today was changing of the guard day!...we left the grand hyatt hotel and transferred ourselves to the ramsis hilton.
Now i know reading the text you might be sarcastically say oooooooh!....but its a difference i tell you! the grand hyatt was majestic!
Anyways glad it happened rather than sorry its over!..the hilton is still good ta!...however for anybody coming over i definitely suggest nothing less than what here are called the five star hotels... unless you are very but very brave!!
After our last breakfast (during which we tried to eat double the value:P:P) we checked ot and left the baggage at the concierge in view of having booked a private tour to the citadel and the coptic area.
First we went to the citadel, Achmed(NOT THE DEAD TERRORIST)a very well read, islam loving egyptologist was our personal guide and filled us in with some political history to put us in context for the tour.
AT the citadel the feature was a big Mohammed Ali (NOT Cassius Clay)mosque where we learned some interesting things such as... only men are expected to go to the mosque 4 times a day to pray....you take of the shoes as they need to put their head on the floor!....women pray outside or on second floor when they go to the mosque and this is not because they are second class (this is entertaining!!) but 1. because their primary resonsability is procreation rather than prayer and 2...because if they had to pray with the men (you have to think how the position muslims take to pray here - bums up) according to our guide men will not be able to focus on prayers!!! he really said this i promise!!
After that off to the coptic quaters (where the egyptian christians have historically had their places of wrship)... 23 churches ...1 sinagogue lots of historical input...another interesting thing...according to our guide in islam they believe that Jesus Christ is still alive in heaven(and till there we can agree) but they also believe that he was not the crucifixed one...it was judas iscariot who was changed to resemble him by Allah and was crucified. Again always according to our guide.
After the trip we went to the hilton setteled downn and roberta just wanted to go to the bazaar (that mad place) and so we did!!
ANd what an experience it was once again!
(Background)Espnajol? ANswer No Malta ...OOO MALTA and they try to sell!....
some steps ... brasil?... italia?....NOOOOO M A L T A and they still try to sell!ooooooo
so we went around and today the bazaaar thought me there are some concepts in the egyptian dictionary that are diffenet from my own, il share some:
maltese language: aarbi mkesser (broken arabic) according to a seller there!
intercultural learning: the french cutting an obelisk into pieces to take it to paris and stick in the middle of place de la concorde....after the egyptions always insisted an obelisk has to be a whole single piece to be uop to the gods!
diversified market: different types of tv controls (hundreds i mean) on a single stall and the seller believes he can make a living...well he probably does
clean: deleted
dirty: clean
filty: not so clean but ok!
180 egyptian lira for a 2x1m table cloth: 90 egyptian lira for a 2x1 tablecloth a 3x1 tablecloth and 12 hand cloths...after some dealing by yours truly
working: sitting behind a stall..probably half asleep
health and safety: deleted
A clean square meter: Holiday out of Eygpt
Not interested in buying: might be interested if you chop the price heavily!
aaa well
we went back and decided to go for a plate of ravioli at the semiramsis intercontinental and now here sice tomorrow its an early wake off to the pyramids...3 venues of them...and obviuosly the sphinx!!
Now i know reading the text you might be sarcastically say oooooooh!....but its a difference i tell you! the grand hyatt was majestic!
Anyways glad it happened rather than sorry its over!..the hilton is still good ta!...however for anybody coming over i definitely suggest nothing less than what here are called the five star hotels... unless you are very but very brave!!
After our last breakfast (during which we tried to eat double the value:P:P) we checked ot and left the baggage at the concierge in view of having booked a private tour to the citadel and the coptic area.
First we went to the citadel, Achmed(NOT THE DEAD TERRORIST)a very well read, islam loving egyptologist was our personal guide and filled us in with some political history to put us in context for the tour.
AT the citadel the feature was a big Mohammed Ali (NOT Cassius Clay)mosque where we learned some interesting things such as... only men are expected to go to the mosque 4 times a day to pray....you take of the shoes as they need to put their head on the floor!....women pray outside or on second floor when they go to the mosque and this is not because they are second class (this is entertaining!!) but 1. because their primary resonsability is procreation rather than prayer and 2...because if they had to pray with the men (you have to think how the position muslims take to pray here - bums up) according to our guide men will not be able to focus on prayers!!! he really said this i promise!!
After that off to the coptic quaters (where the egyptian christians have historically had their places of wrship)... 23 churches ...1 sinagogue lots of historical input...another interesting thing...according to our guide in islam they believe that Jesus Christ is still alive in heaven(and till there we can agree) but they also believe that he was not the crucifixed one...it was judas iscariot who was changed to resemble him by Allah and was crucified. Again always according to our guide.
After the trip we went to the hilton setteled downn and roberta just wanted to go to the bazaar (that mad place) and so we did!!
ANd what an experience it was once again!
(Background)Espnajol? ANswer No Malta ...OOO MALTA and they try to sell!....
some steps ... brasil?... italia?....NOOOOO M A L T A and they still try to sell!ooooooo
so we went around and today the bazaaar thought me there are some concepts in the egyptian dictionary that are diffenet from my own, il share some:
maltese language: aarbi mkesser (broken arabic) according to a seller there!
intercultural learning: the french cutting an obelisk into pieces to take it to paris and stick in the middle of place de la concorde....after the egyptions always insisted an obelisk has to be a whole single piece to be uop to the gods!
diversified market: different types of tv controls (hundreds i mean) on a single stall and the seller believes he can make a living...well he probably does
clean: deleted
dirty: clean
filty: not so clean but ok!
180 egyptian lira for a 2x1m table cloth: 90 egyptian lira for a 2x1 tablecloth a 3x1 tablecloth and 12 hand cloths...after some dealing by yours truly
working: sitting behind a stall..probably half asleep
health and safety: deleted
A clean square meter: Holiday out of Eygpt
Not interested in buying: might be interested if you chop the price heavily!
aaa well
we went back and decided to go for a plate of ravioli at the semiramsis intercontinental and now here sice tomorrow its an early wake off to the pyramids...3 venues of them...and obviuosly the sphinx!!
Comments