It’s been a few days since I’ve written and I’d like to explain why. I’ve been too busy. The one day we were gone from sunup to sundown. We didn’t get home until almost 11 at night. We spent the entire day touring mosques around Cairo followed by a show of whirling dervishes. Not true, in between there were some other things. For instance we spent quite a bit of time in Khan el-Kalili, which is the market area in Islamic Cairo. We spent a good deal of time looking at things in the area but then we had some free time to go out and shop.
Now this may not have been my first time haggling with shopkeepers, but it was still tiring and I wasn’t really into it. I had enough after about half an hour but Doug and Dani and Kayla were still looking for a few things so we kept on at it. There were some really amazing stores I will say. Especially antiques. Old cameras like you’ve never seen. Antique furniture, I almost bought a really nice table and shipped it home. Scarves and shirts and stamps and watches. You name it they had it. I was surprised though at the quality.
Most of it wasn’t really that great. It’s a really touristy area and so the things they sell aren’t the best, they do have some that are nice, but they’re out of my price range. It’s really interesting to watch them try to sell stuff. They’ll try absolutely everything, my favorite line of the day was, “how can I take your money?” They’re just so persistent and in your face. I was looking at old stamps halfheartedly and the guy was just so intent on selling them, even when I decided I didn’t really want them. I can’t be out spending money on everything I’d like to have. So that was that. He was so disappointed.
But after that the four of us went to a café whose name I can’t remember. What I can remember is that it is very famous as the haven of Naguib Mahfouz.
He was, of course, the most famous literary figure of 20th century Egypt, winning the only Nobel Prize in literature ever awarded to an Arab writer. Quite the guy. He used to spend all his time in this café, which wasn’t even that great up until that point. Now, though, whew, you can’t even believe. Very nice, look at the pictures later. Looks like a 1920s bar in Egypt. Great food and drinks too, I had a Strawberry Orangeana, fresh orange juice with strawberries and bananas cut up into it. The ice cream was pretty amazing too I must admit. The sad part, though, was that we were in a hurry because we had to meet the group at 6 and our stuff took forever to come so we had to down it in about three minutes before we ran out the door. It’s okay, we’re going to try to go back.
After that we went to Al-Azhar Mosque (I’m skipping the other ten or fifteen we’d already seen), which is possibly the most important in Egypt. It is actually not just a center of religion, but also of learning. The university part has over 150,000 students at nine separate campuses. It has medical schools, law schools, religious schools, charities, you name it. The mosque is still used for everything and fills up regularly, while we were there a prestigious local imam scholar was giving a lecture that was being broadcast live on TV. So we watched for a while and walked around before heading out and down to the whirling dervish show.
This isn’t really an Egyptian thing, but whirling dervishes were introduced to the country during the times of the Ottoman Empire. They tradition comes from Sufism which uses them to achieve a trancelike state to connect with God. That’s one way to go about it I guess. I just think I’d get dizzy. I have to admit, though, it was really amazing.
But to skip ahead, because I really need to catch up, the next day we had half a day more of Islamic Cairo during which we tried to recover from the day before. We finished a little early, though, and headed back to the hotel to recover for the next morning. We packed and got our stuff ready before having a final dinner on the rooftop of the hotel.
Finally, we all met up in Caroline’s room where I was keeping the watermelon I’d bought a couple days earlier. I’d heard before the trip that Egyptian fruit was amazing and we weren’t disappointed. It was one of the best watermelon’s I’d ever had, perfectly ripe and dark red. So we took it up on the roof to get some eating done and it was there we had an interesting night. You see, Egyptians have this thing for making money. So as soon as we sat down the manager told us there was a cover charge. Which there wasn’t. We had already gone through this a couple of nights before so Chris went downstairs to find Pappa Yasser. Meanwhile we argued a little bit and finally got them to let us order a few things. After about ten minutes our prof showed up and charged in the door like a bulldog and lit into them for giving us trouble.
He talked for quite awhile and eventually came over to tell us it was all worked out and he was talking to the next boss up. This guy shows up about five minutes later and they start another round of arguing. Finally, it ends and he comes back to explain there’s a special birthday party starting in about forty-five minutes so we just have to be out by then. No problem, we can do that. It was just funny how they insisted it was a 25 pound cover, and then a 75 one, and then dropped back to 35 for him before finally giving up and letting us stay. Egypt has got to be one of the most capitalist countries on the planet, everyone is trying to make a buck somehow. Never know how, but they are.
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