trip to Cairo!

so, i had the incredible opportunity of going to Cairo this month. it was a really neat vacay and included such an interesting mix of Western and Arab. greater Cairo has just under 20 million folks, so it is definitely the largest city i have ever been in. it was interesting in a lot of ways since i am living in another Arab country...you know, the similiarities and differences. i was totally excited the evening i got there, cause my friend that i stayed with offered me in opportunity to go with her to her Egyptian friend's house--which i absolutely loved (probably one of the main highlights). i just have grown to love the Arab culture. it was funny, cause i felt at home in Cairo. although my Arabic didn't translate exactly (which was kind of tough on me), it just seemed familiar. so, below i got to go to a famous (at least amongst the expats for sure) restaurant that felt like a piece of Americana! there was George Strait on the radio, a leather vest on our waiter, and biscuits and gravy! yummy! i had to order the waffle, mushrooms, and biscuit and gravy ala carte, cause i really wanted to try each of them:)then we moved onto the pyramids and sphinx! it was absolutely incredible. quite surreal, too. i was so happy cause it was nice, warm, and sunny! below i am in front of the Great Pyramid, the largest of the three. it was suprising how close the site was to the city, but you have to remember that the Nile actually ran right up next to the pyramids at one point in time.this guy was such a cutie. thankfully he (maybe she) belonged to one of the security officers, so we didn't get hassled about taking a photo with him (or get asked to pay). he (or she) decided to cheese it up with me for the photo--what a great photo opp! :)here, i am actually up next to ruins from one of the widow's pyramid. they were much smaller in comparison to the other larger ones, but they had the same blocks (meaning huge, rock blocks) that were used for the three larger pyramids. i don't think you can really climb all over the big 3, so i climbed up here to give you some perspective on just how large these blocks are and how intense building these great structures must have been! amazing!on the way to the middle pyramid, i opted to take a camel ride. for some reason the guy (photographed here to the left) decided that he wanted to ride with me, but that is kind of not very respectable in this culture and for some reason seemed to want to take advantage of the situation to ride with me. my fabulous friend insisted that this was not appropriate and i actually only rode for a few steps, got my photo opp and we walked the rest of the way. oh well. no big deal. at least i got the infamous shot! :)we walked up to the rear of the site so i could take some photos from behind. i was just so excited to be there and in awe of it all. jumping for joy here:mio and my fabulous tour guide/hostess with the mostess. she grew up in AR, too. we had a great time talking with each other about our experiences in northern Africa and encouraging one another. it was really refreshing to have this time with her as we could relate on some things and even talk about AR and understand what each other was talking about (she was like a piece of home:). it was truly a blssing to be with her indeed. thanks, thanks, thanks T! so, then more food fun! they had this insanely huge mall that had all kinds of restaurants, including On the Border. we just don't have any mexican restaurants here for some reason, so that was a major priority for me: fish tacos, chips and salsa, and queso!

then we went to a cinema in the mall--that was playing Body of Lies in English (with Arabic subtitles). it was a blast. i enjoyed some Starbucks during the movie (decaf mind you:) and also flipped out when i saw shots of my city in the movie! also, we could understand most of the Arabic in the movie, so that was really fun, too.

the next day i walked down to the mall/shopping area in my friend's hood. i found a scrabble game that is in Arabic! i was so excited! then i met up with my friend for some local cuisine: koushery and foul are pictured below. both were extremely tasty and really inexpensive.oh, then it was the next morning stop at this bagel place! this is the cinnamon crunch bagel with strawberry philly cream cheese! i went back for another--we just don't have these here either. it was so, so good!
i was really suprised to see all the Christmas decorations around Cairo. it was really fun thought, too. many stores had decorations for sale and also their store decorated! 'Tis the Season!then, i went down town to the big museum. it was incredible. i couldn't take any photos inside, but here is the entrance with a statue. there were so many tombs, mummy cases, etc. there! it was incredible and i was really excited that the King Tut exhibit was present and didn't cost extra:) wow, really.
then we went to the market (like our medina) to do some shopping and there were a couple of some of the oldest mosques in the city there. it was interesting to see the different architecture of their mosques than of ours here.

the last night there we went to go take a boat ride on the Nile, but the wind wasn't moving. we opted out, which was cool--next time! i did get to get some water from the nile though to take with me.
it was an incredible trip that provides me so many memories. i still can't believe i got to go really. very, very thankful indeed!