Iftar at Hussein Mosque and Kahn El-Khalili

This evening we were invited by some friends to visit the square outside the Mosque of Sayyidna al-Hussein at sunset to witness Iftar. We arrived at about 5.30pm to take in the build-up to sunset (including the continuous stream of bread deliveries), and as the call from the Mosque went out just after 6pm were there to see everyone breaking their fast.

We then took a walk around the streets and alleyways of Khan El-Khalili after dark, stopping at the legendary Fishawi coffee shop. According to local lore, it has been open continuously (as in 24/7) for the last 240 years without every closing its doors. This may explain the constant stream of people moving through - both as customers and hawkers bent on selling their souvenirs and henna tattoo designs to the ever-present tourists. Locals do, however, frequent the coffee shop for a drink or a shisha and it was interesting to note that they were in the significant minority when we first arrived as they were still breaking their fast. Soon, however, the place really began to fill up.

We wandered some more streets for a while, but later took a taxi back to the nearby metro station which returned us to Maadi. All in all, a thorough assault on the senses, alngside great company.

UKNova Radio: Our first show from Cairo

Tonight we broadcast our first internet radio show from Cairo. Despite the problems we've experienced with Skype, the radio held up pretty well and only dropped out once. Right-click the link below and select "Save target as..." to download the 2 hour show (55MB) to your PC.

Download podcast here.

Alternatively, stay on this website and listen to the show in the MP3 player below:

www.otlob.com

It calls itself a "free online food ordering service" so we decided we'd try ordering some food online for free. We paid for the food, obviously, but not for the ordering service. Hooray!

We can guarantee that this was totally unscripted...we didn't know they'd call!

You and Me and the Bottle Makes Three Tonight, Baby!

We've had a bit of a nostalgia-fest this weekend (if indeed it's possible to get nostalgic over something that only happened 7 weeks ago), but here's another video from the wedding courtesy of Jan: Soul Calibre, with yours truly on guitar and vocals, performing "You and Me and the Bottle Makes Three Tonight, Baby!" by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.

A Maadi Friday

I went out for a walk on Friday morning to find the Kimo Market - which is a rival to the Soudi Market on Road 253. We were told the Kimo Market is better as it sells maple syrup! Kimo does indeed sell maple syrup, and Oreo cookies and the fruit and veg looks better than at Soudi - but the fruit and veg here is outside, beside a main roundabout, rather than inside at Soudi, so I'm still undecided about the winner in this competition.
Here are a few photos I took on my expedition that show how quiet things are on a Friday morning.

Here are a few photos that I took that afternoon when we ventured over the Metro line and were in "proper Cairo". Between the houses they hang up decorations for Ramadan.

The other side of Maadi

This afternoon we decided to visit Road 9 in Maadi to try to find a linen shop we'd been told about. We knew was that it was "over the bridge from Road 9" but, having no real idea of where we were looking, we just decided to wander around to try to find it. We never did actually find it, but we did have the video camera with us so shot some footage of the streets where we were walking.

It was a very different "type" of place to where we live - more hectic, and generally more "front line" than the wealthy area around the Grand Mall. If we were confident about our health we would certainly have bought some food for later but instead just took in the sights , sounds and smells for a quarter of an hour.

The streets were full of shoppers and hawkers; kids were playing football in dusty courtyards; lots of people spoke to us but, having yet to pick up much of the language, all we could really say was "hello" and "Ramadan Kareem" (rough translation: Happy Ramadan; more accurate translation: May Allah make your Ramadan period generous). Greetings and faith here are almost inseparable. Even the basic formal greeting for "hello" (is salaam 'alaykum) has a literal translation of "Peace be upon you". Anyway I'm sure that in time we'll get a real chance to learn and practice Arabic.

Something else we noticed when we were walking around were the amount of people seeking the charitable form of baksheesh. It's something we've discussed previously on the blog but as we haven't been out much, today was our first chance to really be able to "share the wealth". I bought my first handy pack of tissues (a common exchange used by the poor to elicit baksheesh in return) from a young girl for, and gave 50 piastres to a woman with two kids sitting on the steps by the railway line. Both were enormously grateful - "please mister, thank you please!" - and I must say I felt really good for it. However, how long my long-hoarded bundle of small change will last with my new-found enjoyment of charitable giving is quite another matter!

Anyway, I've rambled on enough. Here's the video...

Wedding photos

Okay, so it's nothing to do with Egypt. BUT tomorrow is our 7-week anniversary and so we've edited together a montage - yes, a montage - of the Stillvision photos from our wedding day. Live the experience in glorious fast-moving action with the montage.

If you want to download the full-resolution video, right click the following link and select "Save Target As..." http://www.redhotscott.co.uk/july26/weddingphotos.wmv (it's a 14.5MB file).