Citadel and Bumpa’s last day

This morning we went off to visit the Citadel. Once we were inside the walls, we went  to el-Nasser Mohamed Ibn Qala’un Mosque, more commonly referred to as simply Qala’un and not to be confused with the Qala’un Complex on Muizz street but still beautiful and worthy of a visit.

There is a nice view of the different minaret styles from within the courtyard of Qala’un. The Mosque of el-Nasser Mohamed Ibn Qala’un has the bulkier minarets you see throughout much of Cairo; this particular minaret is unique in that the top of it is shaped like a head of garlic. It was built around 1318.

My dad asked while we were visiting the pyramids what happened to the casing of the pyramids. The answer is that later civilizations quarried them and used them in their own structures. While there are no pyramid stones used in the Mosque of el-Nasser Mohamed Ibn Qala’un, the columns supporting the current dome were taken from some ancient Egyptian temples.

The pencil-shaped minarets are those of the Mosque of Mohamed Ali Pasha, which was built between 1830 and 1860. The Mohamed Ali Mosque was designed to mimic Ottoman architecture and looks quite similar to the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, inside and out.

We had to sit outside in the courtyard to have a snack because I promised Rachel that she could have a snack once we got outside. This girl doesn’t miss anything anymore. The minute we were over the threshold, before our shoes were even on our feet, she reminded me of my promise. “You said after we got outside I could have a snack!”

While she was chowing down on pretzels  we saw a little boy playing on the lion statues surrounding a fountain. We went to play, too.

Andrew was impressed when I broke out my Japanese skills. Not that I have a lot of Japanese skills.

Watashi wa jitensha desu. Sayonara.

Just kidding. I know a bit more than that. And the part about being a bicycle? Well, that’s an old inside joke from high school. (I’m not sure that anyone reading this blog will get it. Maybe Amanda will.) And, no, I didn’t tell this girl I was a bicycle. But I did say sayonara.

At first Rachel wouldn’t sit on the statue. She wanted Miriam to test it out for her—that’s what little sisters are for, right? To be the guinea pig.

When Miriam didn’t spontaneously combust, Rachel decided it was safe and hopped up behind her.

And then we couldn’t get Rachel away from the fountain. She had to sit on every single one of them and demanded that her picture be taken at each stop. She even invited me on for a ride once or twice.

When she had completed her round around the fountain and we were able to peel her away from the last statue, we visited al-Gawhara Palace. Since it was commissioned by Mohamed Ali Pasha, who was a commander in the Ottoman army—an Albanian who ruled Egypt under the Ottoman Empire? This is why history is interesting—the palace is contemporary with other Ottoman palaces so I thought it would parallel the exquisite grandeur that abounds in Topkapi or Dolmabahçe, the main palaces of Istanbul. I was mistaken.

Al-Gawhara Palace was rather drab, sparsely decorated, and rather small. At least according to my puffed-up expectations. Still, it had many interesting treasures inside—a gaudy throne from Italy, a clock from France, and fine carpets from Persia. At no extra cost, it is worth a visit.

From the Citadel we headed to Khan al-Khalili, the center of all chaos. We didn’t go too deep into the craziness; instead we stayed on the outskirts and enjoyed some fatir—Egyptian pancakes made from filo dough and stuffed with yummy things like honey, nuts, cream, and fruit.

Then we went home to do boring things like pack and work and study and nap. When all that boring stuff was out of the way we had FHE—Rachel wanted to give the lesson and tell the story of Moses but then she kind of chickened out so I ended up telling the story of Moses but I wasn’t very well prepared since we were busy running around all day and let’s just say the lesson left something to be desired. We played Go Fish with Disney Princess cards for the activity, though, and that was fun.

Rachel and Andrew played on a team but Andrew tried to let Rachel do most of the work. She kept forgetting to tell people what card she actually wanted. Andrew would whisper, “Ask Mommy if she has this card,” and then Rachel would say, “Mommy, do you have this card?” It was funny. Every time it was her turn we had to remind her that she had to be specific instead of simply asking for “this” card.

We kept forgetting whose turn it was, too, since we were talking the whole time. At one point Andrew reminded Josie it was her turn.

“Go, Josie,” he urged.

“Yeah. Gosie!” Rachel echoed. “Wait…why’d you say Gosie?”

“I didn’t. You did.”

We thought Gosie was a good new nickname for Josie. I’m having a hard time, name-wise, having her here. She and Rachel have similar temperaments and so I had a problem calling Rachel Josie before. Now that they are both under the same roof, well, it happens a lot more often.

At one point in the game I looked straight at Rachel and said, “Josie, do you have Belle?”

Josie slid her card over to me.

“I wasn’t asking you. I was asking…oh…oops.”

I also commanded Josie to put her underwear back on. She calmly assured me that she had and suggested that I redirect my statement to Rachel.

The next two months are going to be confusing.

Coptic Cairo

So Miriam wasn’t quite so keen on the bottle as I thought. She went to sleep because she likes to sleep, but when she woke up in the night to nurse she was so excited to see me. Too excited, really. She stayed awake for a while just stroking my face and cooing at me and I never did get her back into her own bed. She was a little clingy and that made for a long night. So long, in fact, that I could hardly open my eyes this morning so I slept in a bit, which was nice.

We went to Coptic Cairo for our outing today. At first Rachel was upset because last night before she went to bed Andrew told her that we would be going to visit the Citadel in the morning.

“Dad said we would go to the Citadel!”

“I’m too tired, and we don’t have enough time today.”

“But Dad said!”

“Yes. And now I’m saying…”

After she realized we were still going out she simmered down a bit. And then when she realized we were going to “The Diamond Castle” she perked up quite a bit more. The last time we visited Coptic Cairo we went with Nacia and she and Rachel played “Diamond Castle” the whole time—it’s a running game that they invented. I usually play it wrong but there are a few parts that I get right—the king’s name is Stressed Out and I think we’re supposed to be protecting something from some bad guys.

Rachel was excited to show off her favorite statue of St. George killing the dragon to Auntie Josie and Grandpa.

We visited all the regular sites to visit; tourists were swarming everywhere. It must be getting to be summer. We spent quite a while in the cemetery.

I like visiting cemeteries. They’re quiet and remain so even with the hoards of tourists around. I find tombstones so interesting—I saw one that was French but written in Greek—and always wonder about the lives the people (or bodies thereof) resting inside led. Sometimes I wonder if that is why I am such a maniac about recording the details of my life—to satisfy the curiosity of future generations. I almost think it is pointless to do something if you don’t record it somewhere. Not quite since there are plenty of things that have happened in my life that I haven’t written down…but I still think that journaling is very important.

The church that is in the graveyard is often void of tourists as well. Devout pilgrims make it back there to dip from the well that Mary purportedly drew from during the sojourn of the Holy Family in Egypt, but the large tourist groups never seem to make it back there.

Perhaps I’m complaining a bit much about tourists for someone who likes to go new places, but there is a difference between independent tourists and large tourist groups. I hope to continue to stay away from the latter.

We visited the Ben Ezra Synagogue, of course, and the Church of St. Sergius with the crypt of the Holy Family. We tried to visit the nunnery to see the chains of St. George but it was absolutely packed with people, so we didn’t.

It was a fairly relaxing day, as I predicted it would be last night. I suppose that is mainly my fault since I was losing steam and didn’t have the energy to hail a cab and go on any grand adventures.

I was nearly a walking zombie in the evening after tutoring but got my energy back after a good dinner and took my dad and Josie out to Road 9 to do some last-minute shopping. Rachel came out with us, too, even though we didn’t leave the house until after 9:00 PM! I don’t know how we’re ever going to make the switch from Arab to American time.

Ain Sokhna

After church on Friday we headed out to Ain Sokhna. Although we had been in December with Andrew’s family, we hadn’t stayed in the condo, or chalet as they call them here, since August, I believe. Everything was coated with a thick layer of sand that had blown in from the cracks around the doors and windows, large dead cockroaches were scattered about in various rigor mortified positions, and desert ants were parading around the front room.

It was as if the whole Sahara desert had decided to move in while we were gone.

We had brought our friend Nacia along, though, so we had five able bodies to help get the place back in order. We stuck the girls in the backyard—the one with self-control was allowed on the grass while the one without it was stuck in a play pen. After we had swept and dusted and made sure the water was working properly we decided to go to the beach, which isn’t ordinarily something we do on a Friday but sometimes we make exceptions to the rule.

The beach was beautiful, but crowded since it was so late in the day. We had had to walk nearly the whole way to the beach, which was a little taxing on some of us, and then when we got to the beach we found out that the last bus out to the chalet village would be leaving in a half hour.

I knew Rachel wouldn’t go for that since she was proudly proclaiming, “This is our new house! We moved here! And our backyard is a beach!”

Grandpa found, and caught, a crab which fascinated everybody.

Andrew got a little annoyed with the beach patrol. He likes to wear a shirt when he swims at the beach because he doesn’t like sunscreen but he doesn’t want to burn. Well, the “security” at the beach whistled at him when he was out in the water and told him that he couldn’t go into the water with his shirt on.

When he questioned why, the “security” guy told him it was to preserve the image of the beach for the tourists. They want the tourists to see the progressive side of the Middle East, I guess, and didn’t want Andrew spoiling that by being all modest and wearing a shirt while swimming. Andrew tried to fight it by saying that he was a tourist, but in the end he gave up and decided to be the one to take my dad and Josie back to the condo. So Nacia and I stayed with the girls.

Before leaving Josie remarked, “I don’t know why I’m so tired!”

“It’s called jet lag,” I said, “I don’t know why I’m so tired, though!”

“It’s called mother lag,” she said.

Oh, so true.

Nacia, Rachel, Miriam and I had a great time on the beach, although our fun was interrupted by an Arab family who wanted to see Miriam. The father is a top notch police officer who made me eat like a whole pound of cashews and the mother was absolutely smitten with Miriam and kept bragging about everything they owned. Each time she mentioned something that she had she would turn her face, raise her eyebrows, and say,

“Is that not the best? Is that not good? You are impressed, no?”

It was kind of…awkward. I suppose she was happy with her status as a rich Egyptian living in Lower Egypt since both she and her husband are from Upper Egypt, the population of which is typically very low class. They tried to make us promise to join them for dinner but we declined, pulling the “I don’t know if my husband will give me permission” card.

I don’t think that excuse would work in America, but it does the trick nicely here.

We left them when the sun started to set and hardly even got lost on the walk back to the condo. We had a quick dinner when we arrived, then put the girls to bed and played some games. The girls had a few problems falling asleep—they thought it was hilarious that they were both in the same room—but after awhile they settled down. I could still hear noises coming from the bedroom after the giggling had subsided so I popped in to check on them. Miriam was nearly asleep in the play pen and Rachel was lying on the bed.

“Shhhhh, Momma!” Rachel said, “I’m singing Miriam asleep!”

Soon they were both out, but we had them swap spots before we got in bed. Miriam is simply easier to sleep with than Rachel, so we put her into bed with us and had Rachel sleep in the play pen. In the morning she told everyone how funny it was that she slept in a crib.

We took the first bus out to the beach and stayed until 2:00. The water was just about warm enough to make me happy, but not quite. I did get in, though. Miriam ate a lot of sand. Nacia and Rachel played hard and built a sand castle. Andrew and Josie got buried in sand. Grandpa held Miriam a lot. We all should have reapplied sunscreen more often than we did.    

         

Andrew and Josie were actually standing up when we buried them. They had dug big holes and were standing in them, so we covered them, had them sit down, and then they laid down in the sand. The resulting sculptures were very awkward.

While we were working a girl came up to us to gush that Rachel was “insanely cute.” We totally agree.

We also think Miriam is cute, although we had to ban her from the sand after she started double-fisting it. She ate so much sand.

Later, when Nacia and Rachel were building their sandcastle some Egyptian kids built a sand-pyramid. It was awesome.

Then Rachel and Nacia started cooking sand-food and while Rachel was flipping some sand-pancakes she decided she’d sample some. She came running to me, begging for water and wondering why Miriam likes to eat the sand when it is so yucky. I had no answer.

Andrew finally ended up putting his books down long enough to go into the water (well, and to buried up to his neck in sand). He even kept his shirt on and the immodesty police (that would be the police promoting immodesty instead of modesty) didn’t blow the whistle on him. Probably because they were too chicken to blow the whistle on the ladies swimming in their burkas.

     

Josie and I finished the day with a relaxing swim. The water was warmer after the tide came in, I thought, and became a majestic blue. It was too tempting not to get in for one last dip.

When we got back to the condo, the girls were banished to the backyard again while everyone else packed up. This time they both got to play in the grass—I figured Miriam had eaten so much sand by this time that a few fistfuls of grass wouldn’t do her any harm.

Ain Sokhna is always the perfect way to spend a weekend. I wish we could go more often and will certainly miss the perk of a free beach condo when we get back to the States!