Egyptian adventures

I have to admit that I had the same sense of excitement about seeing the Pyramids/Sphinx as I did when I saw the Sydney Opera House for the first time - as a child, the images of these sights are what I've associated with the country and there's a real 'wow' factor to see them for real. Duncan (my friend who works here that I'm visiting) has been tour guide extraordinaire and I have experienced many of the sights and sounds of Cairo already. I arrived on the first day of Eid (the three day holiday to celebrate the end of Ramadan) which has meant that everywhere has been busy with folk out and about in the streets and parks at all hours of the day and night!

Driving (or rather, being driven) in Cairo is a bit of a white knuckle ride. I've been assured that there are rules of the road etc but most people just seem to do as they please. And they love to toot their horns - at all hours of the day and night. (recurring theme here)

I found visiting some of the Coptic Christian churches fascinating - most seem to have some kind of (alleged) link to the flight of the 'Holy Family' when they fled to Egypt to escape Herod. There's no graffiti saying 'Mary and Joseph woz ere' to prove it - but I guess they must have sought refuge somewhere!

One of the most amazing places I have been was Mokattam - the 'Cave Churches'. There is one church which is in a hollowed out enormous cave that seats 20000 people (or so I was told!), and on the mountain sides around about it there are carvings of Bible stories - like this one of the woman at the well. They are impressive for sure.

To get to Mokattam you have to drive through what is known as 'Garbage City' which is where many poor people live and make a living by going through the rubbish bags that the rest of us are throwing out and salvaging what they can to sell on. That was a real eyeopener and a moment to be thankful, yet again, for all that I have.

Todays comedy moment was provided when Duncan took me to Al Azhar park at lunchtime. As the other 99.9% of the folk there enjoying the sun were either Egyptian, Muslim or both, we enjoyed (?) a fair bit of attention and even had a photo taken with a wee boy. The analogy Duncan used to describe our attraction to the locals was imagining a Massai warrior going down Union Street on a Saturday afternoon - wouldn't you stop him and ask to have your photo taken with him, or at the very least, have a good gawk at him when he walked past?!? Weird.