On Saturday, we boarded the bus and then the subway and went to the Egyptian National Museum. Hilary found a cafe to read in while I explored. There were lots of sacrophogii, ancient jewelry, and all sorts of cool stuff. There were mummified animals! Like a cow. They went into the description of how they mummified the cow/removed its organs. It was gross. And cool. But you would probably think it's gross (hint: it involves a massive enema), so I won't get into it. Sadly, cameras were not allowed, so there are no pictures. But it was insanely cool. Museums rock!
After, this guy helped me cross the street, and then I went into his perfume shop for tea (he insisted, and it's this thing...you can refuse, but it's rude). I ended up buying something, Hilary met me there, we drank tea and then left.
Afterwards, we went to Khan al-Khalili, the souq/shuk/outdoor market in Cairo. Well, sort of. I wanted to go to the Tentmaker's market, where they sell awesome tapestries and things. We were walking around where Hilary said the market was, and a guy asked us what we were looking for. He then offered to take us to the market. Which was fine by us. First, he took us to this place where they decorated boxes with designs made from mother of pearl, different woods, and camel bone. "These are real," our guide said. "The ones they sell in the Khan? Not only are they fake, but they cost twice as much!" However, we weren't interested in buying anything.
The guy found the man who ran the tapestry shop, Mohammed Sameh (or was it his son?), and he took us to the workshop. There were several winding corners, and then a flight of stairs, and we were in the most fantastic tapestry shop! All the walls were covered floot-to-ceiling with tapestries. We looked around, found tapestries we wanted, and commenced bargaining. Initially, we had our hearts set on some medium-sized pieces, but the price was too much. We picked out some small tapestries and were ready to start bargaining, when we were offered a fantastic price for the larger pieces. Well, it wasn't much higher than our pretty low bid. I'm sure they got a good deal.
I wanted to get a necklace, so we asked Mohammed where to go. He walked us back to the main street and we ran into our original "guide", who took us to a jewelry store and bargained for us. The store layout was actually pretty similar to the stores in Puerto Vallarta, and I'm assuming that the pieces this guy had were in pretty much every store. Anyways, Hilary and I were all shopped out, so we walked to the subway (it took a little while), then took the subway and then the bus back to here apartment. We ate dinner (her dad made Greek meatballs. And they were tasty.), did some more reading, and then Hilary's dad took me on the bus and then the subway to the bus station.
The bus ride to Eilat was kind of annoying. The seats were assigned, and the number of the seat was written on its back. My bad, I thought the number was written on the back of the seat in front of me. So I sat in the wrong seat. And by the time I figured it out, a pissy guy who wanted to sit next to his friend was parked in it. So I had to sit over one of the bus wheels/storage space, so I didn't have as much room. And the little girl in front of me had her seat leaning back so my knee got a crick in it from being in an awkward position. BUT the woman sititng next to me was Canadian AND spoke Arabic, so that was pretty good.
Going through security was a pain. I'm an American citizen who is living in Jerusalem for the summer, participating in an unpaid internship (this is important because if I was getting paid, I think I would need a worker's visa instead of a tourist visa) and renting an apartment for the summer. "But you are coming back to the country. Why?" I had to explain that I was in ulpan beforehand...I was afraid they weren't going to let me through. They asked if I knew anyone in Israel (I gave my roommate's name because I have no close family in Israel). The final test: they asked me for my apartment's address/the neighborhood in Jerusalem where I lived. Obviously I knew these, so I rattled them off. And so they let me back into the country.
One of the reasons I chose not to go to Petra this summer (at least, so far) is because I have no desire to deal with customs again. Blech.
So yeah.
NOW...on Thursday, I went to Ben Yehuda St., which is an outdoor pedestrian mall. I also went to the Old City. The Old City is a walled-in part of Jerusalem. It is divided up into four sections: The Armenian Quarter, the Christian Quarter, the Muslim Quarter, and the Jewish Quarter. I walked through the Jaffa Gate (because I entered the Old City from Jaffa St.), through the Armenian Quarter, through a shuk with an obnoxious salesman who tried to sell me jewelry even though I politely told him that I wasn't interested. "Why are you so angry?" he said in a really annoying voice. I have this thing about voices. For example, my 12th grade calc teacher had a really annoying voice. She was also really sarcastic and obnoxious. Once you got past all of that, she was a good teacher. Anyways, this guy had this really annoying voice. "Come look. I won't eat you, I'm a vegetarian." Oh honey, I thought, wrong thing to say. I humored him and looked at an unremarkable mezzuzah necklace, then left.
I finally found the Jewish Quarter. I walked past the Cardo, which is a “Roman road”, showing what things would have looked like during the time of the Temple. Then, I got the Western Wall. Amazingly, I was able to get to the Wall pretty quickly (The women’s side is much smaller, so there’s usually a build-up of people). I completed my civic duty (evidence on Facebook), stroked the Wall a few times, and left.
Back on Ben Yehuda St., I got a passion fruit ice drink. It's like a slushee? Sort of? It tastes delicious, and some of the seeds are in it. They are crunchy and apparently a good source of fiber.
Today I got oriented for my internship, which starts tomorrow. It went well. Hopefully tomorrow will also go well. I need to read through some news sites and prepare for tomorrow...where I'll need to get up early (for me), make my lunch (crap, I forgot to buy fruit at the supermarket today), and...get there by 10am. 10am! I expected it to be 9. Lucky me! Maybe tomorrow after the internship I'll finally check out Machane Yehuda? (Large shuk in Jerusalem, not to be mistaken with Ben Yehuda St.) Maybe.
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