Screw the gym, let's go to the roof!

Cairo can be a stressful place. Cairo can be a place that offers very few, obvious, ways to release your stress. Before I left I ran into a friend at a wedding who had been here for a few months, he cautioned me that one day I would need to lock myself up in a room and get pissed drunk. He was right, but luckily you can find places to go out and get piss drunk because getting completely wasted behind closed doors is to close to alcoholism for me, a wee bit sad.

Alas, there are other ways to relive stress. I suddenly started reading like I used in middle school. Once again I am finishing a book in a day, stealing them from friends with decent taste, and even buying some from Virgin Megastore. Buying from such a sick store is a little depressing, but then again I do drink Starbucks coffee now. Next stop Abercrombie & Fitch to completely round off my middle school rehashing.

Katie and I also discovered the rooftop is the next best thing to a gym. In our best effort to emulate a circuit workout we ran up some stairs and proceeded to rock out on the roof, working on our fitness. Paul was there to document the event on digi film.

Ipods. Sync'd

Figuring out double jump roping.

If you would like to try for yourself, I do suggest you do, you will need one ipod per person, one jump rope, headbands, spandex, and one rooftop. Sync ipods and start the same song at the same time. Now alternate between jump roping, alone or together, and running around in circles on the roof. Running’s benefits are increased with occasional fist pump in the air in time to your sweet tunes. For added enjoyment give your workout buddy an encouraging high-five when you pass each other running. Continue for 20-30 minutes. Add some lunges, a few push-ups, and don’t forget to stretch. Wash, rinse, repeat- presto fitness!


One day we might be brave enough to conduct an aerobics class in the street, but I think I might have to be piss drunk to attempt this. In all my years of athletic performance I have not worked out drunk, something tells me Egypt is not the best place to start.

Akon in Cairo

Akon had a concert in Cairo, Hend got us tickets, three stages collapsed, and fun was had my all!

One Thursday night Denise, Hend went to go see Akon, Senegals finest rapper, at the Cairo opera house. After hustling our way into the VIP raised seating area we watched as hundreds of tween worried about weather or not their crush was standing nearby, if their shoes really did match their belts, how cool they looked smoking their cigarettes, and if the girl nearby noticed that they were standing on a chair dancing. After about one hour of this, we got there way to early, a loud crash, crash, plop, planky, crash, crash was heard at the front of the VIP section rapidly moving towards the back. Hend, Denise, and I moved quickly, not running because you should not run in mob situations, off the stage. As soon as we were off and had a clear view underneath the platform, shotily constructed of two-by-fours and rusty nails, we realized the whole front right corner had caved in. Couches, rugs and probably a few people went with it. Looking around it did not seem anyone was hurt; there were a few tween tears, but no ambulance sirens and the music did not stop. The three of us walked across the main floor to the second VIP section on the other side.


Once there we looked to our right, away from stage, and realized the exact same thing had happened in the third VIP section. Glad to be in the second we decided to get up front and waited for Akon. Turns out Akon got stuck in traffic and was super late, but while we were waiting the second stage collapsed right after Denise, Hend and I decided it was time to move to the floor and mingle with the commoners. Lucky we moved when did, Akon arrived, lip-synched an energetic concert, and fun was had by all.



What you must take from the concert is that it exemplified everything there is to love and hate about Cairo.

HATE-Three stages collapsed, people were hurt, there was almost no disaster response.
LOVE-No one was visibly shouting at innocent ushers, the music did not stop, the concert was not shut down, and anger was not a present emotion.

HATE-Akon was nearly three hours late because he was stuck in traffic, logically everyone knows there is horrible traffic on a Thursday night so logically you would have the star of the conert leave early, right? Wrong!!!!! That is definitely something to hate, no logic.
LOVE-None of the hip-hop loving tweens threw stuff at the craptastic opening act, no one left, no one demanded money back and people were still excited when he arrived on stage ultra late.

In summation when crap goes wrong people accept it and find away to deal. This is good because people have patients and understanding. Still, most of what goes wrong in this country could be stopped with the application of a little logic and thought out planning. Most importantly I truly believe that people do not change things unless they can no longer accept them. If you live in a country where people can accept crap like three stages collapsing in an area where people paid over 1000 pounds to sit then you are accepting to much. Egyptians accepts too much from their government, from the USA, and from their own people.

Mom in Egypt-Coptic Cairo

Cairo has a fairly large Coptic minority. I know less about this religion than I do Islam, and that ain't a lot. But, it is a similar branch to other Orthodox Christianities like Greek, Russian Etc. Mom and I thought we would check it out. We took a cab to a metro and got off right in front of one of the larger churches. The whole area was a breath of quite and fresh air. There were a few tour buses, but nothing compared to Luxor. All in all we had a glorious time wandering around the neighborhood and I got a sweet vintage Chinese cigarette case with a lighter on top. Awesome.

View South on the Nile. In between Rhoda Island, on the left, and Coptic Cairo.

Mom on a bridge gazing at the Nile.

Yeah Jews in Cairo!!

Graveyard, huge tombs!

The graveyard behind one of the larger churches.

Hands down the creepiest depiction of Christ ever. I think it is a real tree, oh man!

Jesus' path and travels around Egypt.

Inside one of the Coptic Churches.

Mosaics inside the church and they are all made from tiny colored tiles. Just like the name mosaic implies.

Mom in Egypt-The Sphinx

The Sphinx is about nine billions times cooler than the pyramids and I have already posted pictures of those too. Hence the two pictures of the Sphinx. Enjoy.

Mom in Egypt-Luxor III

The Egyptian version of a single speed. Sort of.

A duck in the stone, this one is for Nan Krafft who loves ducks.

Mom in Egypt-Luxor II

The street our hotel was on. Luckily for mom, Paul, and Katie the hotel's roof top had the cheapest beers in town. I cannot drink Stella, it is worse that Natty Ice. For those of you that have ever been to a high school or college keg you know and hate the taste of Natty Ice. I really cannot even believe I am capitalizing its name. Ugh.

The matching one is in Paris. Of course the one there is painted and I think capped in gold.
Of course.

View of Luxor Temple from outside the gates.

Karnak.

Karnak.

Tourists at Karnak.

My favorite tourist at Karnak. Genius.

The main entrance to Karnak Temple, two square kilometers (see how ex-patty I am? Kilometers, God damn metric system) of ancient carved religious themed rocks.

A line of sphinxes that used to border the ancient road to the temple. Now, the sphinxes line a rather squalid looking neighborhood that Mother Dear was fascinated by.

I am still wondering if this art is about the various ways the pious travel to Mecca or a thinly veiled homage to 9-11. I am guessing the earlier choice is correct and I feel less like a paranoid American when I assume that it is not a reference to 9-11.

The street along the Nile, lined with five-star Nile cruise boats, tourist cafes, feluccas, and various hagglers offering mom and I camels to see each other off into some sort of arranged marriage. We were there on Valentine's Day, love was in the air. albeit puritanical Muslim love involving camels and a gross fascination with women's hair because they are deprived.

Luxor Temple at night. Me and the Moms did not go in, we walked around it a few times and figured that was enough. You can really only see so much old stuff in three days.

The fertile Nile River Delta. I cannot even tell you how refreshing all the green was.