Islamic Cairo revisited

Today was International Day, so my classes after noon were canceled. I had one before noon but I opted not to go, which is actually the first time I've ever willingly missed a class in college.

Instead I decided to visit a few sites in Islamic Cairo that I hadn't yet seen. Islamic Cairo perhaps the most interesting part of the city that even if I continued to go back, I would still find new things. The problem is that it's hard to get to. I took the subway to from Doqqi to Saida Zeinab and took the long route along Bur Said Street.

I visited the Mosque of Ibn Tulun, which is the largest mosque in Cairo, and among the oldest, having been built in the ninth century. It's a popular tourist spot, so there were a few tourist groups inside. Unlike other mosques which make you take off your shoes before you enter, they gave me burlaps to put over my shoes, which you can see in the pictures.

Courtyard of Mosque of Ibn Tulun







A few blocks away from the mosque is Midan al-Qalaa (Citadel Circle) and the Mosque of Sultan Hassan. You can see Sultan Hassan from the Citadel, as in my pictures from my previous visit to the Citadel. This time, I decided to go in, and it was incredible. It's not as much of a tourist location as Ibn Tulun, so I only saw a couple other people visiting.

The interior of the Mosque of Sultan Hassan





Sultan Hassan is buried here; these are from his tomb.





The exterior. Notice the Mosque of Mohammad Ali in the background.



From Mosque of Sultan Hassan looking out onto al-Qalaa Street


I noticed in my visits to Islamic Cairo that some of the streets have stores which sell only one good. For example, the upper part of Bur Said Street sells toilets and plumbing supplies, Qalaa Street sells couches and chairs, and the upper part of Muhammad Ali Street sells handmade musical instruments. I ended up walking back from Islamic Cairo to Nagib metro station.

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Today I also had my first (and probably only) experience banking in Egypt. I had to send someone money via Western Union in order to pay the fee for my race on Friday. After going to a Western Union on the fifth floor of some building near Talaat Harb in Downtown, I found out that some places only let you receive money, not send it. [As an aside, I can't imagine how they afford to employ someone to sit there all day just to dispense cash, especially seeing as it looked like I was the only person he'd seen today.] I had to go to the main branch of the Arab African International Bank to send money. All the banks in Cairo have guards posted outside and inside. You have to get a ticket from the guard, like you would in a deli. When I went in, I initiated my transaction in Arabic, even though I could tell the banker knew fluent English. Since I was sending US dollars, I had to go to an exchange office nearby to get my money. I asked for a very specific dollar amount, so I got some strange looks, understandably. When I went back to the bank, I was rerouted to a teller, and then back to the banker, before finishing my transaction. I had to have a few sentences translated for me, but other than that I completed the transaction in Arabic, which was gratifying.

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Last night I went to a restaurant in Zamalek with a friend, called Goal's. It bills itself as an Italian restaurant, but in reality it's just a nice Egyptian establishment. The food was good, and the location was great, just north of the 26th July bridge right along the Nile. Though despite the fact that Zamalek is extremely clean and picturesque, it's not a place I'd like to live. Essentially every other person that walked by was either an AUC student or a British or French tourist. All the others were very American-looking, stylish young Egyptians. In other words, it does not feel like the rest of Cairo.

Updates on recent experiences

The past week has been relatively uninteresting, but here are a few things of note.

On Friday I went to the Hard Rock Cafe with some friends, which was basically devoid of any sort of Egyptian culture. It's located in the basement of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Garden City, which is one of the biggest hotels in Cairo. All the other customers were American tourists. And, for the first time, the prices were comparable to prices one would pay in the US.

On Saturday, I went to a Syrian restaurant in Mohandeseen with a friend, called Abu Sharqa, across from al-Salam Hospital. The food was excellent, with large portions of meat for very inexpensive prices.

Twice in the past week I've noticed large groups of riot police at my bus stop. Originally I thought it was a training drill, but an AUC girl told me they were planning on having riots or protests there, since my bus stop is across the street from the state court on Charles de Gaulle Street in Doqqi. I take the early bus, so there wasn't any activity there while I was waiting.

I wish I could say my classes are going well, but unfortunately some of them are not. The major problem is that the professors have missed many classes without explanation.

As mentioned in the AUC newspaper, the AUC campus is slowly turning into Sooq AUC, meaning AUC market. Today was a fair of sorts, with merchants selling goods in booths across the quad. There have been a number of concerts in the past few weeks on campus during the 10:00-11:00 AM classes-free block; they're seemingly random.

I'll put my thoughts and assessments of AUC into context in a more complete post toward the end of the semester.

Since "trying out" the various churches in Cairo, I've stuck with St. Joseph's Church in Downtown (near Abdeen Palace). There is a 5:00 pm Mass in English, which has three priests - one from Philippines, one from Ghana, and one from Indonesia, who rotate their homilies. It's a pretty small congregation, as the demand for English Masses in Cairo is fairly low. Still, it's a diverse crowd, and it seems like I'm the only one there that speaks English natively, as everyone else is from other parts of the world. The church is cordoned off behind the altar so there is another space for smaller Masses, which is where the English Mass is held.

I've been collecting the Arabic Mass bulletins so that I can bring them home and read them when I am better in Arabic. I can pick out a few words in the readings, but for the most part they are too advanced for me. Interestingly, the Arabic biblical translation is much shorter than the English version, because of the fact that many Arabic verbs can express more thorough meanings than their counterparts in English.

Yesterday was the hottest day I've spent in Cairo, as it reached 95°F. Yet I still saw the majority of Egyptian males wearing their trademark slacks, dress shirt, and woolen sweater. Today was not as warm, reaching the eighties.

I am leaving this Thursday evening for Amman, Jordan, where I will participate in the Dead Sea 50k ultramarathon. I'm going to spend a few days in Jordan, sightseeing, and then head to Turkey for same. Among the sites I hope to see in Jordan are Petra, Wadi Rum, the Baptism Site, and whatever else I have time for. In Turkey I hope to see the Hagia Sofia, the Blue Mosque, and possibly out easts to see Nemrut Dagi and Lake Van.

It seems like most of the study abroad students will be traveling for the spring break. Of the people I've talked to, others are going to Israel, Jordan, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Turkey, Kenya, Tanzania, Saudi Arabia, Spain, and Sinai and Luxor/Aswan of Egypt. It seems like I'll be the only one at school on Thursday, since I have an exam in the afternoon, whereas most study abroad students are leaving Wednesday morning, since classes after noon are canceled due to International Day.

I may skip my Wednesday class and instead get ready for my trip and perhaps visit a certain site here in Cairo, since I'm running out of time to visit sites in Egypt that I haven't yet seen.

After that, I will likely not make posts here for about two weeks, though I will have detailed reports of my trip when I return.