Alexandria - my hotel room

I stayed 2 nights in Alexandria. In this hotel and I can't remember the name. It had breakfast included and shared bathrooms, but my room had the sweetest little balcony and a fucking gorgeous view of the bay where the lighthouse used to stand. There was a constant breeze in my room. Unfortunately I got food poisoning. I don't know from what. It could have been anything. The breakfast, the sweets, the huge lunch, or the glass of water I forgot and drank at the coffee shop because I was used to drinking tap water in Cairo and forgot you can't anywhere else.
So I sat on my little balcony and ate sweets that I bought at a pastry shop in town and then I started feeling woozy. I made it to one of the shared bathrooms and then didn't know which way to face. It was really bad. I threw up all over my pants and the floor and I couldn't stand up and I thought I was going to die. There. By myself. In Alexandria Egypt. In a strange hotel. In a shared bathroom. And I thought, "what a funny way to die."
Obviously I survived. But it was scary for a bit.
This picture with the plant in the window is the actual bathroom that I was sick in. And this picture of the food, MIGHT be the culprit, although I am more inclined to blame the water.

Another Wedding Party

Ragab took me with him to another wedding party. Sheeko came to this one. The groom was a friend of theirs and the party was in one of the places right on the Nile where people have wedding parties. The obligatory cake and Pepsi was served. It was fun and the music was loud and the people were all happy. This couple was a lot better off financially than the first wedding party we crashed that was held in the street. But both were about the same as far as the music and dancing and lights and festive atmosphere.

Because I look AWESOME in my Abaya

I went to pray in a really old mosque in Cairo. It's the same one that Obama toured when he was there. It was a special experience.

Wedding Party in Mohandeseen

I went with Ragab to visit some friends of his and ended up being spoon-fed goat by his friend's mother and I couldn't say no because it would have been unspeakably rude. These people are seriously poor and the sheep here in the photo are actually just outside the apartment. There were chickens in the stairwell and the whole neighborhood was decrepit. The macaroni meal with goat meat was probably an expensive dish and I couldn't refuse it.
Anyway one of the guys had been invited to a wedding party so we invited ourselves along. This would prove to be the first of several wedding parties we were either invited to or crashed. This one was fun because the people were poor and it was in an alley. You can see the dirt floor -it's because it was outside. The brick walls of the buildings had some decorative cloth screens, and the sound system was as loud as any I've been to, so it was a rockin- affair.
These wedding parties are the only places I saw where men and women dance together. And they don't really, just sort of. They dance in groups. The couple's families provide cake and Pepsi for all the guests.
I think it might be good luck to have a foreigner at your wedding party or get your bride picture taken with a foreigner because I had my picture taken a LOT with wedding couples.
If I've already posted these pictures I apologize. It's taking me so long to blog my trip to Egypt, I'll be surprised if I can get it all in.

Mosque at the Citadel Again

I will probably post an ass-load more of these pictures from the Citadel and the Mohamed Ali Mosque here. I really loved this place. It is so grand and peaceful and too big for words really. There are a lot of buildings inside the fortification besides this giant mosque, but this giant mosque is really the best part.

The mosque at the Citadel

So beautiful. And I was shocked and amazed at the westerners who came in wearing shorts and bikini tops. My god, how far removed can you possibly be from the sensibilities of the local culture! How fucking rude, really. So I guess I'm not all that surprised, really. But I kinda was. I always wear a veil in a mosque. It's just what you should do. Even if you aren't Muslim. It just is. Trust me. Unless you are a dude. In which case you should definitely NOT wear shorts! For real. Just don't. In fact, if you are male, you should definitely not wear short pants anywhere in Egypt. Ever. Again, trust me.

Night Lights in Egypt

There are always festivals it seems. Towns everywhere have lights strung up all over the mosques and the streets for different festivals and it is just beautiful. One of these is from Cairo and it is the build-up to a Saint's Festival, but I don't remember which one. People were coming in from all over the world for it. I couldn't go because the cops don't want tourists there. Ragab said because they can't protect us in that kind of crowd. But we did walk around one night before the police made me leave. Another of these pictures if from the streets in Mersa Metruah.

Mosques

There are supposedly 100,000 mosques in Cairo. I believe it. And they are all beautiful. I could easily spend a year just taking pictures of all of them. And I will be posting about 100,000 pictures of mosques. But here are just a few to get started with.

More random pictures

Most of these are of Cairo at night or just before dark. It is safe to walk around any time, day or night, in Egypt. You only get bothered by people trying to sell you shit. And by guys hitting on you or trying to sell you shit, or both. But I always try to remember that I am stinking filthy rich compared to them and how dare I complain when they try to get me to buy something, or when they charge me 100 times more than something costs. It's really immoral that I can be so poor here and then go there and be so rich. Hard to explain that.

Totally random Cairo street pictures

These aren't necessarily pretty or great pictures. And I'm not sure why I'm posting them. Perhaps because I am too lazy to hunt for the pretty ones right now but I wanted to get up more Cairo pictures?

Sphinx

And I really have been to the Giza plateau and I have touched the pyramids and I have seen the great sphinx. Wow. It doesn't seem real. Oh an even better part is that everybody said it costs so much to get a taxi from the Giza Metro stop and all. But AJ found out from a guy in his building that a bus goes right by where he was staying, straight to Giza to the archaeology zone. So we caught that and only had to pay I think 2EGP each. That's less than 50 cents. Of course we had to pay the foreigner tourist price to get into the archaeology zone but still, we felt like winners for getting there on the cheap!

Giza with AJ

AJ and I went to Giza and saw the sphinx and the pyramids of Khufu, Khafra, and Menkaure. It was hot. Like at least 100 degrees. And I didn't remember to bring a hat. But it was ok. I didn't die. I did panic when it came time to go underneath the pyramid into the burial chambers. We had bought tickets to do that, and AJ went before me, but when I saw him duck and scrunch up to fit into the tiny hole under that giant-fucking pyramid I said unh-unh no way and I could not go. It was really weird. I just felt the weight of the pyramid over me and I couldn't force myself to do it. So I blocked traffic and had to turn around and go back like a wimp. It was so humiliating.