Old Cairo and Christmas Eve

The next day of our visit we started with the Coptic Museum which is housed within the walls of the old Babylonian fortress in Old Cairo. Dr. Gabra used to be the curator of this museum so we were lucky enough to have him take us through and point out pieces of interest. He also gave us insight as to why certain things were placed in certain places, from the eye of the curator. The museum incorporated recovered stairs and church ceilings to be its own. The courtyards contained columns and capitals from demolished monasteries. Everywhere you looked no matter where you were in the museum you would see artifacts.


After lunch, we went to Old Cairo. Here there are five churches, a synagogue, and a mosque that were all contained within Babylonian fortress walls back in the day. One of the churches didn't even have a foundation, it just simply rested atop the walls of the old fortress. Another of the churches is what's known as the cave church. It is believed that the holy family visited the cave church which makes the small church a special place for many Christians. After visiting the cave church we evened things out a bit by visiting the oldest synagogue in Cairo.

The whole afternoon we were within the old fortress walls. Lining these walls now are merchants and Ministry of Tourism police, all with something to say to the tourists. The most popular phrase seems to be "Aloha, Yankee Doodle, Welcome to Alaska," followed up in a close second by "Bama Obama, want to buy? Only a dollar." On the way back to the hotel I saw a poster that was had President Bush with a construction hat on and next to him was Hitler also with a construction hat and a swastika. Now I couldn't read the Arabic printed on the poster but I pretty much got the gist that certain people in Cairo were glad that the inauguration was soon.

That night we got invited to a Christmas Eve service. We piled into taxis (which are really like Mini Coopers but without the style and paint and power) and arrived at the church a little late. The place was packed and most of the teenagers were just chilling outside in the street talking the their friends while the service inside was broadcast from loud speakers attached to the church. We make our ways in and the Bishop who was welcoming everyone stops to invite us all down to the front row. We are all just trying to sit down quickly so some of us(me) didn't notice until a little later that the room was divided with men on one side and women on the other. Guess who was on the wrong side? No one seemed to care until there was some room on the women's side. As soon as some women got up to leave the man sitting next to me pointed and told me to go. So I did. I sat down at the first available chair I saw and wouldn't you know it that sucker was broken. The front left leg was leaning like it was gonna snap at any minute. I'm leaning on the pew grabbing my roomie Cathy and telling her that I'm gonna fall. What's worst is that I am in the line of sight of the video camera if I do fall everyone will see. Luckily they were about to start communion which was our cue to leave. Back we went to the hotel to rest up for another busy day in Cairo.

Once we got back to the hotel Cathy wanted to get some chocolate cake ordered to the room. This is kind of how that went: "Yes, I'd like two pieces of chocolate cake."(pause)"Chocolate cake."(pause)"Two. Well not two whole cakes just two pieces so that two people can eat. Ok." She hangs up and tells me that he kept on saying English cake and then said he was no good on the phone and is coming up the room. A little more of the same happens when he's up in the room and when he finally comes back with our chocolate cake...there isn't a speck of chocolate on the thing. Instead we got pound cake with cherries cut up inside. That was our one and only foray into room service in Egypt.