Walk Like An Egyptian

After a late flight and arrival at our hotel, and a very early morning, our group was sent of to the Citadel in Cairo. Through my sleep deprived haze, I wasn't able to discern too much about what went on at the citadel, other than it housed the mosque and tomb of Mohammed Ali (yes, the boxer. Right). The fun thing about the citadel was that it was swarmed with kids on field trips and these children were ecstatic that we were there. They waved and yelled, just grinning from ear to ear if we even looked at them, and tried desperately to practice their English as we were hustled through the crowds. They were just so excited and it really was catching. Our guide commented that we looked exotic to them and they just wanted to get closer to us. Apparently she was right, because once we got up to the top of the citadel, a family ran over to me and begged to have their picture taken with me. I misunderstood and thought they wanted me to take a picture of them, not with them, but they quickly took the camera from me and shoved it at someone else, all placing themselves around me with huge smiles on their faces. Who knows, maybe it was "Hug a White Girl" day or something. Strange. The mosque and tomb, again, were just spectacular, and I think I was able to get better pictures of this one. After the citadel, we headed into the heart of Cairo to the Egyptian Museum. The big focus there, naturally, are all the artifacts that were found in the tomb of King Tut. Amazingly enough (so I learned), King Tut was not a highly revered king, ruled for a very short amount of time and had very little impact on the history of the country. The reason his artifacts are so central, though, is because most of the other tombs that have been found, were raided centuries ago and very little is known about the other rulers. So, for a "nothing king" as our guide put it, the people constructed literally hundreds and thousands of necessities that he would need for the after life: chariots, thrones, pots, an early version of air conditioning (very interesting, but hard to explain), three sarcophagi, built into three massive tombs, and even went as far as to bury servants and women with him. Man, can you imagine what they would do for someone they actually liked? I can't even explain the immense amount of items they had with him. Absolute craziness. The rest of our first day in Cairo was spent shopping and enjoying the town. We went to a store that specialized in papyrus and as I was browsing, one of the salesmen actually asked me if I had cats at home. Surprised, I replied that I did (he was obviously trying to butter me up for a sale). "I could tell," he said with a smirk, "you have beautiful cat eyes." Right. That makes me want to buy something. Hey, at least it was a line I'd never heard before. I also had a waiter at dinner profess his undying love for me (repeatedly) and then declare that he was going to kill himself because I was married. He was certainly teasing, but goodness, give it a rest folks! Our second day in Cairo consisted of the pyramids and sphinx. I can't begin to explain the grandure of the pyramids. I never realized just how huge they are. Did you know that if you lined up all the stones from just the Great Pyramid in a row that they would reach 3/4 of the way around the equator? Yeah, I had no clue either. Also, there is no mortar or bonding agent of any kind holding the pyramids together, only their vast weight. Incredible. The sphinx, although much smaller, was cut out of one solid stone and measures 20 meters high. (Side note: The sphinx was used as target practice by Napoleon's men and that's why it doesn't have a nose) Again, just amazing what these people were able to accomplish without any modern tools (a good argument for aliens, I think). The only gripe I would have about anything in Cairo would be the peddlers. They try to sell you anything and everything and want entirely too much money for their wares. They also have no concept of personal space (or deodorant for that matter) and will literally bombard you as you are walking around. Goodness, they will even charge you if you ask them to take a picture of you with your own camera. By the end of the day, I was pretty fed up with the "attention" and actually scared one would-be vendor with a very loud and abrasive "NO!" I guess he got the point. The end of our day was spent at an essence store where they make and sell oils for all ailments and maladies. We got a very long lecture about the curing abilities of oils and how we should buy them all (shocking), and also got a quick lesson on how their hand-blown glass bottles were made. Everything was absolutely gorgeous, but after a day of having things shoved in your face, I wasn't really in the mood. I think I just needed an actual night of sleep. Tomorrow and epic day of Mt. Sinai and the Red Sea.