June 23 - CAIRO!!!

OK, so I arrived in Cairo today. I could tell right away I was in for a special experience. The taxi driver who was bringing me to my apartment smack dab in the middle of downtown spoke no English whatsoever. I couldn't even get him to explain to me how to say "thank you." He took me through the busiest, most bewildering and unregulated stream of traffic, weaving through pedestrians all the way, to the wrong address. That was only because there are 2 buildings called 19 Sharia Adly, each on one side of the Banque du Caire.

There I was met by Youssiri, a man who wanted to be intimately involved in all aspects of my life. He was there on behalf of the lady I was renting the apartment from, to let me in and so forth. He at once began badgering me about when I wanted to visit the Pyramids, Luxor and all the other attractions in Egypt. He also wanted to be my personal valet for everything I needed food-wise in the apartment. "You want I get fruit? Sandwich? You give me money, I go," he said.

Having shaken him off, I waited with my friends Dan and Emily for Joe to arrive. When he arrived, we swung into action right away and headed for Coptic Cairo, an historical stronghold of Christianity in an otherwise very Muslim place. Coptic Cairo had some cool stuff, but my favorite was Saint George's Church. Saint George must have been a dragon-slayer, because everywhere there were almost completely identical reproductions of a piece of art depicting a knight slaying a dragon. There were paintings, velvet paintings, wood carvings, plastic models, neon banners, and vanity mirror reproductions of the sculpture on the façade of the church. I've provided a couple of photographs, but it's hard to describe the variety of styles of this same motif and the ubiquitousness of it in the church.

there were so many examples of this art motif, and they all looked like they were produced in the 1970s.

We also stepped into an underground prayer room that suffered from the kind of stuffiness that comes from not only being in Cairo in the middle of Summer, but also from having lots of sweaty tourists trapped in a tiny room underground.

Making our escape from there, we went to the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As, the first mosque ever built in Egypt. I guess it's kind of like visiting the first grain of sand on a beach, because Egypt is lousy with mosques now. I was impressed at how cool it was under the canopied areas in the mosque (the ceiling fans were probably added after 642 AD).

in the courtyard of the mosque of Amr ibn al-As, the first mosque built in Egypt

Later that evening, we went to watch the USA face Algeria in a must-win World Cup game. Finding a place to watch it was much harder than you would think for being downtown in an intensely crowded city in a country obsessed with football. For one thing, they don't really have bars here, or at least the ones they do have don't advertise it very much. For another, TVs are harder to find than you might think. We finally stumbled across a street with some TVs and tables right before halftime of the match, and sat down to watch.

Seated just next to us was the only person we could find that was supporting Algeria. Egypt and Algeria have had a very contentious footballing relationship in the recent past, and nearly all the Egyptians in the viewing area were cheering vigorously for the USA on every crunching tackle, towering header, and missed opportunity. Our friend who was rooting for Algeria was sticking to some sort of fundamental Arabic pride linking Egypt and Algeria, but he was polite nonetheless. The USA needed a win to secure certain passage to the next round of the tournament.

We had to wait for what seemed like an eternity as the USA missed an endless string of opportunities, until finally Landon Donovan put us ahead 1-0 deep into second half injury time. The patrons of the outdoor cafés seated around us erupted like Egypt had just won the World Cup (well, nothing like that, but at least the reaction of a sports bar celebrating the local baseball team hitting a go-ahead home run). As the USA held on for the win, the guy who ran the place we were at came over to congratulate us, and offered the nearby Algeria supporter the lovely sentiment of "fuck off Algeria!"


Egyptian fans celebrating the USA's win over Algeria. The man that walks into the frame was the restaurant owner. He drops in a "fuck off Algeria" if you listen closely

One thing I haven't mentioned enough is that Cairo is absolutely the most crazy city I have ever been to in terms of noises, improvisational businesses in dilapidated buildings, traffic chaos, overly friendly people, overly aggressive salesmanship, heat, dust, old crappy cars, people carrying tons of stuff, horn honking, driving with no headlights (I can't tell you how normal this is), and just general bedlam. I am always looking for a more pulsating and energetic city experience, and Cairo by far takes the cake as far as what I've seen. More to come...