We had a flight at 9:30am back to Cairo. We only had to go through security twice this time and we didn’t have to line up by gender.  We were patted down by the same gender as us though.  The flight itself was uneventful.  We got a water and an apple juice and I looked out at the vast amount of dirt of the land.  It was beautiful and absolutely desolate looking at the same time. 

Our bus had some issues leaving the airport until our driver slipped the guy talking to us some money.  It was the smoothest transaction I had ever seen.  I’m not even sure who the man was, but we left promptly.  

It took quite some time to reach the mosque we were going to visit. Al-Azhar Mosque was built in 972 A.D.  It’s the oldest one in the city.  I don’t know if I have mentioned the traffic here, but it is unbelievable.  It caused me stress just to watch everyone around us.  I thought people in the UK drove close to each other!  This was much closer.  We had to drive at least a mile just to turn around. It was madness.  There are so many people walking in the street, motorcycles, vans with open doors (which are actually buses), big buses, and regular cars.  

At the mosque, all the women had scarves to wrap around their heads.  We all took off our shoes and carried them with us.  Inside, the woman had to borrow skirts to wear inside.  Mine was HUGE.  I could have fit a 7 foot woman.  I was also wearing a red flannel and a purple scarf.  We all looked silly, but I looked the dorkiest.  We walked across the white tile and it was so very cold.  It almost hurt your feet.  Mohamed explained that it is like that year round. It gets so hot in the summer in Cairo that it is a relief to walk across the tiles barefoot.  

We went inside and sat on the floor.  It had quite a few people in it, but not a lot were praying.  Many were just relaxing, looking at their phones, chatting, or reading books.  Mohamed explained the religion of Islam to us.  He told us about the five pillars that they had to follow and he shared his trip to Mecca with his wife.  Our group was particularly fascinated by the fact that one pillar includes giving alms and it should be a certain percentage of your savings.  They asked a lot of questions about it.  I thought it was a cool pillar, but what you give and how you do it is really between you and Allah.  He gave some of his this year to help the dog we saw in Aswan and I also saw him handing several poor people money during our trip.  It was very interesting, but It calls for a lot of devotion on your part.  I personally wouldn’t be able to handle a month of fasting or getting up at dawn for prayer, but I didn’t grow up doing it.

We left the mosque to check out the market.  Mohamed told us that we could only go down and up two streets.  He said this because the market is a maze and he was afraid we would get lost.  Obviously we could do as we liked, but I thought it was smarter to follow his directions.  We were given an hour and we were to meet him in a coffee shop whenever we were done shopping.  We walked down the darker street and were immediately bombarded with calls to go inside their shops or to buy this or that.  The only things I was looking for were magnets and postcards.  I never found any postcards.  The guy wanted $30 for four magnets. We talked him into $10.  I know it was more than they were worth, but I’ve paid more for magnets in other countries.  

We also found this tiny canopic jars that look like they were made from basalt.  We knew they were not, but the guy threw one on the ground and it didn’t chip, so we bought a set of four. They were $30. Frankly, I don’t care if it was a deal or not.  I wanted them. 🙂

We found this really cool shop with antique furniture and pottery that we walked around (the owner followed us the whole time, but never said anything). It was the most unique shop we found there.  After walking back through the gauntlet of calling out, I decided I didn’t even want to walk down the other street. There was nothing else I wanted anyway, since I gave up on the postcards.  We sat with Mohamed and I had a mint tea and my husband had a strawberry juice.  Both were quite good.  While we were sitting there, people kept coming up to us and asking us if we wanted to buy things.  (We were outside.) One man had tshirts and told me they were one euro.  My husband told me not to say anything, but I didn’t listen and it turns out he wanted $10.  When I refused he couldn’t take no for an answer, he kept harassing me until the workers in the restaurant made him leave.  He was still yelling to me about prices when we walked out to the bus.  I didn’t care what the price was at that point, I would not have paid it. 

Our next stop was lunch with a local family.  We climbed five flights of stairs (we didn’t really want to take a chance on the elevator).  They had a lovely little apartment. The family had twin daughters and twin sons.  The daughters were 11 and the sons were 5.  They kept the sons in a room because they were so lively. All they wanted to do was watch the phone. The daughter gave us a tour of the apartment. She was very proud of her room that she shared with her sister. The father stayed in the room with the boys.  The mother ate lunch with us and after talked to us about her life and her family. She showed us her wedding album. It was the best experience.  She was very honest and open with us. She was very excited that she cooked the chicken with her new air fryer that she spent six months saving to get. Lunch was delicious.  We had rice that was mixed with vermicelli, vegetables, chicken, pickled beets, salad, beans, and hibiscus juice.  She also gave us dessert, which tasted like pound cake, but with corn. 

When we left there were a bunch of boys playing outside and they asked my name and how old I was.  He told me his name and that he was 13, a baby. It was cute that he wanted to practice his English.  When we drove the bus through the neighborhood all the kids waved to us.  

Also there are so many feral dogs and cats.  Some are friendly though and come up to you to be petted.  A cat sat with me when I was drinking my mint tea near the market.  They don’t have any way to control the population.  As we drove by one section of the city we saw all these new looking apartment buildings.  Mohamed told us that the president wanted to clean up the worst of the slums and that area used to be one of them. There were people living in tin and cardboard houses.  They moved them all, built the apartment buildings, then moved them into them completely furnished.  These people have to pay a very small amount of rent a month (to give them a sense of ownership) and after an amount of time, they will own it.  I was very impressed.  The president completed it all in about a year.  You could see that there was still some of it that had to cleaned up, but it was not a homeless city anymore.  

We arrived at the hotel and decided to meet once more for a drink before we all went our separate ways.  We told Mohamed how much fun we had and how much we appreciated how much he did for us on the trip.  It really was a trip of a lifetime.