Fayoum

Last weekend I organised a trip to Fayoumwhich despite being "work" was relaly fun.
Fayoum is a town that sits on a lake to the West of the Nile about 1 1/2 hours drive South from Cario. We were staying in a small village called Tunis on the Southern end of the town and lake. We've diven through small villages before and walked through "real" parts in Cairo, but for me it was lovely to stay in a real village for a few days and I can't wait to share it with Scotty.
We stayed in an Eco-Lodge (read - very simple accommodation i.e. mud brick walls and no air-con) and spent most of our time in an Arts Centre.
Zad Al Mosafa was a good place to stay as it was dead cheap (double room using communal bathroom was 50LE a night, triple room with bathroom was 100LE a night and family room, five beds in two rooms with a bathroom was 160LE a night) and there was a communal grass area with chairs to hang out in, as well as a few bedouin tents too. Their restaurant was good too; sometimes you wonder if a restaurant is jut an add-on, but here the chef produced tasty grills for us two nights in a row and  a range of things for breakfast (including my first taste of fuul and of fiteer).
This Arts Centre was set up by an Egyptian artist and as well as hosting various art-y events it also houses the Cartoon Museum or political / news cartoons over Egypt's history. The cartoons are great and you get the idea of some of them even without the translations.
From the hotel there was also a pottery workshop and a stables. It was tempting to go horseriding around the lake which is apparently stunning, but I'll save that for another visit. The pottery workshops have grown up around the village of Tunis over the last few decades and ceramics from the town are often imported into Cairo (you can buy them on Road 9 for example!). In the few days were we visited three workshops and shops which had some beautifully light but large bowls all decorated with concentric patterns.
One nice thing about the weekend was simply walking through the village itself - everyone was friendly and it was a great way to see real Egypt as well as feel part of it, staying there for the weekend.