Day 203: Last Day in Egypt

We got off of our night train back from Luxor and immediately went into "Last Day in Egypt Party Central." Heba and Nayeli had previously told us that they had a day party and a night party to attend today when we were coordinating our flight to Turkey and our train back up from Luxor. We thought it would be more important to spend time with our friends than get sleep. That is exactly what happened!

We arrived to the girls home at 10:00 a.m., repacked our stuff, took showers, had 3 coffees, had an amazing homemade Mexican breakfast, and by 3:00 p.m. we were out the door on the way to the day party. How were we getting there? The way Egyptians do - by the Nile! We happily hopped on a 20 minute boat ride down the Nile, skipping traffic and enjoying the rainbow that was coming out on this rare rainy day.

The day party was set up just like a festival, only it was an island on the Nile. There were tents set up everywhere and Egyptian-style blankets underneath them. There were two live bands and two live DJs playing pop and funk, depending upon what style you wanted. After we finished up there, we went, grabbed our stuff from the girls' house, and went to the night house party.

At 2:00 a.m. we had to leave for our 4:45 a.m. flight to Turkey. We had such a great time in Egypt and it was all due to these lovely ladies. Next stop, with minimal sleep, Turkey!

Day 200: Egyptian Museum Take 2

Today we took in the Egyptian Museum for the second time. Apparently, the government is building a new museum, set to open in 2017. I can't wait! The Egyptian Museum is set up in the classic 1920s style of curation - there is none! You have to understand, the museum also has so many things that the 'junk' it doesn't want is just sitting in the courtyard. Inside the museum, the curators have just organised items based upon time period and each item is accompanied with a short-basic typewriter written blurb about it. Halas (as they say in Egypt), which means, 'that's it' or 'finished.'

Pallavi and I went to the museum in 2012. We remember seeing King Tut, the mummies of Seti I and Ramses II, and not finishing the whole museum. As we entered the museum for the second time, I swear we didn't remember any more than we had the last time we went. We didn't remember the museum had experienced a break in in 2011 and then had artifacts returned in 2012. We didn't remember have of the stuff we had seen before (and we went the same route this time). Plus, after two times, we still didn't even finish the museum!

Tragically, the curates had temporarily removed the infamous King Tut mask from display for restoration purposes. What a shame Pallavi's family didn't get a chance to see it.

To go back to the thought about the new museum, I cannot wait to see what (fingers crossed) state-of-the-art museum this one can turn into. If it provided an audio headset tour, I know for certain I wouldn't finish the museum, but I would try my darnedest to listen to every single number.

We called the day quite early in the afternoon, after finding this famous koshari place that Heba had taken us to in 2012 for lunch. We had to catch our train at 8:00 p.m. and wanted to get home in time to spend time with Heba and Nayeli, chance, and then get our overnight train to Luxor.

That's what we thought. We got into the cab at 6:30, went to show the cabbie the ticket, so he could read the Arabic and confirm he knew the destination for our cab, and only then did Pallavi notice what I had not. The ticket time showed 22:00. That's right. 8:00 p.m. is 20:00 NOT 22:00. 22:00 is 10:00 p.m. After checking the tickets 15 times in various locations, we confirmed that indeed, I had again pulled a Sarah and we asked the cab to turn around and drive us back. Might as well use that extra time to relax with our friends before we head off to Luxor. 

Day 198-199: Cairo Citadel & Islamic Cairo

Pallavi's parents arrived and we promptly sent them off to the pyramids. They planned only for 3 days in Cairo before we all head down towards Luxor, so we cannot waste anytime. However, I decided not to go to the pyramids. I stayed and finished our various bookings and internet errands before meeting them in the afternoon. They had a ball and came back wowed with the experience. We took them around Zamalek, had a lovely dinner, and called it a day.

The next day, we took them to the Citadel. Pallavi and I didn't go to the Citidel on our first visit, so we took a look around. The Citadel is basically a medieval fortress on top of a hill with lots of various mosques and museums that overlooks the entire city of Cairo. Wikipedia says medieval in a 11th century kind of way. It actually is quite interesting. At its pinnacle stands the Mosque of Mohammad Ali. Mohammad Ali was the ruler of 'modern Egypt,' which is roughly the late 19th century. This mosque is filled with lots of Ottoman baroque influences. Then, just around the corner, is a different mosque, belonging to a 14th century ruler, Al-Nasir Muhammad Qala'un Mosque, who decided to take various pillars from structures across Egypt to build his mosque, including Coptic Christian pillars and ancient Egyptian ones as well. It's interesting to see a cross on a pillar in a mosque. We then left the Citadel to see some 3rd mosque by Ibn Hussein, who had once been a Turkish slave - and that's all I know about that one.

The entire day, small children kept coming up to Pallavi and her sister to ask if they could have pictures with them. They LOVE Indians here too, and, although they love white folk, they just pushed me out of the picture. That's okay! I'll just get my pictures taken with strangers when I go to India next time (sniff, sniff... I don't need attention...)

We spent the other half of the day shopping in Islamic Cairo. Pallavi's Mom and Sister wanted to shop as soon as they saw the pyramids. Now, shopping in Cairo requires a lot of haggling. I swear we spent 50% of the time shopping, and 50% of the time haggling, and Pallavi did a majority of the haggling. We spent so much time that tea was served. We told this story later, and Nayeli told us that once, she was served a schwarma sandwich while haggling. I'd call that success!

We all piled into one cab (5 people!) and went to meet Heba, Nayeli, and Heba's Mom for dinner. On the way, the Cabbie asked for Hindi music from us as soon as he learned the family is from India. He enjoyed the music so much that he missed his turn. How did he go back? He just reversed on the highway!!!!!! I closed my eyes and said a small prayer, followed by a chant of "it's okay. I have insurance. They drive like this all of the time." When he passed the cop, he just simply explained the situation and the cop let him go by! I wish our cops were so understanding.

Days 196-197: Back in Cairo

Pallavi's parents and her sister decided to take a two week holiday to Egypt and Turkey, and we are going to join them. Before they arrive, we had one last weekend with Heba & Nayeli. What better weekend to pick than Halloween weekend. Apparently, Nayeli LOVES Halloween. She loves Halloween in an artsy-crafts months of pre-planning kind of way. She loves Halloween so much that we spent our entire trip in Morocco brainstorming various things that we could devise out of our limited backpacker clothes and turn into a costume.

I had all sorts of costume plans, but in true Sarah form, procrastination took its toll and I ended up with nothing by the time we landed! I owned up and prepared to face their wrath. What did I get? I got tons of creative last-minute costume ideas. We got up, brunched, went to the various Egyptian Pound stores, and pulled together the last crystal ball of Pallavi's fortune teller costume (which she had created already before Egypt) and a few boxes of cereal later, they had turned me into the Cereal Killer!

I really have missed my American holidays, but I'm so glad I got to spend Halloween with these ladies!

Then the next day, Heba & Nayeli invited us to join them to an Egyptian wedding that they had to attend. This was our second wedding in two months. Thankfully I had my Moroccan dress to wear (which apparently people really, really love). This wedding was completely different than the Moroccan one. There was liquor. There were men and women sitting together. Nobody was doing that great 'congratulations' chant that they do in Morocco. Hardly any woman was wearing a head scarf. The only thing that was similar was that it was a Muslim wedding (I think!).

The wedding was held in this beautiful venue, The Swiss Club. According to Heba, back in the day, there use to be many such clubs like this one. This club was for Swiss citizens to sit, relax, drink, play lawn games, etc. At the time, it was in a really nice Middle Class neighborhood. Now, it's a diamond in the rough. Not many of these clubs exist any longer, so I'm so glad that we got to experience this one. Nothing like a bit of American & Egyptian culture before we get back on the Egypt Tourism Trail.

Days 162-167: Cairo

I wish we could say we went and explored the crap out of Cairo after we came back from our trip. I wish we could say we went and explored the crap out of Zamalek, the neighbourhood where H&N live. Instead, I can say that we really enjoyed chilling, watching old episodes of Friends, planning our trip to Morocco, and spending time with each other whenever possible, as the girls had to return to work.

Tragically, Nayeli came down with a down and out kind of cold. As a result, a lot of our post-work experience was limited to just relaxing at home with her. That's my excuse anyway. I would have enjoyed just relaxing at home anyway.

We did make it a point to get out every day and to do something. One day Nayeli cooked chili for us; another day Pallavi cooked Indian food for us; a different day we went out to this amazing Egyptian restaurant the girls had taken us to the first time we had visited Egypt and chased it with shisha and tea; and one night we went out to the same Nile club we had gone on our first night.

We tried to explore to get Pallavi's phone fixed, or shipped to India, or a SIM for my loaner phone. You wouldn't have thought that getting a Motorola phone fixed abroad would be so darn difficult! Some people attempt to look at it to see if it's fixable, while others just see the phone from a distance and say 'no.' You also can't ship the darn thing apparently if it has an in built battery. I'm not sure if I believe this or not, as I still have yet to see it in writing. As for the SIM, I just need to remember to carry a passport with me.

Although we didn't have success on our actual missions, we did manage to find some local amazing schwarma eateries, some great local galleries, and some lovely cafes.

To cap off the week, Heba's mom cooked for us and brought it over. She made us the best Egyptian food we have eaten! What a great way to end the week. Next stop: Morocco.

Day 151: Cairo, Egypt

Two of our best friends, Heba & Nayeli, live in Cairo. Heba is from Cairo and we have visited Egypt before, so we are in very safe hands.

The one thing they told us before we travelled to Cairo was to get lots of sleep because they were planning a big night for us upon arrival.

Did that happen?

I swear that we tried! We even went to bed at 10:00 p.m. the night before our 9 a.m. flight (with a 5:15 a.m. alarm). What time did we actually fall asleep? 12:30 a.m.

Did we sleep on our flight from Delhi to Doha or from Doha to Cairo?

We didn't even try! How could we with so many movies to watch! We had booked this leg of the flight using my American Airlines miles. What did that mean? We weren't on a low cost airline! What does that mean? Movies on the plane! It's the best part of the flight. Well, that and the free alcohol that goes with it.

Heba picked us up and we went to her & Nayeli's house, which they loving call "The Cuddle Shack." We had an amazing dinner of Egyptian mezes, which consists of Egyptian bread, tahini, baba ganoush, and headed out to a party on a boat on the Nile.

It was amazing. The Nile is amazing. It was so great to see so many of the people we had met the first time we came to Cairo. We might be in Egypt, but we certainly don't feel like backpackers. It feels different this time. Not just the party and the people, but rather, more like a familiar city. We remember how the city looks, the bridge the comes before Heba's house, and even some of the streets. It might not be home, but it certainly doesn't feel foreign.

How long did we make it? We both crashed at 1:00 a.m. Cairo time (the equivalent of 4:30 a.m. in Delhi). What time did we get home? Oh, 2:30 a.m. or so.

At least we didn't have to get up at 5:30 a.m. like Nayeli did to go to work! They only hated us a lot when they got home 2 hours after we woke up.