Sandy has decided that she likes Cairo. It was the food and the pyramids. It wasn't the wine. I had two small glasses of the Egyptian wine before dinner that we bought yesterday and didn't want any more of any kind of wine at dinner. I've been drinking beer. Stella (not Artois) seems to be the best Egyptian beer and it outshines their wine :). Finding beer and wine is not easy, however ! except when you're in the Marriott.
The pyramids were great. We learned a lot. For one thing, sphinx's are few and far between, perhaps only two of them ? Pyramids number over 100 and that's only counting the ones that haven't completely been absorbed by the desert. Oh yes, and that pyramid in the middle of the desert ... not so much. You have to take pictures from the desert side and block out the huge city encroaching on the opposite side. Such is progress; such is civilization.
Dusty. Noisy. Drab. However, once you get used to the different culture, the people are great and the food, as I mentioned before, is very good. Hummus, kabobs, different spices (but not necessarily hot, per se), chicken, beef, lamb ... hard to find pork. Lots of eggplant, lots of fruit but I haven't been sampling the fruit so much, and other veggies abound. The breakfast spread here at the Marriott is amazing.
The tour yesterday included lunch and we went to a place that was obviously frequented by other tour guides with a good buffet of local food and some plain. I had to chuckle at the obviously uncomfortable tourists eating plain spaghetti. When in Rome/Cairo/anywhere ... eat as if you were back home ... whereas we revel in the different tastes and smells. My stomach doesn't always want to put up with it but that could be just as much due to the volume as well as the change, or perhaps it's the beer ?
Chatting with our guide, he made an addition to our route to a rug store where we received an education on hand made rug making. A fellow was working on a design on a big loom and his fingers were flying ... fascinating. And ... and ... we're now carrying back a new rug for the living room in Florida ... great, I guess. The price was right and the one in Florida is permanently stained by Cassie. Now how will we keep her off the new one ?
Today we'll hit the local market, do some more street wandering, eat at a close-by local restaurant again (not here at the Marriott, although we did eat at their Egyptian restaurant last night), and tomorrow we head back to Tel Aviv. It's an all day trip via Athens, where we spend several hours in that airport.
Onward.
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