Today was Old Cairo day. We would see the old Christian and Jewish section with some Roman ruins to boot. Most frightening we were to take the Cairo subway. I dreaded the thought. It had been Ken’s intention to slip the government provided security guards that morning. We were to assemble in the hotel lobby and quietly sneak out in twos and threes to meet Soha near the Egyptian Museum. Then we were to proceed to the Subway station. This would be an adventure even for Soha, who though living in the city for all her life had never used it. Ken’s cover had been blown. Wallid was there and might have blown him in. I’m not sure why Ken doesn’t want security tagging along. He did it successfully once the last trip I was on for a walk through the Cairo Bazaar.
Wallid also bore some rather bad news. The police had denied our permit to camp in the desert. The Egyptian army had previously granted the permit but the local police had butted in. It turned out that the President of Egypt was visiting the area. I’m guessing that might have been part of the denial. Also an Al-qaida cell had recently been busted. Whatever the reason no Americans were allowed to camp in the desert. After much arguing that the ruling was unfair, citizens of all countries were denied overnight access.
With our Egyptian secret agent leading the way we managed to get to the subway station. There was only one beggar, a woman, who sat on the steps to the station. The station was clean and modern. The one-pound fair might also have been too steep for many. Squeezing onto the subway train proved difficult, it was reminiscent to the crowded Japanese trains that required dedicated people pushers. Charles and I were split up. I stayed with Ken, not seeing that Charles had already gotten on the train. We only stayed on the train for four stops. At each stop the train got less crowded. It was very comfortable by the time we reached our exit.
Right outside the train station was a Roman tower. It was impressively tall and even more so when you looked down to see how much of the tower had been buried by the rising ground level. The Nile had once been near this tower and had undoubtedly guarded commerce along it. Over time the course of the river changed.
Near the ruins were several Coptic Christian churches; one built so close to the ruins as almost to hang over it. Security was tight at all these places. Guards were posted at every corner.
The first church we saw was the hanging church. It was the seat of the Coptic’s version of the Pope. It is surprisingly small, but very ornate. It resembled an Eastern Orthodox Church. Parts of the church had been taken from Roman temples. A slab of porphyry was used in the decoration of the pulpit. The Church had a small gift shop where I bought mom her rosary, we had failed to get one last trip. I also bought a couple Coptic crosses for gifts at work.
We visited a couple other small Coptic Churches, a Coptic museum and a rather heavily guarded Jewish Temple none of these places allowed photography. There are only a hundred or so Jews left in Egypt and this Temple was now just a historical monument.
Dinner was on our own that night so we headed over to the Hilton Center for a bite at McDonald’s. To Charles surprise he successfully ordered two hamburgers with ketchup only. The food was very good, though the meat in the quarter-pounder was merely acceptable. It was extremely cheap, even cheaper than a McDonald’s at home.
Across from the McDonald’s was a movie theater. We saw “The Book of Eli” in theater number one. Theater number one was huge, almost as large as an IMAX screen. It resembled the large Holiday Showcase Theater of old. However this one had a stage and stage lighting. They must hold live performances there too. The seats looks like had once been luxurious but now were worn and broken. I had to move into a new seat. I imagine this is what the Holiday Showcase Theater would look like now if they hadn’t been torn down.
The picture quality was excellent. The sound however was a problem. The center channel speaker, which handles all dialog, kept cutting in and out. The actors spoken words would cut in an out, becoming incomprehensively muddled. Since almost all the movies there were in English this must not have been a problem for them. Everyone was reading the sub-titles. Needless to say this perturbed us, but we muddled through.
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