First, to Coptic Cairo, which is sometimes referred to as Old Cairo, but that can be confused with Islamic [-era] Cairo, which would lead to calling Coptic Cairo something like Very Old Cairo, or Even Older Cairo, so people pretty much refer to it as Coptic Cairo, being that it's the part of Cairo built in the Coptic or Christian period, from the end of the Romans until the Muslims. It's supposed to be the place where Moses was put in the basket to be sent down the river, so there's a lot of basket-shaped themes, in churches, mosques and the synagogue alike. Most of it is cut off to automobiles, so it's nice to walk through.
Here, what we think were some kind of Greek orthodox clergy, coming out of the Greek Orthodox church
Rachel in front of, on the left, the newly beautifully restored Coptic Museum, highlighting everything to do with Coptic Christianity in Egypt through history. Coptic Christians are between 5 and 10 percent of Egypt's population. On the right is a ruin, Roman I believe.
One of the many churches.
New adventure: a small octoberfest party. Rachel is talking with our friend Emma.
Yesterday we had two adventures, to the Japanese garden in Helwan, calm and historical and full of middle-class Egyptians, and then to City Stars Mall in Heliopolis, chaotic and frantically new and full of upper-class Egyptians.
The heyday of Helwan, a suburb even further south than we are, was somewhere around the turn of the 20th century. Crumbling palaces and mansions abound, and now the place has a very middle-class feel. The Japanese garden was built around World War I, and features, in addition to trees and bamboo, a good collection of Buddhas.
Here are some regular folks hanging out in the grass, picnicking and sort of playing soccer. The 2LE (US $0.45) is enough to keep it from getting really busy, but many people can afford it. It's popular with young couples.
On the way back to the metro we walked through the market in Helwan. These guys were proud of their looks, I mean guavas. That would be 0.75LE/kilo, which works out to about $0.06/pound. Everyone can afford guavas. Apples, on the other hand, cost ten or twenty times as much as guavas, are hard to find, and are never very good. When in Rome, eat the guavas.
Next it was off to the mall. I never experienced mall culture in the US as I have in Egypt. Egypt is crazy for malls, and City Stars is probably the biggest. I regretted not bringing a compass. Big, crowded, and everything expensive. Those of you who can read the Arabic alphabet can sound this out: Big Boys Toys, a shop for watches mostly.
Typical scene in the mall. There must be a hundred hallways like this, and giant atrium with glass elevators, fountain, extensive shrubbery, but I was accosted by security for trying to take pictures of the atrium. Did I mention there are a half dozen Starbucks locations in the mall?
I have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of people did as we did: wander around the fancy mall upstairs, and spend most of our money in the basement in the massive Spinney's hypermarket (think Walmart). Place was a mad house.
Another adventure: We had some friends over for dinner. One brought her kids. They loved playing kazoo in our kitchen funnels.
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