*** Friday, 19May06 ***
Today, I took the Metro one stop and then walked to the Ibn Tulun mosque and then on to the base of the Citadel and then to the Islamic Art Museum and to the Metro for one more stop and back to the hotel. The route to the Ibn Tulun mosque is littered with very old mosques that are standing but in need of serious repair. Some of these mosques are from the 9th century when Europe was in its Dark Ages.

The courtyard of the Ibn Tulun mosgue.

For the first time on my many trips, I knew where I was every minute of the way. My route was new, what I saw was new but I was sure of my location at all times. I am getting the grip of getting around this city -- finally.

*** Saturday, 20May06 ***
Went looking for Egyptian fridge magnets for Jarrod and Samantha -- and found them. I went to the famous market here, the Khan al-Khalili which originally (in the 1300s) was a caravansary. Today it is a huge mass of small shops selling everything imaginable, including Egyptian-themed refrigerator magnets. The Khan is a great place to shop or just to observe the bustle of street life. Fortunately, the streets are too narrow for cars so you only have to cope with buyers and sellers and tourists. It is a lot of fun.

*** Monday, 22May06 ***
After work I walked over to AUC Bookstore hoping they had a book of maps of Cairo. I never did find out because as I was about to enter the campus, a sandy-haired young man with a red, scruffy beard spoke to me, pointed at my Boston College cap, and asked me if I had gone to BC. He said his name was Peter.

We talked a lot, for an hour and twenty minutes. OK, I talked a lot! But he did get to speak and told me what campus life is like at BC these days. Apparently a lot of things have changed since my days there. Peter is a Junior and spending a semester abroad in Cairo. It has apparently taught him to appreciate BC a lot.After eating at the local KFC, I walked under Tahrir Square and on my way out I met two of the pool guys entering the Metro. They were quite friendly, we shook hands twice.

*** Tuesday, 23May06 ***
Tonight I decided to go back to the AUC bookstore to get the map of Cairo that I wanted. I gave my photocopy of my passport to the guards and they let me in.

The minaret of the Ibn Tulun mosque with its unique outside staircase.

As I turned the corner I met Peter again. We both laughed. He asked why I was there and I said that I was trying to complete the task that I had interrupted to talk to him yesterday. I pulled out a personal card and gave it to him and he laughed when he saw my five-year-old image and said he would send me an email.

I went to the bookstore and found the book of maps of Cairo that I wanted. I also looked for "Learn Arabic" computer resources but found nothing that I think I could use. I did find out about two bookstore in Talaat Harb Square that might be worth visiting.

One guy behind the counter of the bookstore had a Mac laptop! I asked if it was so and he admitted it. I told him that I had a 17-inch PowerBook that I thought was the only one in Egypt and he said that he had the newer Intel model. I asked if he knew that he could run Windows on it and he said that he did. "I only do it for games," he said, I prefer the Mac interface for other work." A very savvy guy in Cairo.

When I go out on my hotel room patio, I look out to the West of the city but, after dark, I am blinded by the lights the hotel has set up to flood light the hotel and bring out its pink color. It is a symbol of something: I can see distances but am blinded by the lights that flatter the building.

*** Thursday, 25May06 ***
Les had a going away party at the Marriott which I noticed has cheaper prices for food. I was pleased to learn that there is a possibility that the Marriott might become our preferred hotel. I would enjoy staying at the Marriott rather than the Semiramis. The sunsets at the Semiramis are, unquestionably, spectacular but there is more to living than sunsets. I am ready for a new ambience and cheaper prices in the restaurants.

The Peskiness of Flies
Flies in Egypt think humans are here to entertain them. When they land on your nose and you swat at them, they assume you want them on your ear. When you swat them there, they take it as a message to change ears and another swat tells them to land on your forehead, then on to the short hairs on the back of your neck, and so on. This process generally results in you flailing about like a deranged windmill with judgement so damaged that you slap your ear so hard that produce a ringing sensation. The fly thinks this is hysterical. Your opinion may differ.

*** Friday, 26May06 ***
This morning I had breakfast in the Cafe. Met Marcia, Bill and his wife. Les stopped by and we wondered how Bob was doing. Paul told me last night that Bob had passed out in the hotel elevator and the car stopped at a floor and the doors opened and a woman was left to view Bob sprawled on the floor -- a scene that only Alfred Hitchcock could love. Marcia gave Les Bob's room number and Les said he would call and check up on him.

A young man in a shop doorway.

Mohamed had told me that there was a mall called El Yamama in Zamalek that had a shop that sold nice men's shirts (i.e., shirts for nice men) and they were out of the main tourist areas so they wouldn't rip me off. Today I set off to find the rumored shop by walking up the Nile Corniche to the 6th of October Bridge, over the bridge and then North into the Zamalek neighborhood of Gazira. I was very impressed with the neighborhood; it was quiet, shady, and had nice housing. It is also home to a lot of Embassies. Zamalek is definitely the nicest residential neighborhood I have discovered to date.

On my way I found some very pleasant shopping areas and stopped into several shops to look at the merchandise. The shop keepers were very accommodating and not the least bit obnoxious. I even found a reasonably priced Hand of Fatima, one of the few things that I had been asked to find.

On my travels I walked past a store with a fascinating display. The store was open-fronted with a glass case parallel to the street. In the case were two shelves. The front of the case was not vertical but angled back so the top shelf of the case was a lot smaller than the bottom shelf. The top shelf contained a dried starfish, a ceramic row boat, a woven animal and other tacky bric-a-brac. Below this were large cuts of beef. I asked if I could take a picture but the owner told me (with motions only) that the images were state secrets (kind of like the Bush administration keeps classifying everything as top secret) so I could not record the scene for your edification.

I located the street the mall was on but walked to the end without finding it but the walk was so pleasant that I didn't care. I walked on to the Northern tip of the island and then turned around for my second go at finding El Yamama. This time I was luckier and located the mall. It was about five stories tall but had only about six shops -- none of them selling men's shirts (nice or not). I still didn't care as I had seen several men's shops on my journey. Soon I will do some comparative shopping and prepare for the big moment of an actual purchase.

On my walk I took a lot of pictures including shots of a boy, a young man and an older man. I asked each if I could take their picture and each nodded agreement and none asked me for a payment. Altogether a very pleasant experience.

*** Saturday, 27May06 ***
I was up fairly early and decided to eat in the Cafe and headed off to Manyal Palace Museum. It is a fortress of a place on Roda Island with the "treasures" of the collection of the last royalty of Egypt. The included mosque was quite beautiful so I took some pix and got the

A ceiling in El Manyal Palace.

inevitable tour that was ninety percent in Egyptian followed by the inevitable tip. It was then that I realized I had only three one-hundred pound notes left. Way too much to tip with and change was out of the question. I skipped the stuffed animal collection (PETA would be proud of me) and visited the house and looked around. Dark and designed to be impressive but not my cup of tea. The garden had once been filled with exotic plants but had been allowed to go to seed. All in all, a not very good day.

I used the maps I had and failed to find the very old mosque that was in the neighborhood and turned down a street thinking it would take me to the Nile but instead I found the mosque. I think I found it because the entrance was five feet below the current ground level and that is a common happening to old buildings but there were no English signs and I couldn't risk being asked for a tip if I went in. I did notice that the minaret had been updated with vertically placed neon lights circling near the top so I'm sure I can find it again if I want to.

Well, the day was getting hotter so I went back to the hotel and went to the pool to get some sun. I used the time to edit an important document that needed a good edit. But would anybody notice?