Well I have 3 month of no posts I need to make up for so let the novel begin......

From my last post I was just getting back from my end of April trip to Sharm el-Sheikh.  For the next month I mainly just worked, besides a few weekend trips to Cairo.  I really enjoy coming to Cairo for a weekend every once in a while.  I stay in an area called Maadi which has a lot of expats from around the world.  There are places such as the Ace Club (American Club) or the British Club where a lot of expats go for drinks and food on the weekends.  My company has a flat in Maadi that I am allowed to use from time to time so that is a very nice perk.  There are a lot of tourist activities to do in Cairo, however I haven’t done as many as I would have hoped so far.  Some places I have been are the Citadel and Khan al-Khalili market.

The Citadel is a fortress that was built hundreds of years ago (construction started around 1200).  This fortress has multiple museums and a few mosques.  The large mosque in the Citadel is the mosque of Mohammed Ali.  This mosque took 18 years to build and is a beautiful building.  Whenever I go to places of history in Egypt it really makes me think on how young America is compared to other countries.  Egypt has history that dates back thousands of years and America was discovered in the 1400-1500s (I think).  Another note worthy point of the Citadel is that it has a great view of the city of Cairo.

The Khan al-Khalili is the most famous tourist market in Cairo.  A lot of expats try to avoid this area because it is known as a tourist trap.  The market is fun in small doses.  You can only handle so much of people coming up to you and hassling you every 5 seconds.  The only way to get through the market is to not acknowledge people and you have to be mean.  I know that sounds horrible but if you are just a nice tourist and talk to everyone that approaches you, you will be in the market all day and night.  There are so decent shops in Khan al-Khalili but most of the shops have junk for sale.  In my experience the best tourist shopping is on Road 9 in Maadi.