Throwing my hands up and becoming a tourist

I'm normally very strict about blogging chronologically, but I will now present two exceptions. The first exception will appear in this very post; I'm going to show you what I just ate for breakfast, because it was just so darn delicious. Then I'll dive into everything that happened yesterday. The second exception will be a future post dedicated almost solely to the topic of transportation in Egypt. I'm still gathering materials for this post. Also, I'm messing around with format options today, so if things look weird please forgive me.
Now without further ado, my breakfast:

Scrambled eggs with yellow and red pepper, tomato and cilantro chopped, with one small lemon's worth of lemon juice. Salted cheese (the spreadable kind, because they're all spreadable here). Sliced cucumber and toast with Nutella on the side, and a large cup of earl grey (hot). Putting lemon in my egg was one of the greatest decision I've ever made, next to my decision to live in downtown Cairo.

Now rewind back to yesterday.Recall the adventure of the previous day whereby a cat appeared in my room. Well, I sadly learned that she in fact belongs to the business next door. She had no apparent desire to return though, so she stuck around for a bit longer (she woke me up by pouncing my hand) allowing me to take a few more pictures of this little ball of adorable.

Now, as I mentioned before, I needed to vacate the apartment for a minimum of six hours yesterday because we had an exterminator coming to spray my room (for the third time apparently.... not cool...). As a result of the food poisoning thing I was sorely tempted to just take a bus to AUC and lounge by the pool all day, but it being a Friday during Ramadan and all, the pool was closed, so I borrowed Allison's (other roommate's) lonely planet guide to Egypt, put on my little white tennis shoes (they scream I'M FROM AMERICA) and at her suggestion took off for Coptic Cairo. I'm going to give a brief (in retrospect not so brief, but I had good intentions) tour of Coptic Cairo here, while shamelessly plagiarizing the lonely planet guide and quoting when I feel like it.

To begin with, Coptic Cairo is, of course, pretty much where all the copts live. The Copts I speak of are a distinctly Egyptian sect of Christianity, they follow their own Pope etc. for more info see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coptic_Orthodox_Church_of_Alexandria . As soon as you step off the metro at Mar Girgis you can tell you're in the Coptic part of town because none of the women are covered and everyone looks a lot happier. (The latter is merely a subjective observation of course). Directly in front of the metro is the entrance to

one of the many churches in the area, so I entered and followed the sound of chant until I found myself inside what I later identified as the Hanging Church.*All church pictures are of the Hanging Church unless marked otherwise* Coptic services

as I understand them generally last 2-3 hours and, as I was arriving around 10:40, I caught the tail end of a mass that had started at 8. I was trying very, very hard to be respectful, but at the same time the mass was beautiful and I'm not sure how many opportunities I'll have to attend them, so I snuck a picture or two near the end. A few comments on the church since the pictures probably aren't terribly revealing, (1)women sit on the right and men on the left. One of the equivalents of an usher I guess came over to the women's side to ask one of the male tourists standing there to move over to the men's side, so I guess they take it seriously. (2)Nearly everyone takes their shoes off. As I understand it this is a pretty common practice in almost any city with dusty streets. People's shoes get pretty nasty and they simply don't want to drag the filth inside anywhere, especially not church. A few people had shoes on though. (3) The women bring a decent sized cloth with them, usually decorated with a cross, that they use to cover their head before, and some after, communion. They take the cloth from their head while receiving, hold it under their mouth in case anything should spill, then kiss it afterward and either put it back on their head or away. (4) After mass was over everyone crowded around the priest to get some chunks of bread, still not sure what was up with this... maybe unconsecrated leftovers? If anyone knows gimme a shout. (they don't believe in transbstantiation so maybe blessed would be a better word than consecrated... not sure how that goes..)

(top) Mass in progress and church ceiling (bottom) Candles and Our Lady

A bit more about the Hanging Church in particular, it is dedicated to the Virgin Mary (I lit a candle for you, Mom) and it derives its name from the fact that it is built on top of the Water Gate of Roman Babylon (i.e. 'hangs' over the water... or used to anyway). The Church has two distinct bell towers (see below), they look very spanish-missionary to me, but I'm terribly ignorant of such things and won't comment any further on the supposed similarity. There is a beautiful raised pulpit in the middle of the church (again, see below) made of, I think, marble. It is only used on Palm Sundays. Its supported by 13 small pillars, one for each disciple. One is darker than the rest (look closely) to symbolize Judas.

(top) Raised pulpit with Judas pillar (bottom) The twin bell towers

(top) Entrance to the church (bottom) Mosaic of the Virgin Mary in the Courtyard

Mosaic of I'm not sure who in the courtyard. He looks pretty coptic though.

As I said before, I wasn't aware until well after the fact that I was in the hanging church. When I looked at the map in my lonely planet guide it looked like I was way over to a different side... So I left the church in search of..... the hanging church. What happened instead was that I walked well off the map. My general policy in this kind of situation where I don't know exactly what I'm doing is to follow a local. So I did. It actually worked pretty well and even though I was walking through a kind of sketch area including an adorable dog, a horse cart, and donkey feasting on the trash that was piled waist high on the sides of the streets, there was a nice looking Egyptian family ahead of me so it was all good. After I realized I probably wasn't in the right place, I was already halfway to the wrong place, so I figured I'd just keep going. Lo and behold this strategy worked out and I ended up in a Coptic cemetery. This might not be most people's idea of success, but it was in the lonely planet guide so I was fine with it. Here are a couple/one fruit(s) of my labors:

(left) Cemetery chapel (right) A beautiful tomblike crypt thing

Cemetery Bug (baby grasshopper? I am bug-stupid)

After wandering around a little, I sat down in the shade to read about the cemetery in the guide book and found an interesting tidbit,"Beyond the church an iron gate on the right leads to the large, peaceful Greek Orthodox Cemetery. Women who are on their own should be careful here- we've heard reports of flashers lurking among the gravestones." I left directly.

After another strange alleyway and having no idea where I was I ended up at the Church of St. Barbara. As neat as it was, it looked just like the hanging church to me and there were alot of non tourists there so I didn't take any pictures. Next I went to the Ben Ezra Synagogue which is supposed to be the oldest one in Egypt. It is supposedly built right next to the spot where Moses was found in the reeds and is traditionally known as the spot where Jeremiah gathered the Jews in the 6th century after Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the temple in Jerusalem. Security was pretty tight here (for good reason really, I mean, it's Egypt) and there were absolutely no pictures allowed. I was the only one in there so it would have been pretty obvious if I tried to sneak a shot, here are a few pictures I found online though. They're better than what I would have taken anyway.

Next was the Church of St. George. I giant of a thing. Height-wise at least. The inside was round unlike the other churches and pretty interesting looking. I don't remember why I didn't take pictures of the inside, I think they weren't allowed.

(left) St. George killing the dragon statue thing+relic (right) St. George's Church from the courtyard below

View of (I think) St. Barbara's from the steps of St. George

After this I went back to the hanging church (I'd figured it out by now) to take some more pictures and sit down to see what I hadn't done. After figuring that out I went and made my last stop at the convent of St. George, The majority of the place is usually closed off and what isn't is mostly under construction right now, but I saw what I could. A couple results are below.

(left) They have doves in the courtyard! (right) Take your shoes off..

So I left Coptic Cairo and headed to Zamalek to see the Cairo Opera house. As soon as I got off the metro in Zamalek, Anna (other roommate) called me to say she'd just gotten off work and we should meet up. So I got back on the metro and we met near the auc bus stop then went to an adorable little chain restaurant type place (coffee and sandwiches really) called Cilantro (if we have them in the US I've never seen them) where we recovered from the day's heat with some delicious coffees.

Next we walked home via what I'm calling the Tahrir shopping district because I don't know if it actually has a name. Shopping is great here because they sell all the same things they do in the US, but for much, much cheaper. The conservative muslim solution to some of the not so conservative western styles is simply layer layer layer. The hot thing right now (no pun intended!!) seems to be the long sexy summer dress with a long sleeve shirt underneath and super gaudy accessories. With matching hijab of course. We stopped by the souq on the way home so I could get some veggies in eager anticipation of my fantastic breakfast this morning. While there I came to the horrifying realization that black beans are a rarity in Egypt (so Mom I might have to put making your delicious dip on hold). We also stopped by the sweet shop on the way home (yum!See below) and the store owner asked Anna if she was married (yikes!) She said yes by the way and pointed to one of the rings she was wearing. Smart girl.

We came home etc. and then last night I went with Alison to see Natasha Atlas at Al-Azhar park. This place is beautiful and this singer is really cool. She's Moroccan-British and does middle eastern fusion music. Her violinist was really the mvp of the night but overall it was a cool concert. Also the concert was sold out by the time we got there, but the stage was at the bottom of a steep hill so we just sat at the top of the hill to watch. Better to sit above than stand below in my opinion.

(top) View of the stage from our free seats. The stage is in a sunken area, the city is behind a wall and raised way above us and the background. (bottom) If I crouched down I could actually see Natasha!

(top) The actual stage, with unimpeded view (bottom) A clearer view of wall, city, and stage

(top) Al-Azhar park (bottom) one of the four restaurants at the park

The park is on top of a hill so you can see the city, this is a minaret wrapped like a christmas tree for Ramadan

Overall a busy day, but a very enjoyable one. School starts tomorrow and the Eid is next weekend so I need to hurry up and figure out where I'm going for the break!

Ma Salama..

...wa Ramadan Kariim!