We woke up on Christmas Day, looking forward to another day of sightseeing and of course that big breakfast buffet waiting for us on the second floor.
Originally I had penciled in a trip to the Egyptian Museum for today to see the artifacts, mummies and masks collected in Egypt over the years, but Kuniko noticed that our next hotel in Cairo at the end of the trip was located right next door to the museum. Â So we postponed the museum for later, and instead decided to go visit some mosques around Cairo.
After a big breakfast of omelets, hibiscus juice, and plenty of fruits, bread and cheese we left the hotel and hired a driver on our own to take us to the Muhammad Ali Mosque in southeastern Cairo. The mosque is part of a fortress on a hillside overlooking the city, and it is pretty dramatic to see from a distance with its two bold minarets sticking up from the building. Since we were visiting several other sights in the area we went ahead and hired the driver to take us around to the next few places too. He was being deliberately vague about the price – “Pay me what you want to pay,” he said. Ugh.
He dropped us off at the base of the fortress complex, and we walked in on our own, past a few police checkpoints and military vehicles. Some soldiers attached to the security detail stood behind an upright bulletproof plate for cover, and a few soldiers wore ski masks to hide their identities from the local people. I felt safe the entire trip but it was a little unusual for me to be around so many soldiers and machine guns in my day to day activities. I guess like anything else, people get used to it.
The Muhammad Ali Mosque was quite impressive. The structure was made from beautiful stone and marble, with tilework and stained glass throughout. Unlike Catholic cathedrals through Europe the use of stained glass was more restrained, but when they used it they used it to great effect. Similar to other mosques there were lights and chandeliers hanging from the tall ceiling on chains, and light streamed in from some open windows on one side. The interior was big enough that one or two birds had taken residence. Outside the mosque we came across a booth with two young men distributing literature on Islamic religion, and they were very polite and friendly to us as we walked by. I imagine they would have a tough job doing that in some Western countries. Across from the mosque was an open area offering a dramatic view of the city of Cairo. We could even see the Pyramids, and even in the distance they gave an exotic look to the city.
We walked back down the hill to meet our taxi driver at the agreed time. Since we had arrived a bit early, we had to wait a few minutes, and other taxi drivers were chomping at the bit to steal away his customers. One guy offered to take us right now, and to charge us less than what we had promised to pay our driver. I told him that we’d stick with our agreement, and he understood, but told us that he’d be hanging around if our driver was late and he’d be happy to take over. I realized what a risk our driver was taking by letting us pay at the end – there was no real guarantee that we’d stick around – but I supposed he could probably find us back at our hotel since that was where we met him originally.
Soon enough our driver returned, and he took us to a few more mosques that were nearby that we wanted to see. At the entrance to the mosques there was a ticket booth – we were apparently the first customers, and when we paid the cashier made a big production about not having any change. She counted out some of our money back and then waited to see if I still wanted the rest. I kept my hand out, and she peeled a couple more bills off the roll she had in her hand, and stopped and said that was all she had. A bit hard to believe, but it was my fault for not breaking up the larger bills that I was carrying. Lesson learned, and she got an extra 30 pounds ($1.50) for her efforts.
The second mosque wasn’t quite as dramatic as the previous one, but next door was a third mosque that was really impressive. It had Skyrim-esque design with dark hallways, vaulted ceilings, and beautiful natural lighting running through some areas. The center of the mosque was open air, and again there were lanterns hanging from long chains attached all the way up on the ceiling way above us. I wondered how much they moved around during windy days. At each mosque there were people waiting to take our shoes so that we could walk in barefoot. Each shoe are “watcher” was also expecting a tip. Unfortunately my large notes were useless here, and I had to resort to giving the only small denominations that I had: 1 pound coins. Â The staff were less than thrilled, but there wasn’t a lot I could do except cheerfully thank them.
Our last stop with our taxi driver was a popular “garden” that was recommended online. It was kind of a park, and it was landscaped nicely so that local people could walk around and get a break from the busy city. Mostly it was occupied by young couples, and I’d guess that it is some sort of romantic ritual to walk through this garden with the one you love. Â Even in the late morning there were couples walking around in the nice weather. As far as parks go, to be honest, we’ve seen better and the place didn’t hold a lot of attraction for us. Â Soon enough we went back out to our taxi driver who was patiently waiting, and he took us back to our hotel where I paid him what I hoped was a fair wage. I’m sure he did all right.
We took a little break at the hotel, making sure to get enough relaxation between meals and sightseeing. A big part of this trip was to decompress and get away from our routines back in Japan, and I think we did a pretty good job of it in Cairo. While we lounged around the hotel we did notice that there seemed to be a lot of power outages. The power would cut off and then on again immediately, two or three times, and then be OK for the rest of the day. Then the next day it would happen again. I don’t know if this was limited to our hotel or if it was happening everywhere, but it was a little odd, especially at night when all the lights blinked out momentarily.
After a little downtime we went back out on the street to do some sightseeing outside of the Dokki area and get some exercise walking around. We headed east out of our neighborhood (we were already thinking of it as “our” neighborhood) and past the tall, striking Islamic Bank with the penis shaped logo, and then we were crossing the bridge over to Nile to see the Zamalek district of Cairo.
Believe it or not, the same guy from yesterday who was supposedly getting married came up to us, asked us where we were from, and started the same spiel as yesterday. Where is your hotel, I know a guy who lives in Toronto, etc. At first I thought it was a different guy because there was no way that the same guy wouldn’t recognize us, right? I thought that he kind of looked like that guy – but Kuniko confirmed it – this was the same dude. We knew what was coming so we said we had to run and we (almost literally) ran off to the east and left him behind. It would have been fun to tease him about missing his wedding today but I just wanted to move on and see more of the city.
The Zamalek district is located on an island in the center of the Nile River, and was recommended online as an area that is a bit unique with more of a European, young, and nightlife-oriented vibe to it. We walked almost the length of the entire island, past upscale hotels, restaurants on big boats permanently moored on the Nile, and a couple of members-only sports clubs. The area was filled with nice places, but the streets were the same as elsewhere – full of cars and in disrepair. It was not easy to walk anywhere in Cairo as the city is really designed for cars not pedestrians, and Zamalek was no different. We eventually made our way to neighborhoods that did feel more European, and the number of restaurants and shops increased dramatically. I got the feeling that lots of foreign tourists stay in the area.
We were looking for a particular restaurant for lunch, called Abou El Sid, and when we found it the big doors were firmly closed and there were no windows to confirm whether it was open or not. We figured that it was closed (later we found out that it wasn’t) and went to our second choice restaurant, called Zooba. We entered the place and instantly liked it. The feel of the place was younger, with the strong smell of cumin and other herbs floating around. We sat at a table and across from me a cook was serving up big spoonfuls of koshary for to-go orders coming in on the phone. We ordered a tray of hummus with harissa, and two Egyptian flatbread (kind of like whole wheat pita bread) sandwiches. One was a taamiya (falafel) sandwich and the other had mainly herbed beef with spicy eggplant and onion. The hummus came with several rounds of flatbread to dip in there, and we drank a bottled juice/tea with everything to balance the flavors. It was a great meal, and once again very affordable.
Filled with food we decided to forgo a taxi and walk all the way back to the hotel, using regular streets and our downloaded street map on my phone. It turned out to be quite an adventure. We’d have to walk in a single file line sometimes to squeeze between cars, other times we’d try to cross fast-moving streets of traffic. I would cross and then realize that I left Kuniko behind (or vice versa). We stepped across broken sidewalks, through construction zones and empty cement buildings, over feral kittens playing on the corner, and around kids who bounced balls to each other and called out “Hello” to us in English. Â We spent almost an hour walking, and it felt great. We were really getting accustomed to the flow of the city and the streets, and by the time we made it back to our Dokki neighborhood, we felt like locals.
Cairo was a place that really felt “foreign” to me – the only other time I felt like this was when we traveled in India. We enjoy that foreign feeling – it is one of the reasons that we travel to begin with. Traveling around Europe or through Asia there are a lot of similarities, but Cairo felt like a new category for us. I guess it made sense, since it was our first time in Africa.
Back at the hotel we put up our tired feet, had some hotel coffee and Christmas chocolate, and rested until dinner time. According to the internet there was a nearby branch of the restaurant that we had failed to enter, “Abou El Sid”, so we set off to go try it. Unfortunately when we arrived at the place on our map and searched the street we couldn’t find it. Maybe it was there, maybe it had moved, maybe the internet had bad information. We just rolled with it and search around the neighborhood until we found a sit-down restaurant that offered stuffed pigeon on their menu. The place was called the Saber Grill, and as we walked up the stairs to our dinner table we had to pass the cooks and a big cooking area with their dishes on display. Everything looked delicious. All that walking had built up our appetite.
We had the pigeon stuffed with herbed rice, and a chicken and rice roll that looked a little better than it tasted. The chicken roll was good but not revolutionary. The pigeon was good though – pretty bony as you might expect, but the skin was nicely browned from the rotisserie and it went well with the vegetables that came with it. As we ate our dinner one of the waiters laid out a prayer mat and started praying nearby. Staff at the restaurant were very friendly to us – they had a good sense of humor and they were nice enough to chat with us in English while we ate. It was a fun time considering we chose the place almost at random.
As we walked back to our hotel after dinner I would stop occasionally to take a photo of something interesting. At one point I stopped to take a picture and a young woman walking by was so distracted by watching me take the photo that she stumbled off the curb unexpectedly and Kuniko had to help her recover her footing. There were not a lot of tourists in Dokki and everywhere we made a big impression.
We headed to bed after another busy day – 24,000 steps according to our pedometer.
