Egypt Day #3

Day #3: November 6th

I am not a big fan of museums, mostly because only very few try to display the pieces exhibited placing them back into some sort of contextual setting, rather than just on a shelf. Walking quarter steps for hours trying to read and make sense of the little signs under each piece, in between toursist shoulders ain't my cup of tea. But anyhow, it seemed that the Egyptian Museum was an absolute must see. So I went.

The building, pinkish ancient structure is a piece of art in itself. It is at this kind of places that you can gage how many tourists/foreigners are actually in the city at one time. Because Cairo is a 25 million people megalopole, I had not realized that so many tourists were cruising through.

During the whole tour of the museum I couldn't help but wonder why, given how much security they have at both museums and sites like Giza, don't they just put the pieces back to where they originally belong, that way making the sites visit all the more spectacular and contextualized.

The jewels exhibited amazed me. So many intricate little beads of all shapes and colours making incredible arrangements.

The wealth poured into those tumbs, being burried “forever” and not serving any other purpose than assuring infinite wealth to the deceased in the afterlife. Perhaps my limit to polytheism belief as this wealth could have been put to much better use in the present life.

Yes the museum was impressive, more so by the quantity of pieces of all sizes, especially gigantic ones, and mummies, and yes I am happy I went, there were so many pieces of similar design and shape that after a while, the impressiveness kind of vanishes. So I cut it short after three hours. Time to take care of my train ticket for tonight and find lunch.

I wandered through a few travel agencies to inquire about procedures and prices to book train tickets for foreigners. I had heard and read so many diverging stories. I stumble upon this incredibly kind and helpful Mustafa, who deals with ticket bookings for Cairo hotels. He helped me get a ticket at local price. I felt bad because I think I could have probably done the same thing on my own...or at least tried. Oh well...that's the dilemna when travelling for such short period of time...risk taking or time wasting is more of a concern than when travelling with not set return date. (Gosh I miss those!)

I discovered a delicious and cheap authentic place for lunch, Kazaz. One more on my list for next time though I like to venture to new places as often as possible. That one will be a back up just in case.

The sun setting at 5pm is a bit of a pain as it limits quite much the sun light walking time. I had a couple of hours left before dark, so I hopped in Cairo’s Metro to check out the Coptic neighbourhood. The Metro is very clean, plain simple, safe and well organised. I am a strong believer that one cannot know a city if it does not experiment all the available means of public transportation.

Exiting the metro and on to the street, the sight of giant red brick walls surrounding the church's area is incredible. Stunningly beautiful Coptic churches, all made of wood. It made me wonder and laugh at the thought that in a country that has the kind of stone and rock to build pyramids, in a very deserted region, churches were built with wood...while in Europe, where wood is so abundant, churches were built in stone. Just a thought…

The police and army officers all around were super nice. They even managed to give me full accurate directions in French! This neighbourhood is spectacular, I am sure there is way more to see that I actually saw. Hopefully I will get a chance to come back better prepared this time.

“Next door” there is also what is apparently the oldest mosque of the country. Right on time for sunset and right before prayer time. My luck. What a place. Nothing as grand as the mosques in Istanbul, off course, but the energy floating around is really strong, exuding so much history. I will make sure to read about it when I have a moment. The guy at the entrance very well knew I was a foreigner, but greeted me with such a big smile and kind words.

I forgot to mention that though the Coptic area is a touristy spot, it is surrounded by highly militerized blocks cutting it from the rest of the neighbourhood which looks a bit like a ghetto or something like that. To get to the mosque I had to pass the military “check point” and walk a bit outside. What a change of atmosphere. It almost felt like crossing a border between an upscale Paris and a very downscale old mining town. I loved it. Surreal. There, tourist or not, people did not give a damn, they just went about their business.

The guy taking people’s shoes at the entrance of the mosque gave me a big smile and when I told him I came from Morocco, he yelled proudly some Moroccan soccer team name (I think. You know me and soccer).

This whole neighborhood was quite magnetic. I would have loved to come sooner and wander around. But I had to get back home to pick up my bag and head to the train station. Ramses station. Just the name of it makes it sound grand and mysterious. (Have I mentioned how much I find peaceful and strangely stressless the metro ride to be?)

Ramses train station is quite grand. Gorgeous main hall!  They even have an outrageously expensive food court on the top floor...an empty food court. Ha! Lower the prices and it might fill up. Clearly a giant disconnect between train clientele and food court target.