Day 15 - Cairo again (Nov 19 Wed)

We're having a lazy day. Internet, finishing up sight-seeing in Cairo (Coptic churches, old Cairo), then tonight, the Sufi dance at 8pm for free.

We're also trying to buy our tickets to Ethiopia, as 2 weeks in Egypt seems to be plenty...

More details from the day:

After spending some time on the hostel's computer and chatting with an Aussie couple (Alice and Martin) about their recent travels to Ethiopia, we decided to head out to Coptic Cairo, as it's known to tourists. We also adopted a guy from California named Ashraf, and the five of us grabbed a cab around 3pm.

After some interesting attempts at communication with our cab driver due to the language barrier, we ended up making it there successfully. The Coptic area is a quite small, walled-in area with old buildings and small staircases. We wandered around to the Greek Church of St. George, but found we were too late, as it closed at 4pm. We also were too late for the Coptic Museum. Oh well...on to the next site, which is the famous Hanging Church, or Suspended Church. It was built on top of a Roman water gate, hence it's name. The church itself was quite beautiful, with lots of relics and even a glass tile placed in the ground so you can see to the water gate below. We also missed St. Sergius church, but made it to Saint Barbara (a newer church with more relics). I guess we might have to come back.

We then found our way to a cemetery with mausoleums that didn't appear to be all that old (since at this point we can read numbers in Arabic). The guidebook said for single women to be careful, as there tend to be flashers in the cemetery, but fortunately (unfortunately?) we didn't see any.

From there, we headed to a mosque, where Alice and I had to enter through a separate women's entrance. We both had scarves with us, but they still made us wear these ridiculous bright green robes. Shoulders were covered, but I guess our arms were showing? We had to wait inside the entrance for a while, while the prayers were finishing up, then we got to wander around a bit. It's quite grand in scale, but not nearly as ornate as some other mosques I've seen.

Now for an adventure...let's take the Metro back! We figured from a map that we had to get off at Mohammed Naguib station. There are only two lines in Cairo at the moment (more are in development), so it had to be easy. We asked some guards at the station in Coptic Cairo after buying our 1LE each tickets, and they gave us directions, only enough English for us between the three of them. We got the point though, and headed to the train. When it came, we all pushed onto the cars, which were very crowded. G, Alice, and I went though one door, and Martin through another, but when Martin looked outside, he saw Ashraf stuck on the platform. We went 4 stops up, then got off and waited for Ashraf - luckily he made it, no problems. We changed lines, then one more stop and we were at our station. Amazingly, we even navigated our way home quite easily.

After chilling out for a half hour at the hostel and saying goodbye to Ashraf, who was flying out that night, the four of us headed to a Sufi dance performance near Al Azhar mosque. We had been informed of the dance by our not-so-hustler friend the week prior, and thought it'd be worth checking out. Initially, two things shocked us, though...it was free, and there was no smoking inside. Were we really in Egypt?! Apparently, it's government subsidized, which was surprising, considering the astronomical entrance fees we've become accustomed to paying at the temples, tombs, and other tourist sites.

The dance itself was incredible. It started with about 8 men on stage, all in white galabeyyas. They started playing music slowing, then it built up, with more and more drums, etc. It was really exciting and fantastic, but only got better when the whirling dervishes came out and started their performances. One young man spun for 25 minutes straight, including taking of layers of kilts and unfolding and refolding a flag, all while spinning. I wish I could describe how awesome this was in words, but I'll let the photos do the talking. And I took a LOT of photos (even snuck up right beside the stage!).

After the dance, we were greeted by our not-so-hustler, Talfut, I think his name is. He invited us to his shop, and we obliged. We had tea and shisha, then he walked us to the herb pharmacy that we had gone to with him before. This time, we got to smell perfume essences...with no oil or alcohol added. They were amazing. G and I bought some mint, which is good for rubbing on the temples and under the nose to awaken you, but can also be put in bath water. Martin bought one called Aida, which was supposedly a men's cologne, but could really be worn by either gender.

From there, we got a cab home and crashed.