the return from Egypt

Day Two Cairo:

We set out early to get to the Metro which cost about .5 Egyptian Pound per person (less than 20 cents). The Cairo metro might have been the cleanest, most organized place in the city. It was very fast and efficient. We started our day in Coptic Cairo. Coptic Cairo is the home of the Christian community in Egypt; about 10% of the population identify themselves as Coptic Christians.

This area is also where a small Jewish population took refuge after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. The oldest synagogue in Egypt (the Ben Ezra Synagogue) is located here. While the synagogue is no longer still active, it was really interesting seeing the location where supposedly Pharaoh's daughter found Moses. It is also the location where in 1890, over 250,000 papers known as the Geniza documents were found in the synagogue. These papers allowed researchers to put together details of the lives of North African Jews from the 11th to 13th century.

After Coptic Cairo we walked around the city for the rest of the day. It is difficult to describe Cairo. This part of town was built in the style of 19th Century Paris. Buildings similar too the flat Iron Building in NYC cover the downtown area of Cairo. But because the city is so crowded and dirty the buildings have a very distinctive feel. There are thousands of stands outside and a dozen of souks that have clothing and jewelry that adorn the outsides of these French-style buildings.

We walked around for hours. Walking down the street as a tourist draws a lot of attention to yourself. The Egyptians LOVED tourists. It was kind of annoying being hassled but people don't just want you to buy their stuff so they turn a profit but because they genuinely want tourists to have a good time and enjoy Egypt. People were very proud of their country and their city and they wanted us to appreciate it as well.

Today was mostly dedicated to exploring neighborhoods by foot. I think it was a really amazing way to see the city. We walked down streets and went to markets not designed for tourists. By getting lost we were really able to see Cairo.

From the downtown area, we walked to Islamic Cairo. The area is not actually more religious than other neighborhoods in Cairo but it is called Islamic Cairo because for centuries, it was one of the centers of power for the Islamic empire and the mosques and monuments that remain are some examples of architecture inspired by the glory of the Islamic empire.

We finally escaped Egypt only to return again

This Passover I was finally able to say "This year in Jerusalem." However, I took the message of the wise son to heart (that we were all slaves in the land of Egypt) and decided to set out and escape from bondage; to travel from Egypt to Jerusalem. Well, that was not the thought process exactly. I wanted to go to Egypt and Passover vacation happened to be a convenient time; it was no big deal that we had to eat Matzo for snack while we were by the pyramids.

Here is the story:

First we set out on a bus to Eilat (along with everyone else in Israel because it was Spring Break for everyone). Once in Eilat, we crossed the border to Taba Egypt. From there, we traveled to St. Katherine and the area with Mt. Sinai.

We arrived in the protectorate of St. Katherine. It is a small town in the middle of the Sinai that has a few stores and a few hotels for the tourists coming to hike Mt. Sinai. We woke up at 1:30 in the morning to do the sunrise hike to the top of Mt. Sinai.

There were hundreds of people from all over the world sitting on the top of the mountain for sunrise. People were singing, praying, or just sitting there freezing waiting for the sun to come up. We then climbed down the mountain via the 3,750 "steps of penitence." Always following behind our trusty Bedouin guide.

Unfortunately, random Thursday in March is a holiday and therefore the Monastery of St. Catherine was closed. But we got to walk around it and look at some of the gardens.

Next stop, Cairo. We then took a 5 hour car ride through the Sinai to get to our next destination. It was a beautiful drive in between the expansive desert to our right and the sea to our left. After a mostly uneventful car ride, we ended up at our hostel. The next day, bright and early we headed to the Pyramids of Giza. Here is a picture of me looking like the cliche tourist I felt like:

No matter how much you mentally prepare yourself to see the Pyramids, they will still take your breath away.

Although we ate our "bread of affliction" by the Pyramids to spite the ancient Egyptians, the Giza Pyramids were not build by the slave labor of the Israelites. Apparently, it was a huge bureaucratic tactic aimed at giving farmers work during the rainy season.

The Sphinx is actually a lot smaller in person

After Giza we went to the Egypt Museum. It was absolutely incredible. It is not heavily funded so the exhibits are not very organized, but the amount of amazing artifacts they had in the museum put both the MET and the British Museum to shame. Unfortunately, they are very strict about taking pictures and I had to check my camera outside and therefore I have no pictures of the exhibits.

Day One of Cairo ended when we went out to a "fancy" dinner at a hip restaurant on the "nice" side of the Nile. Rough Guides marked this restaurant in the "expensive" category. Meals ended up costing about $8 a person. Not too shabby. We then went to get dessert in the Marriot Hotel. But this was not some ordinary hotel, it was actually built as a palace to celebrate the completion of the Suez Canal.