Cairo I
Cairo is an absolutely overwhelming city. I don't think I've ever been in a city so big, so polluted, so clogged with traffic in my life. Addis seems like a quiet rural town in comparison. Cairo's population count varies between 18 and 25 million, depending on who you are talking to, and in the morning it's impossible to see more than 500 metres ahead due to the smog and fog of the Nile.Our first day, we did the mosques, which are truly amazing feats of architecture. Mere and I both have extensive experience touring the religious art worlds of Europe and so decided to fit all the mosques we could into one day and leave it at that, because eventually they start to blend into one. There are only so many paintings of Christ on a cross that you can take away in your head after the Vatican, you know?
I love arabic design, having been exposed to it studying in Andalusia, and my favorite mosque was the Ibn Tolun mosque, a huge square of calm, quiet, and shade in the midst of the din of Cairo streets.
Upon reluctantly accepting the directions of two male self-appointed "guides," we wound through the narrow streets of old Cairo to the Blue Mosque, one of the oldest, and climbed the minaret there. We had tea with the imam while our "guides," who hadn't left after escorted us to the mosque as we'd hoped, tried to persuade us to try their "special bedouin massage" as they proclaimed how much they wanted to be friends and to help bring "bees to the world." "Bees?" "Yes, bees! World bees!" Ahhhhh....PEACE. Got it. Apparently hitting on two foreign women is the route to world peace. We should be a lot farther along in that regard, if that's the case, and Mere and I should have received some kind of prize from the UN for our sacrifice to the cause, and our admirable restraint at not smacking the everpresent, leering faces that interrupted our strolls around Cairo and Luxor. Mere and I were complemented on our "faces more beautiful than engines" "engines?" "yes, engines, you know, with wings," "ahhh, angels" as we sampled kosheri, a traditional Egyptian dish that resembles those instant Asian soup-in-a-bowl deals, only you pour pureed tomato sauce over it instead of water.
All told, the first day was a success as we returned to our Nile-side hotel, all mosqued-out and sore from climbing minarets.
posted by Margot @ 7:25 AM
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