Day 2 and Three: First Iftar and Trip to (NOT) Khan alKhalili and the Citadel

The past two days have been an absolutely wonderful experience.  From meeting other international students to free trips hosted by hyperactive student advisers, I have so far (with the exception of witnessing the revolution) had an even better time here that I did at the beginning of last semester.  Many of the people I have met have made the comment "this is like being in a resort" in reference to the beautiful campus and the free trips that we have been on.  In truth I feel absolutely spoiled.  I know that once classes begin things are going to settle down here and start feeling more like college than a vacation getaway, but I have a feeling that being in Cairo will never get boring.

Day 2:  In the morning I and a group of a few other students in the Zamalek dorms went out for breakfast/lunch at a coffee shop where I ordered a greek salad.  The feta cheese in my salad was creamy, absolutely delicious, and made up about half of the entire salad.  What surprised me most though was that the tomatoes in my salad actually had flavor to them.  That's right, unlike the watery grainy ones in the states, my tomatoes actually tasted like tomatoes.

After eating we ran to Saudi market to get a few essentials.

This was the storefront for Saudi Mart.


That night I went out with a group of students for Iftar (breaking fast).  Okay, so I had already eaten that day but why not join in the celebration with the rest of Cairo?

This was the group of people I went with to a place called Euro Cafe.  We all originally wanted to find an Egyptian restaurant to dine in with traditional food, but it turns out that during Ramadan the only way to get into one is if you have a reservation or if you wait to eat until nine.  We were too hungry to wait so most of us ended up getting chicken shwarma here.  The food was okay, not the best shwarma I've ever had, but what really sold me on this place was the fruit drink "surprise" that I ordered which turned out to basically be pureed mango.  It was the best mango anything I have ever had.  The entire table agreed.

Later that night we went on a free Faluka boat ride that Residential Life hosted.

This was are Faluka boat.  It essentially is a wide, flat-bottom sailboat.  The nile was absolutely beautiful at night and the wind was calm enough to where our ride was smooth and relaxing....until the other res. life faluka led by Ray, by far the most hyper of our R.A.s, intentionally rammed into us. Ha ha, Ray, very funny.



Day 3:  Day three was the first day of orientation.  One of the most outstanding changes made to the university that I noticed is that there are huge murals all around, like this one.

The murals are male up from a collage of photos taken during the revolution.

Here's a close up where you can see the individual pictures.

This is the same part of the mural zoomed out a little bit.


Correction:  This was a tour of the Old City, NOT the bazaar Khan al Khalili.


Later on that afternoon the international student leaders took us on a trip to visit Khan alKhalili and the Citadel, with Iftar dinner included after our tour.  I hate to say it but my least favorite part was actually the bazaar tour.  Khan alKhalili was crowded and the street was packed with people trying to drive home for Iftar after starving the whole day.  No one was in a good mood and there was plenty of ogling by people hanging around the shops.  On top of that we were such a big group that we took up most of the street, causing multiple traffic jams.

There were some sights in the bazaar that made it worth while.  Old architecture like this was all over.

There was a plethora of Hookah shops, but there were also a few textile shops like this one.

If you look really closly at this picture you can see a wall hanger that has a picture made from calligraphy on it.  

I also had to take a picture of the turkish coffee cups hanging in one shop.

This I believe was one of the mosques we saw on the street.


After the bazaar we went to the Citadel where we took a tour of the Alabaster Mosque.  It was built by Muhammad Ali, the liberator, and later leade (dictator) of Egypt.

This is part of the inside of the mosque.  It was to big to get all of it in one picture.

This was Muhammad Ali's tomb, which faced the prayer niche.

I believe that these are two Qurans that some one left on one of the ledges inside the mosque.

This is the outside view of the mosque.

A view of the city from the plaza in the citadel where we had Iftar dinner.

Iftar dinner afterwards was delicious.  There was an array of traditional dishes laid out for us.  I drank a really sweet and absolutely delicious sweetened milk drink with my meal then finished off with basbousa and baklava.  After dinner we watched a Bedouin show.  It featured whirling dancers (not to be confused with whirling dervishes) whose skirts were lit up to exaggerate their movements.

This was during the first act.

There was also this guy... he seemed to like running around everyone watching the show with his censure and randomly placing it on different peoples' heads.

Here's a close up of one of the Bedouin dancers twirling lit up part of his skirt around his head.

Me and Sarah, another international student who is also my neighbor in the Zamalek Dorm.

Two pretty awesome German guys whose names I can't seem to recall.  They sat and smoked shesha with us at the end of the show.


So that's all.  Tonight I'm going on a Nile cruise also hosted by the international student leaders.  I have intentionally left my camera at the dorms to make sure no unfortunate incidents happen that have it coming in contact with water.  Will report on how everything goes though of course.

Miss you all and hope this post has helped give you a glimpse into what my experience has been here so far!