Saturday, 26 April 2008
Friends in Cairo
Top photo: Nora and a shopkeeper in Coptic Cairo.
Bottom photo: Alice. Colleen, Nora, Peggy at the Citadel.
Alice and Peggy arrived on Tuesday evening. Their flight was about an hour late and I had to take a tour of the 3 terminals at the Egypt airport before I finally found them, it was so great to see them. “Lucky’ for me I had eaten something that hadn’t agreed with me the day before and had to stay home from school the next day. Honestly I was sick, and was a bit under the weather for about two days but not enough to stop me from going out with the girls. We went to see interesting local spots in Maadi on Wednesday after school and we went out to dinner with some of our teachers in the evening. That evening we hired a van to go to the airport to pick up Nora. So wonderful to see her, We all stayed up till 4:00 talking and were able to sleep in next day since Thursday was declared a national holiday in Alice’s and Peggy’s honor, no school. Really it is Sinai Liberation Holiday and Mubarak declared it a national holiday, a real pleasant surprise. Friday we employed a guide and van to take us on a tour of the city. We went to Coptic Cairo, Islamic Cairo, The Citadel, Ataba, The Khan el Khalili, and a few other stops. The Khan was a memorable stop, never will you ever find such persistent, in your face vendors. They have jacked their prices up by about 80% of what they should be and expect to be haggled down, but not too graciously. Had the van drop us off at the leather shop and we walked home. After freshening up we took a taxi to a shop that sells fabric on Road 105 and finished up with a walk down the shops of Road 9.
Nora had a quick taste of Egyptian Culture. I was offered 500 camels for the hand of my daughter several times by several young men. They were gracious enough to offer 10camels each for Peggy , Alice amd myself!
It was a very full day. So glad they are all here. We pick up Linda at the airport on Sunday and early Monday we depart for Aswan by plane where we will meet the ‘Miss Isadora’ our cruise ship.