egyptian museum and khan el-khalili

Well, that was a long day! I have so much to talk about, but not a lot of time to say it in, because I want to get to sleep. Luckily (not), since my camera is still broken, I don't have any pictures to upload, so that works out great.
Sarah and I slept in this morning, then got a late breakfast at a restaurant called Cafe Noir before we headed off to the Egyptian Museum. We both tried to order pancakes, only to be told they were really crepes, and we could have apple or nutella. We both opted for apple, and ordered mocha lattes to go with. The food and drinks were delicious, and I'll definitely go back there another time.
We got to the museum, sharing a cab with my friend, and found two other students and Professor Ikram waiting. She let us all into the museum with her awesome magic paper, and then left. It was really nice of her to make the trip, just to ensure that we didn't have to pay six dollars to get in.
We had a little mix up with Sarah's camera, which meant she had to leave the museum to put it in a locker, then buy a ticket to get back in, but it all worked out. Starting from the right wings on the first floor, the two of us made our way through the museum, dodging tour groups, and saw almost everything, and definitely everything we were interested in. That took about four hours, and then I went off to describe a statue for my Art and Architecture paper, and Sarah went to check out the gift shop.
When we were done, we met up and (after walking a few pointless blocks) caught a cab to Al-Azhar mosque, near the famous bazaar of Khan el-Khalili. The cab dropped us off in a place I didn't recognize, so we headed off down the street in search of something. What we found was the completely non-touristy section of the market, which was wonderful. We walked through an alley lined with stall, and no one yelled "Obama!" or "Let me take your money!" at us. We bought delicious baclava from a funny old man who wanted us to take a picture for some reason, and pretty scarves from two other vendors. Eventually, we retraced our steps and crossed a busy street using a pedestrian overpass. Then we bought pomegranate juice from a juice stand, and sat to drink it out of small glass tumblers with straws.
When we were done, we wandered a bit more, and stumbled onto a part of town that I recognized, the place I had asked the cab driver to take us, Al-Azhar mosque and the section of town known as Islamic Cairo. It was dark by this point, but we still wandered for an hour or two, and found a mausoleum that was open and free to wander around in. We also found a silver shop where Sarah bought a tiny box for a really good price, even if it isn't really sterling silver (but I think it is).
Then we caught a cab back to Zamalek and had dinner at Hardee's, because we were both kind of craving some protein. I also recharged my phone after I ran out of money on it for the first time this morning. It was terrible not to be able to call or text anyone all day.
When we got back to the dorms, we realized our mistake in eating at Hardee's because tonight was Turkish night, and there was a huge free buffet for everyone, with all sorts of delicious food and desserts. We were stuffed and tired, though, so we went upstairs for a bit, and when we came back down, all the food was gone. Oops.
So that was today, full of walking, and paying for things, and completely wonderful. Sarah's leaving tomorrow, which makes me sad, but it was amazing having her here, and I wouldn't trade the last five days (the scare of two nights ago notwithstanding) for anything.
NaNo word count: 10337

halloo? my friendiss? halloo?

It has been an incredibly long day. It started early with a trip to Islamic Cairo, turned into homework time, then a two hour dinner which stretched to four and a half hours, then even more homework, until finally, it's blogging time!
Honestly, no matter how late I have to stay up to blog, it's one of my favorite parts of the day. I like getting all my thoughts down on 'paper' and sorting through everything in my head so it makes sense.
Anyway, I spent most of the Islamic Cairo trip with a splitting headache because I let myself get dehydrated in the heat, but even that couldn't make me ignore the beautiful buildings all around me. We started at al-Azhar mosque (which is home to one of the oldest universities in the world), and continued through town, stopping on almost every street corner to see a new mosque or medieval Egyptian building. In order to make up for not paying much attention to the tour, I took lots of pictures, and I've put some of them below.

the green minaret

mosque

fancy carvings like this were all over the place

500 year old minarets are just part of the skyline

a corinthian column stolen (for real) from the romans

mausoleum entrance, with copper and iron doors

bathhouse ceiling

the traffic waiting for us outside of al-Azhar

Our tour guide on this trip was, again, our old friend. We were a bit surprised to see him, since he'd told us on the last trip that he didn't know anything about a trip to Old Cairo. I guess he was confused or joking, though, because there he was. I don't know what it is, but every time we meet him again, he just gets more annoying. He says "halloo?" to get our attention every time someone tries to take a picture while he is talking. I tried to get a video of him saying it so I could share it with you, but failed. Instead here is a clip of him talking in the living room of an ancient mansion we visited:

As it turns out, the bazaar we visited a few days ago, Khan el-Khalili, backs right onto Islamic Cairo, so we can visit both again at once. I really want to go back, since there were some very interesting little shops and stalls lining the road, including one selling musical instruments, which I'm sure are pretty cheap, but might still be worth a look.

tiny guitars for sale

When we got back to the dorms, I tried to do homework and pretty much failed except for my excursion to the AUC bookstore, conveniently attached to our dorm, where I purchased one of my textbooks for Ancient Egyptian Literature on the cheap.

Then it was time to meet the other UC study abroad students and our advisors for dinner at a restaurant on the Nile about halfway down Zamalek. The taxi ride was a short adventure, and we arrived at the restaurant just in time to wait for sunset and our food. Dinner was completely delicious, and I'd love to visit that restaurant again, except I'm sure it was very expensive, and it wasn't on my dime this time. Well, at least not directly. UC budget crisis, what?

my dinner - a plate of meat and french fries. mmm.

hibiscus juice or something. delicious.

dessert, which was a baked milk/sugar thing. yummy.

turkish coffee, which tasted like flowers and mud.

After dinner, we were promised a boat trip on the Nile, which we were assured would only take half an hour. The boat was delayed, though, so we were supposed to wait twenty minutes for it to get back. Those twenty minutes turned out to be equal to two and a half hours in Egyptian time. It was tiring, for sure, but actually okay, since I got to meet and hang out with lots of other AUC/UC students.

Finally the boat got back, and after some drama involving double reservations and whatnot, we got on the boat.

pretty fairy lights, with a cairo backdrop

The boat trip also involved dancing, mostly of the embarrassing kind, of which I did not partake. I did record it for posterity, though:

(the guy in the striped shirt dancing near the end of the video is our advisor, by the way. he's awesome.)