Mosques, Military, and the Cat-Pee Cafe

Things go slightly awry

It was a beautiful morning when we woke up, and this was to be one of our, "leave the bags at the hotel for the whole damn day after check-out and travel through the night to time and money days."

A beautiful morning in the garden. This, by the way, was the view from our room..

I always forget the few addresses I want to mail, so a quick stop at an internet cafe fixed that up...

Our boat looked a bit less classy by day, but still better than chili's

Check it out Dad... A Jawa. Cool huh? Turns out they are everywhere in Egypt..

We really didn't know where we were going... we just sort of started off the day on a blank. One of the bell hops taking our bags asked where we were off too...The pyramids? The Market? The Citadel..

The Citadel.

Man. We should have thought of that one... rookie mistake... sloppy.

The citadel is up on a hillside (naturally) on the far side of town. We bargained a taxi down low on this one... we were all pleased with how far we got for how little. From the outer wall you can't really guess at how much awaits inside...

The troops stop to take a few shots.

The outer walls.

The lonely planet guide describes the fort as being dominated by a single building; the mosque of mohammad Ali. They weren't kidding. It looms massive on the horizon as soon as one enters the fort.

The mosque of mohammad Ali was impressive indeed.

Also impressive was the view it afforded. it didn't seem that high up when we came, but from the citadel, a great view of Cairo is commanded.

in some ways though, it was almost disappointing.. we arranged for the pyramids to be the last thing we saw on our egyptian trip, but from the citadel, we were treated to a small glimpse of them, off in the smoky, polluted horizon.

Just FYI... Cairo boasts the worst air quality in the world. the horizon and my need to cover my mouth when driving suggest that that boast is not that far from the truth

After a bit of city gazing, we made our way to the inner courtyard of the mosque, to take in the intricate and peaceful archways and windows. Somehow Empty mosques always seem the holiest of places. I can't explain it.. an empty church just seems... I don't know... broken... a room that smells like wood polish, and you can't talk loud... Mosques on the other hand... just give off an aura of peace and serenity.

Not to mention the fact that they are stunning. Here two other mosques can be seen below.

Break time. Activate self timer...

What ever happened to the archway? Seriously. Think about it.

The inner courtyard was undergoing some repair, but we walked around sockfeet happily snapping pictures.

Todd in his socks.

I call this one... "Self portrait in Todd's glasses"

Inside the mosque was well lit and very busy. we walked in, and found a corner to sit down and relax in.

The inside of the Mosque was really impressive. Oddly, Andy's cell phone captured the best pictures of it I feel.. Huge rings of lights hung low over the assembled crowds, and above them massive beautiful vaulted ceilings loomed.

Look at them loom! Andy was good enough to read some of the giant arabic crests that were spread around the room.

Very, very cool place. before coming Andy warned us not to touch, look at, make eye contact with, or think about an arabic woman. This, he explained, would be a very inappropriate thing to do. I guess that's why I found it so odd when 4 or 5 young arabic girls in their teens or 20's walked up and asked to have their pictures taken with us.. Weird.

Chillin in the mosque

We eventually bade farewell to the mosque of mohammed ali and made our way some of the other small museums and attractions within the fort. The citadel was great in that it had a small, but cool collection of stuff, that did not require additional tickets to enter, with the exception of the military museum.

Taking in the view

First though we needed a snack. We stopped at a small restaurant and ordered all three of the egyptian juices on the menu. The waiter appeared with three damn near identical juices. They were all deep red, yet had VERY different tastes. I think we were all happy with our juices. Turns out mine was actually hibiscus juice.. who knew?

it was a crying shame that we waited so long to get to the military museum. Had we known it closed, we would have gone earlier.. as it was, we were rushed through the second half of it.

Outside the museum there was a collection of tanks and planes.

I don't know what this building was in days gone by, but the museum was impressive both in content and in structure.. huge halls, tons of chambers, really something else.

After finishing up in the citadel, we took a stroll down to some of the mosques we had seen from above. It was a nice walk, and the sun was starting to go down, so we decided to head back to the hotel.

We had some time to kill, so we headed back to those big boats in the nile. I wanted to go to the same one, (so I could get a sheesha) but we elected a more elegant looking one. We ended up in a bar that was empty, and sat with dim lights and romantic music playing. On the plus side we realized how cute a couple Andy and Todd make...

We arrived at Ramses station to catch our train, and discovered that the info on the e-mail sent to us and the info on the tickets didn't match. We found ourselves at the station 2 hours early for our train. Better than late I suppose. But what to do with the time. We decided to head into the nearby streets and see if we could find some food.

Ok, before I get into it, this was the simple fair that was laid out for us... some pita, falafel and roast chicken.

Now for the part that the photo didn't capture.. this restaurant was a dive like no other I had ever been in. From the street it looked small and dirty, but I am used to small and dirty, several chickens were slowly turning on spits in a roaster outside. The chicken looked good, the place looked empty, and for some reason, I just felt it was the place we were supposed to be. "This is it." I said. "let's eat here."

"We'll have to ask the cat to move" Andy replied. At this I noticed that there was a cat up on one of the tables, picking at the scraps the customer before us had left.

"Ah, come on, its just a cat. Let's go" I led the charge in.

We sat down with our baggage at a small table and cautiously ordered in a mix of english and Arabic. Small salads were put into dirty bowls for us. Fresh tap water was poured into a steel carafe on the table, and we waited. Todd really wanted some water, but the glasses on the table were filthy. We decided to hold off on the water. Soon after a pile of bread showed up (no plate) and was placed on the filthy table. I guess it's about here that we noticed that the cat had called in reinforcements. At least 4 distinct cats were now at our table and all about us.. I think there was a 5th, but they were all pretty mangy and two of them looked similar. One was a kitten, no bigger than half a food, head to tail. The conversation was a bit forced, as we simultaneously ate and fought. Todd and Andy I am sure fought urges to beat the hell out of me for coming in. I fought the urge to laugh out loud at the ridiculous situation I had landed us in, and we all fought to keep the cats a bay. One continuously tried to jump up into Todd's lap.. the kitten hopped up on D's bag and left a trail of dust and muck on it... One of the little buggers marked my bag. I discovered this the next day. Fortunately none of the contents were affected. We sat and ate, and choked, and swatted, and laughed (mostly me, trying to lighten the mood by saying things like "think of the great story you'll get out of this." and "you have to do these shitty things if you want interesting stories to tell afterwards." The meal over, the man gave us our price by writing it on the table with his finger. It was quite expensive.. but we didn't argue. We just all put up our 20 bucks for our meagre pickings and handed it over. He took the money and then calmly separated a small portion of it (which was the real price,) and returned the rest. That made us all happy, here that guy had a chance to take us all for a big ride, and he turned it down. He got a good baksheesh from me. You need to run into guys like that once in a while to remind you that not everyone in Asia and Africa is out to get you. We left with a bit of food in our bellies, a bit of money out of pocket, allot put back in, and smiles on our faces.

Oh, and some cat pee on my bag.

Yup, that's one for the records. Look how happy I am... You gotta do those shitty things...

There you have it folks. That is the story of the cat-pee cafe. Andy found it hilarious to no end that a cat marked my bag.. he laughed and laughed, and laughed. He even wrote postcards to people in Japan saying "a cat peed on Kuma." Which was of course, not true, but he felt it was funnier that way. I'm just glad it happened to me and he could laugh about it. Had a cat peed on his new bag, He would have flipped out; it took him forever to find the right one. So, in retrospect it worked out great, and hey, as far as I am concerned.. You have to do those shitty things to be able to tell the story afterwards.

The over night train had big comfortable seats that were more than enough for me, but I don't think Todd or D was very comfortable. The train ride passed plenty, all thanks to my ear plugs. Always travel with earplugs.

Not that the meal at the cat-pee cafe wasn't good enough... but we stopped to buy some snacks on the way. Someone get a lawyer on the line...

As the sun came over the hills, and a new day started, with the ride behind us, everything looked a little better. Except Andy.

This picture is not blurry. Todd really looked like that.

Onward to Luxor