Old city and Bazaar
Friday and Saturday are the weekends here. It’s around 38C (around 100 Fahrenheit maybe) today. Took the metro to Mar Girgis and visited old cairo, Coptic city which is a Christian neighborhood.
Tried walking to Salah El Din Citadel from the Coptic city. After walking for 40 mins under the sun, I decided to take the bus instead. Found out that the Citadel was closed because of Ramadan.
Someone directed me to an old mosque (one of the oldest 1200 years old) which has a minaret on top of the mosque. I was asked to donate 50 pounds to the mosque because I have a student card, for non student they require 100 pounds, around $20. And the guy that showed me the way asked for donation as well.
View from the top of the mosque
There are still many poor people in Cairo so people always try to get money (they called Baksheesh, tips) from tourist.
Walked to the bazaar (for locals), then to Khan El Khalili bazaar (more touristic). Someone brought me to a papyrus shop, spice shop and perfume shop there. It’s so chaotic and crowded at the bazaar,
after an hour walking in the bazaar, I can’t wait to get out and had a hard time finding the Attaba metro.
Most of the buildings here in Cairo are old, the public transportations and infrastructures here are still undeveloped and chaotic. People throw rubbish everywhere on the street. President Mubarak has been in power for 26 years and people here don’t see any changes soon.
It’s very hard to find a place in Cairo with air condition. I spent some time at the intercontinental hotel lobby and KFC for the afternoon to get away from the hot weather.
Got my train ticket (35 pounds) to Alexandria tomorrow morning at the train station which is 30 mins walk on Ramses St. from Talab harb area. Met Muhamed and he brought me to eat Koshary (a local food with rice, beans, macaroni, fried oninons..).
We watched soccer and he brought me to a mountain with his BMW to get a good view of Cairo at night.
i tried koshery as well! yum yum.
I think I spelled it wrong..thanks for checking out my blog again..