Up early, falafel for breakfast from Felfella and then spent most of the day getting student cards with fake IDs from a Brazilian university, which we downloaded and edited on the computer, it took flipping ages – over two hours in the internet café and then walking to the centre were they issued them (without really looking at our carefully crafted IDs at all) but at least the ISIC cards are real! Let the discounts roll in.
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| From Cairo, Mother of all Cities, Egypt |
After we finished with the IDs we walked a flipping long way in the energy sapping heat to the Northern Cemetery thinking it was Friday, which is when lots of relatives of the buried go to visit them and have picnics with their families (the living and the dead). It was a beautiful area full of flaking buildings, mosques and spires, the light from the slowly setting sun washing everything in a soft warm apricot.
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| From Cairo, Mother of all Cities, Egypt |
We hurried over to Al Azhar Park which overlooks the city and sits on the edge of Islamic Cairo. We made it just in time to watch the sunset behind the city skyline from a gorgeous green hill in the park. After being shooed off the grass by one of the guards we carried on wandering around the park, which was huge, beautifully planned and very well kept. Feeling really hungry and a fair way from anywhere cheap we decided to have dinner in the expensive citadel restaurant. Having a fat day we pushed the boat out and ordered a traditional Egyptian dish; stuffed pigeon (pronounced biggeeon) with rice and a big combo starter with the most amazing garlic mayonnaise all of which was accompanied by baskets of puffy pitta bread type things with home-made hummus and washed down with our warm bottled water (we had to draw the line somewhere). I was scratched by an ungrateful cat while trying to point to the piddling little pigeon carcass we tossed it because it didn't stop meowing for food the whole time there was food on the table. The cat aside, the meal was absolutely gorgeous, and a welcome break from all the falafel, we sat near the edge of the balcony outside with a great view of the park all lit up in the dark.
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| From Cairo, Mother of all Cities, Egypt |
After a lot of hassle and a fruitless attempt to find a bus we ended up getting a small taxi, which was called a mini bus, back into town with a family, the eldest son drove the car his teenage brother and sister together in the front and us in the back with their adorable, lovely mum, she was big and squishy and very very sweet. There was a beautiful atmosphere in the car, a bit hard to put down on paper because we didn't say much despite a small conversation with the mama, but we left with big smiles on our faces. We got lost on the way home all the streets looking the same but eventually made it back to rest our weary bodies and go to sleep.
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