More From Cairo

Two weeks ago Catherine, Alexa and I hung out with Mina and his friend Peter. They took us to Nile Bowling, one of the few places in Cairo where one can play the sport. We were going to have dinner there, but because of Ramadan they were not serving food. Instead we played a game of bowling. It turns out that Mina and Peter had never bowled before so we taught them how to play. Bowling was, and to some extent still, such a big part of the American pass time when I was a kid that knowing someone who had never bowled before was a little shocking. I like to think that because ofAlexa , Catherine and me, they were given a reason to try it. We had so much fun. I bowled the best game of my life with strikes and spares, but still managed a score around 80haha . I\'m pretty sure the bowling alley was Brunswick, but a very old Brunswick. It definitely brought me back to the days of parties at the bowling alley when I was in elementary school.

Later that night we went to Elwy Street in Tahrir Square. The entire street is filled with tables and chairs where people drink tea and smoke sheesha. We had a little bit of both. It was so relaxing because it provided a haven away from the hustle and bustle of the city at night. For the first time I saw a woman eat fire. This poor woman working to make pound put on a short show comprised of her swallowing fire and then blowing it back out. Mina told me she did this by swallowing gasoline. It was impressive.

A couple days later, a group of us met up with Mina and Marco to see the Citadel. Previously, Kathryn and I had tried to go, but the language barrier prevented it. The taxi man ended up taking us to a mosque close to Khan al Khalili. I don\'t know if it was because it was Friday, the holy day here, but he let us pay him whatever we wanted. This never happens. Usually you end up arguing over the price before getting in the cab. Kathryn and I, in our naivety of where the Citadel is located, assumed that that must\'ve been it. So we tried to figure out how to get in and decided our best option would be to walk down an alley that went in between the mosque. We were the only foreigners in the alley so I felt like I was experiencing \"real Cairo\"; I wasn\'t at the Khan al Khalili bazaar getting harassed by shop keepers to buy their goods. I saw some amazing things, like a old deteriorating minaret being held up by plywood. I wish I could\'ve taken pictures, but that would not have been appropriate. It is never a good idea to take pictures of people\'s poverty when they are watching you. Eventually we realized that we were in the wrong area, but we still had a great experience.

At the citadel we went into the Muhammed Ali mosque. It is amazing to walk into a place that you have only seen pictures of and to think of the history that passed around this splendid monument. The citadel has been around for centuries to protect Cairo and prohibit foreign invasion. Excitement filled my body as I took off my shoes to enter the courtyard in front of the mosque. You step inside and white marble surrounds you, even in the direct sunlight it was cool beneath my feet. In the mosque it was dark, the only light coming from outside. Every aspect of what I had learned about theMuhammed Ali mosque in my Islamic Art class last year jumped out. The minbar, where the imam rises above the crowd to preach, the mihrab facing Mecca and the domes painted with non human designs. You will see what I am taking about in my pictures. It turns out that the view from the Citadel provides the best view of the city. You can see the pyramids, they look like tiny triangles.

From the Citadel we went to \"Garbage City\" to see the monastery carved out of the side of the mountain in Cairo. Honestly, the mountain isn\'t a mountain, more like a big rock. But also my idea of a mountain means it has snow on top :) But the monastery was beautiful even though it was set in such a dirty area; the diamond in the rough ;p The smell of garbage never goes away and with the heat I can only imagine how horrid it must smell when there are hundreds of people sitting in the seats. It is actually a relatively new religious building, with presidentMubarak\'s name carved into one of the rocks.