet friends.
posted by Maya J. Gat @ 9:25 AM
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