The Beigery

Haven't you heard?  Beige is the new green.  That's what we're telling ourselves in the desert anyway.

While there is not much green to be seen around Cairo, there is a lot to see.  When we were evacuated from Cairo in January and unsure as to whether we'd ever be back, we realized all the things that we hadn't seen and done yet.  We hadn't been to the Egyptian Museum, to Coptic Cairo, to Khan el-Khalili, Al-Ahzar park, the Cairo Opera House... the list goes on.  Cairo is (or at least was pre-revolution) a tourist center.  There really is a fantastic amount of history and sight-seeing to do here.

Upon returning to Cairo we vowed that we would do all the tourist stuff.  Sadly that was easier said than done.  Things weren't as stable as we'd have liked them to be, especially at tourist sights, so we barely got out of our neighbourhood for the first month we were back.  Thankfully things have settled down quite a bit over the past few weeks, and we finally made it out for a day of Cairo tourism.  After some rooftop city seeing and a traditional Egyption lunch of koshary, we went to our first major stop:  Khan el-Khalili bazaar, more commonly called "The Khan".  This labyrinth of stalls sells everything from spices to robes, paintings to alabaster, papyrus to t-shirts, perfumes to candles, herbal remedies to shoes, pillowcases to tents, brass, gold, silver, and camel and pyramid souvenirs of all shapes and sizes.  The market has existed for over 600 years, though I wouldn't imagine it having quite the same products in the 1300's.  There is some beautiful medieval architecture throughout the market, making for an unforgettable and almost surreal atmosphere.   

My shopping list for the day was scarves and a belly dancing skirt.  Scarves are very popular here in Cairo.  Many Egyptian women wear them as headscarves, making a beautiful and diverse scarf selection available all over Cairo... certainly not to be missed in the Khan.  I wanted scarves partly for warmth, and partly for style.  It's already getting much warmer here, too warm to wear a jacket most of the time.  Still, it can be chilly waiting for the bus in the morning, and you wouldn't believe the difference wearing a scarf makes.  Many years ago, in trying to convince a very cool pre-teen me to wear my toque, I think it was my mom who told me that as long as your head is warm, the rest of your body will feel warm.  I think it's true about the neck as well.  Plus, like I said, scarves are really used as a fashion accessory here by Egyptian women and foreigners alike.  After a lot of bargaining, I happily bought two scarves, one very colourful one, and one all-purpose beige one... for days when I want to blend in. 

Mission 2:  a belly dancing skirt.  Many of you may be aware that I took some belly dancing lessons back in Canada.  For whatever reason, I could make plenty of excuses, I did not take any belly dancing lessons pre-revolution.  I'm in Egypt, what was I thinking?!  I started taking belly dancing lessons a few weeks ago with a colleague, and have been having a great time of it.  Our instructor is exactly what you would picture an Egyptian belly dancing instructor to be... I'm not sure if there's a stereotype she does not meet.  She wears over-the-top clothing and make-up, gets extremely animated about the smallest of hand gestures, "beautiful hands Kitty", and can move her hips like you wouldn't believe.  The class is actually quite challenging and a great core workout.  Once I committed to sticking with the class (two hours weekly, since any less wouldn't be enough to yield results she says), I knew I'd have to get my own belly dancing skirt, as I sent my other one home in revolution packing.  Again, I had to do lots of bargaining, not my favourite thing.  I had fun this time though.  We were about 50 pounds apart in price when the saleswoman offered to come down by 1 pound.  Even she laughed when I offered to go up by just one pound.  We eventually agreed on a price, which my instructor said this week was "not too much Kitty".

You've gotta love a shopping day when you find everything you wanted.  For Tom's sake, our next Cairo tourist destination will likely not include any shopping.    Next on our list are the "other pyramids".