Day 3 in Cairo

*I've been having some trouble trying to upload pictures to this post, so I will come back and add them in later this week when I can work at the Dar where there is faster internet!*

On our last day in Cairo we woke up early again and went to the museum. I only have a picture from the outside because you are not allowed to take cameras inside.

The museum was very interesting. I will definitely have to go back because there's so much to see and I didn't make it through the whole thing in the 2 hours we were given. There were so many interesting artifacts. One of the coolest things I saw was the "pet mummy" room with mumified cats, dogs, crocodiles, and birds. There was also a human mummy room, but you had to pay extra to enter and I figured I'd be back with visitors from the states and go with them into the royal mummy room then. From what I hear from my fellow students, it was definitely worth the extra fee!

My second favorite room was the King Tut room. On display there is all the wonderful things found in King Tut's tomb- the most famous mummy of all time. This includes two beautiful gold sarcophagi and the famous gold mask. I also enjoyed the jewelry room- seeing all the fashions the women and men used to wear WAY back in the day.

After the museum, we went to lunch and then visited the Saladin Citadel. It was very beautiful, inside and out. When we first walked in the complex, there were people there set up to take a group photo of us which you could later purchase if you wanted to. There were people after us getting their photo taken who dressed up in Pharoah costumes, or like roman soldiers- from the same photo shop that was taking the picture. It was kind of funny to see people all decked out and taking their picture in front of the Citadel. We went into the mosque- so ladies had to cover their hair, and most of us had scarves handy for just such a reason. The inside of the mosque was beautiful. There were lamps all over the ceiling and the painting and decorations inside were absolutely stunning. We then stepped outside and go an amazing view of Cairo. I managed to take about 5 pictures to form a panoramic view, and I will try and connect those together and post the picture!

After the Citadel we drove and walked around the Coptic part of Cairo. We got to visit a church there as well. It was also very beautiful. It's hard for people to be Christian in Egypt, which is majority Muslim, and seeing these hardships and being in a country where one is definitely in the minority gives me a much greater respect for how minorities must feel in my own country. I bought an Arabic translation of the Bible while I was there. I've always wanted one and it will be useful to practice my reading skills.

After touring the Coptic area, we stopped at a perfume shop and got to smell a bunch of different essential oil perfumes. It was very nice- we all smelled amazing by the time the demonstration was done. Some of my favorite included lotus flower and jasmine. I ended up buying a scent called "secret of the desert" which has kind of an awkward backstory to it (ask me about the "upside down triangle" sometime) but it smells really good. I bought a small bottle and got a small glass perfume holder for free because we paid in a group of 4.

Finally, it was time to depart Cairo. We were already running two hours behind schedule. We stopped at a McDonalds for dinner. They had pre-ordered the meals, but they weren't ready, so we had to wait an hour at the McDonalds. Most of us passed the time by buying icecream or milkshakes. We actually live right down the street from a McDonalds in Alexandria. The food is actually very good, but it's a little on the pricey side considering you can get a great falafal sandwhich for like $1 most places around here. But McDonald's has free WIFI and it's a great place to get change for large bills.

Finally we got our food and got on the road. The bus was running very slow as usual and we decided to entertain ourselves by having a talent show of sorts- there was a lot of singing and slam poetry. My only real talent that I could contribute in that setting was being one of the only ones on the bus that knew all the lyrics to "Hey now, you're an All star," but you know, I do what I can! We stopped at a gas station almost half way through and once again our bus struggled to get up hill to the pumps, but we were eventually successful.

We finally arrived home around 2:00 am, 7 hours later than we were supposed to. Luckily, our teachers gave us an extra day to complete our homework since we were all exhausted and didn't have time to finish it when we got back!

An interesting side note about the trip in Cairo- we had a body guard with us on the bus while we were traveling, which is supposed to make tourists feel safer, but I think it may have a little bit of the opposite effect. He was nice though. Just another way life in Egypt is a little different.

I'm working on uploading my photos to a flickr account and then I will put a slideshow of picture on my blog so you can see more pictures. Hopefully it will be up and running soon!