Coptic Cairo - The Citadel, The Hanging Church and Ben Ezra Synagogue!

Did I mention they have a pollution problem in this city? This morning, we couldn’t even see out our window it was so smoggy. I’m glad we didn’t upgrade to the Pyramid view rooms (??) since we wouldn’t have been able to see them anyway. Also, Mahmoud told us that the traffic on Friday (the Muslim Sabbath) and Saturday would be lighter than the rest of the week and today it was easy to see what he was talking about. It was crazy out there; it makes living in Rome feel like you’re in the wilderness of Montana.

We started by visiting the Citadel of Saladin– the fortress built to protect ancient Cairo from the Crusaders. Just after we entered, the girls needed to use the toilet. I haven't gotten in to this yet, but going to the toilet in Egypt is a strategic operation. If at all possible, you want to use the bathroom in your hotel; a restaurant that looks to be clean and of reasonable quality might be a good second choice; public toilets, whether inside of a tourist destination or not, rank a distant third -- you never know what you're going to get. In all cases, you must be prepared with some coins for the attendant. The job of a toilet attendant covers a wide spectrum of work (or not) in Egypt. At the hotel, the attendant actually keeps the bathroom clean and may even hand you a towel as you are washing your hands. The public toilet attendant may hand you a square (and I mean one square) of toilet paper after you give her some cash, or she may just ask for the money to allow you inside and you have to come up with your own means of cleaning up after yourself. The cleanliness of these facilities ranges from just plain dirty to disgusting and hardly usable. On this particular day, there were three Muslim lady attendants in the toilet at the Citadel. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being a squat hole with poop on the sides and 10 being a marble clad hotel bathroom, this toilet would rate a 4. That is to say, it was dirty but not uninhabitable. The reason the experience was notable is because the ladies were having their breakfast -- right there inside the stinky, smelly toilet, while handing out toilet paper squares. Given my travels, I may not have paid particular attention to this fact, but Charlotte and Olivia did. Charlotte could not get over the hygienic issues involved and the fact that the food was just laid out right there on a dirty toilet stool. Oh, and they chewed their food with their mouths open.

Inside the Citadel is the Citadel Mosque. It was the first time we saw men “renting” shoe covers so people wouldn’t have to take their shoes off to enter. Yesterday, we were offered shoe covers at the Ibn Tulun Mosque because the courtyard was outside and thus dirty. But today, we figured we’d just take our shoes off as we’d done at the other two Mosques yesterday. Big Mistake. The courtyard floor was damp and dirty and our feet were immediately black – still better than the bottoms of Josh’s socks. Good thing I’d brought “wipies” so we could take the 15 min necessary after the tour to clean our feet. Perhaps our feet were just a metaphor for the feeling you get in Cairo. My advice to any future traveler would be – don’t bring anything white. It won’t be white inside an hour. The reality is that the Citadel and the Mosque were disappointing. There were some beautiful aspects to the Mosque – that is true – and it is certainly looks majestic from the outside, but it doesn’t appear to be properly cared for. Just outside the Mosque, the courtyard was barren and dirty. I was surprised the Egyptians wouldn’t have wanted to plant a few flowers, or trees, or just beautify the place in some manner given the number of tourists who come through. The Mosque was built in the 1800’s so it is relatively new. It really helps put in perspective the gorgeous Italian basilicas and cathedrals we’ve seen that were built a dozen centuries earlier.

Next, we drove to the center of Coptic Cairo – the area of all religions. There are churches, mosques and even a synagogue all side by side. The Hanging Church is famous for the way in which it was built above two ancient Roman towers. Inside, it was quaint but not particularly impressive. The main street and the one below where the Ben Ezra Synagogue was located were probably two of the nicest streets we’d seen in Cairo. By nice I mean relatively peaceful pedestrian only zones lined with trees. Upon entering the Synagogue it was startling to see the Hebrew letters in the midst of this chaotic Arabic city. Apparently there are several other synagogues in the city as well.

We waited a while for our driver to pick us up as he was praying in the noon prayer. After he arrived, we drove to the Khan El Kalili market. There, a bodyguard joined us to walk through the souk. He was a kind man, wore a suit and his English was good. He even negotiated the purchase of a wooden snake for Avery. The girls each picked out a bracelet. At 5 Egyptian pounds, it wasn’t worth haggling. Per our request, our guard directed us to the spice market. I honestly couldn’t imagine purchasing anything that you put in your mouth from any of the stalls. The spices were out in the open and it was certainly easy for our kids to stick their hands in the buckets; I can only imagine what else finds its way in there. Still the scents were wonderful.

The kids were getting hungry and our bodyguard directed us to the falafel stand recommended by our guide. It looked very grimy but we gave it a shot and ordered two sandwiches – for 2 ½ Egyptian pounds! That’s less than 50cents for two sandwiches. This was the real Egypt. Well, it turns out this was the best falafel we’d ever tasted and Josh went back to buy four more sandwiches. The falafel man gave him five and Josh gave one to our bodyguard. The falafel man was so nice he even gave me some grilled eggplant that I noticed – for free. Egyptian people are generous and nice.

We went around the corner to meet our guide, sit down and eat our sandwiches and have a cup of tea. It’s embarrassing that the six falafel sandwiches we enjoyed cost little over a dollar, and yet at the bar around the corner we paid $3 for each tea!! Josh actually thought the waiter made a mistake on the bill. This is the disparity that is Egypt – the difference between what the locals pay and what the tourists are charged.

It was time to drive back to our hotel. I wondered before the outset of our trip why the tours were scheduled for five or six hours each even though we were taking it slow and only seeing a few things each day. Well, now I understand. It’s the traffic. It takes an hour to go 10km. Olivia was insisting that we return to the hotel by 3pm – we were about 20 minutes late – so she would have enough time to swim.

When asked, she said swimming was her most favorite part of the day. As for Charlotte, when asked if she’d like to live in Cairo, she responded with a resounding “no.” Hopefully, it’s interesting for the kids too, to see how other people in the world live. Josh too, in sharing his thoughts with me, said something along the lines of “this place is a shit hole; it makes Mexico look like Switzerland.” It’s hard to disagree.

Guess where we ate dinner? Felfela. By this night, there were complaints all around on the tummy front. Josh was still eating rice although he added a little chicken. Olivia was looking a bit pallid and stuck to scrambled eggs for dinner. Charlotte was not hungry and was having a digestive issue so she ordered lentil soup. Avery was complaining – maybe because everyone else was – but stuck to his desire to have a hamburger. I was the only one still slugging away at hummus, an eggplant dish called Metemphil (sp?) that I’d discovered, and shish kebob. In any case Felfela had it all, and fit the bill for everyone. Olivia wanted to “retire” the minute she’d finished her eggs, and Avery, with half a burger left was ready to go too. So Josh took them back to the hotel to bed and I stayed with Charlotte to finish our meals. We even shared a dessert.