Day 5 – Churches, Mosques, and … Shopping?

Our last day in Cairo was a good one. We started off the day by taking the metro down to what is known as Coptic Cairo. Here, there are a number of old Coptic churches from centuries ago, which all have varying reasons for being important. There’s not much to do here, but we walked around for a while, taking plenty of pictures. The insides of the churches were beautiful, with old paintings lining the walls. And there were some very impressive mosaics of colored rocks on the various walls outside. There was a large Greek Orthodox cemetery that we walked through, with many large, beautiful tombs. But alas, you can only walk around taking pictures of old buildings in one spot for so long, so we left after a while.

The following day, we needed to take a bus from Cairo to the Sinai Peninsula, and we were told to reserve our tickets the day before, which seemed easy enough. On the map, the bus station looked fairly close to one of the metro stops, so we got off and started walking. Half an hour later, with absolutely no luck, we were lost and had no idea even where we were on the map. Luckily, we found a taxi driver who would take us there. On our way, we realized that we walked right under the sign for the bus station (facing the other way, though). Oh well, who doesn’t like getting lost in a big city, right? So we bought our tickets ($8 for an 8-hour bus ride from Cairo to Sinai!) and then took a taxi to the area known as Islamic Cairo.

It’s a bit of a funny name, since the majority of Cairo is Islamic, but it’s because there is such a high density of mosques and minarets in the area. After another quick lunch of shawarma (it’s just so good!), we started exploring the area. One of the main attractions is the Al-Azhar Mosque, which was built during the 10^th century. We of course had to take our shoes off, and Jamie had to cover up a bit, but we were allowed inside to look around and take pictures. It truly is a beautiful building. There’s a number of outer prayer rooms, which all open up to a huge middle area that is wide open. There’s white tile on the ground, cream-colored walls all around, and carpets scattered throughout the area. It’s just an incredibly peaceful place to sit and rest and think.

The other popular place to visit in Islamic Cairo is the Khan-al-Khalili market. This is a massive market, where trade has occurred since the 14^th century. There’s gold, silver, amazing-smelling spices, and of course plenty of “tourist” trinkets and gifts. It really reminded me of the Old City in Jerusalem – winding roads and alleys, vibrant colors and smells, and the “smooth-talking” shop owners who tell you: “I’ll show you something you’ve never seen before!” Seriously. I think I had at least five different merchants in a five minute stretch offer to show me something that I’d never seen before.

If you like this sort of thing, it’s a great place to just walk through and visit the different shops. Most of the stuff didn’t interest me much, but it was great to just get lost walking around through all these shops. The cool thing is that it’s not just a tourist place, but the locals go there to shop as well. I bought a few things – after much bartering – but really just enjoyed walking and people-watching. After shopping for a while, we found another mosque that was offering “free” tours (we gave a small tip at the end). We were taken up to the top of the minaret, which gave us a great view of the city. I was up there just as dusk was coming, so it was cool to see the sunset, hear the call to prayer, hear the honking horns below, and see all the people walking around.

The one “must-see” place in the Khan market we had heard about is a 24-hour coffee shop called Fishawi’s. Apparently, it’s been open constantly for over 200 years. I guess this is as good a time as any to describe what a sheesha pipe is (if you don’t know). It’s become a part of the new Egyptian culture, as there are coffee shops called “ahwas” all over Egypt, with coffee, mint tea, and sheesha the most popular items. Sheesha is a water pipe that filters tobacco. It’s certainly not like smoking a cigarette, and it’s not exactly like smoking a cigar. It’s sort of similar to a hookah. You have the choice of flavored tobacco, from apple to strawberry to mango (I think mango was the best). Hot coals are put on top, and when you take a puff, the smoke gets filtered through the water, so it doesn’t have a strong tobacco taste, but instead has a smooth fruity flavor to it. Anyways, it’s kind of a lot to explain in writing, but it was a fun cultural thing to try out. And this coffeehouse that hasn’t closed for two centuries was a great place to try it.

So, after relaxing with our sheesha and tea, we walked back towards downtown Cairo, and decided to take another felucca ride out on the Nile, this time at night. Sunset is pretty hard to beat, but seeing Cairo at night is pretty cool, too. After our ride, we had a delicious dinner at a Lebanese restaurant, and then strolled back to the hotel, enjoying our last night in Cairo. It was a busy three days, and I felt like I was able to see plenty of Cairo – or at least as much as you can expect to see in only a few days. I was excited about the next part of the trip, but thoroughly enjoyed my time in Cairo, so was a bit sad to leave. Sure, maybe 22 million people in one city is too much for you, but if you ever get the chance to go to Cairo, please don’t pass it up.