Coptic Cairo and Iskanderia

I visited Coptic Cairo the other day. My friends Mina and Marco took Kathryn and I to see famous churches in Cairo. To get there we took the metro, which was my first ride on the train. It was similar to the El in Chicago, except the lack of air conditioning. It only costs a pound to ride, that’s less than fifty cents!

We saw one church dedicated to St. George. I couldn’t figure out if it was called St. George, but there were statues, murals and paintings of him everywhere. I took a picture of the instruments used to torture him. We also went into the chapel where people were praying; I had to take off my shoes before entering. It’s interesting because there really is no set way to pray. One guy was singing, others whisper. The shackles that held St. George hung in the room and if you touch them they are supposed to expel evil spirits from your body.

Another church was famous for the way it was built. It’s a hanging church; there are places in the floor where you can see the ground meters below you. The church was built for the Virgin Mary. I think in the first church the blessed couple lived in the bottom of the church to escape threats on the baby Jesus’ life.

Later we went to a grand park called Al-Azhar Park. It was gorgeous, a paradise in the congestion of the city. It was green, with sloping hills and water fountains. We played cards on the grass during which ants crawled over my feet, into my shoes and into my skirt. Not gonna lie, I was freaking out just a little bit. ☺

Alexandria 1

It took three hours to get to Alexandria by bus. We had to be at the buses at 8:30, I fortunately slept most of the way there. We had lunch at one of Alexandria’s touristy bazaars. They served us each half of a chicken. Delicious! After lunch we made it to the amphitheater, which was not as impressive as I thought it was going to be. The majority of it is in ruin. However, if you stand in a certain section of the theater and say something you can hear it echo, but no one else can. It’s cool and eerie. Finally we made it to our hotel. For the rest of the day we had free time so we went to the beach as the sun was setting and drank tea.


Alexandria Day 2

Today we went to the Quait Bay Citadel, Catacombs and a fish restaurant called Fish Market. The citadel was right on the ocean and it had a beautiful view. The oldest mosque in Alexandria resides within its walls. The catacombs were incredible. To me it seems mind boggling at the structures built underground. I can only imagine how one went about digging so deep into the ground and creating such grand rooms. The years and man power is beyond me. Lunch at the Fish Market was excellent, considering I’m not a huge fan of fish. The fish was completely whole on the plate: head and tail intact. Definitely fresh. After taking a nap, six of us went out to dinner to Elite, a nice American dinner type restaurant in down town Alexandria. My friend Mina met us there and then we went to Marmour, a new neighborhood in Alexandria. Marmour means to build from scratch. The neighborhood was built about five years ago. It is a bunch of nice condo high rises that people rent out for vacation. To get there we took our first “mega bus” ride. We meant Mina’s uncle, aunt and cousin in their apartment. They were very friendly and they gave us tea. Then we walked to the beach and four people decided to go back to the hotel. Kathryn and I stayed and ended up having hookah on the beach. We were so close to the water the waves were touching our feet. Mina’s sister and sister’s husband stopped by for a while. We had an interesting conversation on religion where Kathryn and I tried to explain Mormonism. The sound of the sea was so soothing. We got back to the hotel around 2:30 am. It was a fantastic evening.

Alexandria 3

The last day in Alexandria we left the hotel in the morning and visited the Alexandria Library. The structure is not much to look at from the outside, but inside is beautiful. The layout is angled so you can see the whole library from each floor. All the lighting is natural during the day. Jameela! The rest of the day was spent on the bus.