Eqypt Trip - Part Two

Hello!

First and foremost, thank you all so much for all the emails asking if we were ok, I'm so so sorry that we didn't get a chance to email sooner but as I said in my earlier email, we have literally been run ragged on this tour. I think our latest wake-up call has been 6:00am and our earliest was 1:45 the morning we left for Aswan.

Where to begin? I suppose at the beginning! We spent our first official day in Cairo touring a bit of the city with a very nice cab driver that the hotel helped us out with. Cairo is a very VERY big city. The first thing you notice when you get here are the constant noise of car horns. You might imagine that this could be very annoying, but this isn't a New York CIty "BEEEEEEEEEEEP! Hey you idiot, get out of my way" kind of horn honking, it's more of a "Beep beep! Hello my friend, I'm coming up behind you" It's very much like listening to a conversation. Another thing you notice right away is that there are no lanes, anywhere, nor have we seen very many traffic lights – according to our guide and various taxi drivers, they're optional!

You would imagine that the combination of 19 million people, no lanes, and no traffic lights, with people running and walking across traffic constantly would be chaos, and for the most part it is. Somehow though, like much of what we've seen in Egypt so far, the people of Cairo make it work! I've paid close attention to the condition of the cars, and although most of them are quite old and in need of repair, very few of them are dented. We also cannot get over how all of the pedestrians manage to weave their way though traffic without getting hit. I suppose I could look up traffic fatalities for Cairo, but I rather prefer the illusion that there are very few!

Whenever I come to a new city abroad for the first time I can't help but compare it to other places I've already been, it's not until I've spent a few days in a city that I can really get the unique feel of that particular city. With that being said, the very first impression of Cairo is what I would consider a mixture of Istanbul and Mexico City. It has the middle eastern feel of Istanbul, but the sheer size and sprawl of Mexico City. Now, of course, after having spent over a week in the country and four days in Cairo, - Cairo is . . . Well it's just Cairo. It's unlike anywhere I've ever been.

Before I get into more detail about what we've seen so far let me spend some time talking of the Egyptian people. To put it bluntly, if it were possible to fall in love with an entire population, we've done it. I have never, in all of my travels, met a more friendly, warm, open, helpful culture. All you have to do is glance in someone's direction, even in overpopulated Cairo, and you will receive a big sincere smile. I am always struck by how much HAPPIER people in other places seem to be than we are at home in the states. This, of course, is not to discount the grinding poverty that nearly everyone here must endure, but somehow, they not only do endure, but they find a way to look beyond their circumstances and maintain their happiness. It's such a contrast that it literally makes my heart ache that we, in the States, who have so very much, find a way, as a culture, to be so angry and unhappy about so many things. I suppose, when you get to the heart of it, that this is why I not only continue to travel, but am drawn more and more to places like Egypt. For all our wealth and success at home, it is as clear to me that these people still retain something that we have lost.

Now back to Cairo! As I was saying, we took a cab around our first day in town and went to an old Greek Orthodox Church. I have been struck by just how MANY churches there are here in Egypt. We hear differing numbers from different people, but it seems that the Christian population here is anywhere from twenty to thirty percent, comprised mostly of Egyptian Orthodox, Coptic, and Catholic. The churches are not small, and are all over the city. Most of them, like in parts of Mexico, have large neon crosses that light up at night. Various cab drivers and tour guides have told us that there are "no problems" in Egypt between the Christians and the Muslims. Although I know this to be only partly true, I can surmise, after having spent a little bit of time here, and spoken to many many people, that the problems that they do have here are the result of religious extremists. The vast majority of people really don't seem to care one way or another.

Most women here cover their heads, and we have seen a fair amount of women completely covered (all in black with just the eyes showing) but most of the women who do cover are wearing far more make-up than a "good girl" at home would. The most interesting thing about the religiousness of the Egyptian people that I have noticed is that you will occasionally come across men who have either very deep creases, or callouses on their foreheads from praying five times a day. I didn't see that in either Morocco or Turkey so will have to ask our guide whether or not this is a local thing, like maybe they smack their heads on the ground when they pray, or the rugs they pray on are rough.

We spent some time wandering around the grounds of the old Greek church, and then met our cab driver who took us to some shops so we could look at perfumes, papyrus, and gold. Perfume is a very big business here in Egypt, I did not know this before I came, but nearly ALL the base scents of popular perfumes at home come from here. They grow all of the flowers up near Aswan and crush out the oils and sell them to the big perfume houses in Paris and London . If you have a bottle of perfume or cologne at home, you can be sure that the base scent comes from flowers grown here in Egypt. What they sell here, are those base scents and they are strong. Just a few drops is all you need. Tim bought a gold scarab for his necklace, and I got a nice inlaid box, another popular item.

After our shopping expedition our driver drove us quickly through The city of The Dead, which is a cemetery filled with tombs that many families are now living in. Apparently the families who's relatives are buried in these tombs are ok with this arrangement because the families living inside the tombs maintain them for the family. I had heard about this place before we came here, but it wasn't quite what I was expecting. Much more third world grimy than ancient Egyptian. Another thing that I have learned on this trip, and would explain the disconnect between my expectations of the tombs and reality, is that Cairo is not at all an old city by Egyptian standards. It was founded in the early Muslim era (800's) and spent most of it's existence as a very small village along the Nile. As recently as 1800 there were fewer than 150,000 people in all of Cairo. So unlike Istanbul, Rome, or Alexandria, you don't really see very many super old things driving around Cairo.

I think I'll end this entry for now – we went to the Halili Market toward the end of our tour of Cairo, but we went back there last night with our group and I'll have far more interesting stories to tell about that when I catch up!

We are now on a bus ride from Cairo to Alexandria where we will spend two days. It's New Years Eve and I'm not positive what our plans are for tonight. We will be returning to Cairo on the bus though so I should have enough time to type up the rest of our trip.

John & Tim