Journey to Egypt

I hate to admit it, but I had to look up the exact location of Egypt before I departed for the trip. Cairo was not what I expected and my experience could be greatly summarized by a fellow traveler's comment, "I'm glad I came, but I won't come back!"

Cairo had beautiful mosques and sandstone buildings along side crumbling brick structures. The sheer size of the city was astounding. It could take hours to travel from one end to another, with light traffic. On a positive note the streets are wide and spacious. Like Bucharest, driving is a bit hairy, and the horn is used often and without hesitation.

The history this part of the world can offer cannot be measured. In the span of a few days I was able to see and bring to life what weeks in a classroom fails to do.

As most of you know, riding the camel was an all-time life highlight. Although it may seem everyday to those in that part of the world, the only other camels I had seen were in zoos and on a farm outside of Colorado. My camel's name was Mickey Mouse although I also met a Snoopy. The camel was tall and his gait was slow. Even at a trot, it wasn't a fast journey. Much to my surprise, riding him was not as rough as I would have expected, although riding a horse would be my preferred form of transportation.

One of the most fascinating museums I've attended was the Egyptian Antiquities Museum. It housed tombs, mummies, mummified animals, tools and a wealth of other artifacts. By far I was most fascinated with not only the hair on the bodies of thousand year old dead men but also by the fact that they mummified animals like monkeys, crocodiles and even fruit! It by all means was more intriguing than the typical painting or sculpture (at least to my uneducated eye)!

Equally interesting was the layout of what might be considered the old downtown. What I would have considered a space appropriate to be a modest storage unit, was indeed a variety of shops in Cairo. Hundreds of small rolling doors opened from early in the morning to late at night to reveal shops of all mediums including bakeries, cell phone providers, shoe shining stops, cafes, spice stores and knick knack stands. The majority of these spots were occupied by men, men lingering with no real place to go and sipping tea. Women were not often seen being stationary in any one spot let alone resting in a vendor's place of business.

Attire there varied from traditional coverings to modern day fashion. As would be expected, most women wore head scarves; however, these women might wear skirts or jeans. Clothing was more form fitted than I would have anticipated but unlike in America or England, cleavage was not seen nor were bare arms. I did not see a single pair of shorts, other than on tourists and skirts touched the ground. Although sparse, occasionally women were completely covered in black Niqab and Hijab, even wearing gloves. I discovered that when women are covered in this way, children often look at shoes to find their mothers. Interesting, no???