from the egyptian gazette, 28 march 2010
a university professor has successfully divorced her husband after he refused to stop eating his breakfast, which consists of cooked fava beans and green onions, at streetside cartes outside the university where they worked. the situation led to daily arguments between the couple from the 6th of october governorate and she filed for divorce for feeling embarrassed to see her husband eating with workers and what she called the riff-raffs of society. granting her application, a family court judge said the wife had been picking arguments with her husband everyday “on the grounds that she was ashamed to see him eating fuul with workers and joking with them in the street”. the husband’s lawyers argued in court that the woman’s claims of feeling ashamed by her husband’s action were false because fuul meddamis is a main staple for egyptians, who enjoy eating it a home or in the street”.
welcome to cairo.
hosni mubarek is back on terra firma after spending weeks in germany following gall bladder surgery. and life goes on - marital squabbles about status - now this is my kind of town!
at least my wife brings something to the table - a full palette of alphabet soup. with a bit of prodding, i get jane to shed her resistance to fully immersing herself in this culture, and she relents - with a torrent of arabic, her mother tongue. how great - we can make ourselves known! although truthfully, english is so prolific here on both banks of the nile, it’s really not a problem.
when we first thought of egypt, we had (minor!) trepidations, all completely unfounded. morocco, which we spun through a few years ago with the kids, seemed easy - almost european. french was our path, roads were spotless, people were easy. egypt is morocco light, much to our shock. the witty and funny people, the language, the signage, the ease of getting around - and above all, the transparency! it’s easy to ascertain exactly what’s happening - mainly, if people are trying to shake you down. quite charming actually!
we finish up our brief time in luxor with a lovely morning at the hotel - a workout looking towards queen hatshepsut’s temple in the distance titillates on the treadmill. a delicious and copious breakfast sets us all straight. we’ve found a driver for the day, who ferries us back and forth - to the incredible and vast karnak temple (with it’s massive columns, long arcade, open plazas - amazing again!), back to town for souk shopping (success!), and finally, back to luxor airport for some wifi and our flight to cairo.
on the shuttle bus, off the shuttle bus, we make it back to the capital and squeeze through traffic in this, africa’s largest metropolis. teeming with people, cars, smog, buildings, lights - it’s mumbai light, exhilarating, fantastic, insane. we arrive at the marriott and presto-change-o, we are stylish and chic, ready for a divine 9:30 pm dinner reservation (blessedly right around the corner!). we dine amongst fashionable locals at la bodega, sipping martinis, eating elegantly and well into the evening (truffled pappardelle?) ... we return ‘home’ at midnight - too late - and flop into bed, ready for our 6 am closeup.
today - the most amazing day! the holy grail of egyptian tourism - the pyramids of giza. we make our way first through tour groups at the hotel, then through millions of buses, to arrive at these amazing structures. we have an early start, so it’s blissfully quiet, relaxed, and stunning - the scale, the ‘materiality’ - it all seems right, picture-postcard perfect. we walk, we gaze, we ponder (and that’s just thinking about lunch!). the sphinx awaits, and we make our way there too ... an unbelievable and inspiring morning, we peer out to the desert, to cairo creeping onto the giza plain, to the tourists from every corner - a true vortex of energy -
we make our way back to cairo, feeling as if we’ve accomplished our ‘short list’ of ‘to-dos’ in egypt and make a pass through the egyptian museum - musty and in bad disrepair, yet housing the incredible ‘king tut’ artifacts we’ve all come to know - the striped gold mask, the funerary elements, the gilded ‘coffins’ - amazing (all the more because of the lax security and casual display methods - practically post-its!).
we retire to the comfort of our hotel - we are checked in for our flight to tel aviv this evening, and decide to forego more of cairo for a (very) late lunch by the pool (fatoush salad in honor of my mother - her favorite!), enjoying the warm egyptian sun and a swim ...
more from tel aviv to follow!
h
a university professor has successfully divorced her husband after he refused to stop eating his breakfast, which consists of cooked fava beans and green onions, at streetside cartes outside the university where they worked. the situation led to daily arguments between the couple from the 6th of october governorate and she filed for divorce for feeling embarrassed to see her husband eating with workers and what she called the riff-raffs of society. granting her application, a family court judge said the wife had been picking arguments with her husband everyday “on the grounds that she was ashamed to see him eating fuul with workers and joking with them in the street”. the husband’s lawyers argued in court that the woman’s claims of feeling ashamed by her husband’s action were false because fuul meddamis is a main staple for egyptians, who enjoy eating it a home or in the street”.
welcome to cairo.
hosni mubarek is back on terra firma after spending weeks in germany following gall bladder surgery. and life goes on - marital squabbles about status - now this is my kind of town!
at least my wife brings something to the table - a full palette of alphabet soup. with a bit of prodding, i get jane to shed her resistance to fully immersing herself in this culture, and she relents - with a torrent of arabic, her mother tongue. how great - we can make ourselves known! although truthfully, english is so prolific here on both banks of the nile, it’s really not a problem.
when we first thought of egypt, we had (minor!) trepidations, all completely unfounded. morocco, which we spun through a few years ago with the kids, seemed easy - almost european. french was our path, roads were spotless, people were easy. egypt is morocco light, much to our shock. the witty and funny people, the language, the signage, the ease of getting around - and above all, the transparency! it’s easy to ascertain exactly what’s happening - mainly, if people are trying to shake you down. quite charming actually!
we finish up our brief time in luxor with a lovely morning at the hotel - a workout looking towards queen hatshepsut’s temple in the distance titillates on the treadmill. a delicious and copious breakfast sets us all straight. we’ve found a driver for the day, who ferries us back and forth - to the incredible and vast karnak temple (with it’s massive columns, long arcade, open plazas - amazing again!), back to town for souk shopping (success!), and finally, back to luxor airport for some wifi and our flight to cairo.
on the shuttle bus, off the shuttle bus, we make it back to the capital and squeeze through traffic in this, africa’s largest metropolis. teeming with people, cars, smog, buildings, lights - it’s mumbai light, exhilarating, fantastic, insane. we arrive at the marriott and presto-change-o, we are stylish and chic, ready for a divine 9:30 pm dinner reservation (blessedly right around the corner!). we dine amongst fashionable locals at la bodega, sipping martinis, eating elegantly and well into the evening (truffled pappardelle?) ... we return ‘home’ at midnight - too late - and flop into bed, ready for our 6 am closeup.
today - the most amazing day! the holy grail of egyptian tourism - the pyramids of giza. we make our way first through tour groups at the hotel, then through millions of buses, to arrive at these amazing structures. we have an early start, so it’s blissfully quiet, relaxed, and stunning - the scale, the ‘materiality’ - it all seems right, picture-postcard perfect. we walk, we gaze, we ponder (and that’s just thinking about lunch!). the sphinx awaits, and we make our way there too ... an unbelievable and inspiring morning, we peer out to the desert, to cairo creeping onto the giza plain, to the tourists from every corner - a true vortex of energy -
we make our way back to cairo, feeling as if we’ve accomplished our ‘short list’ of ‘to-dos’ in egypt and make a pass through the egyptian museum - musty and in bad disrepair, yet housing the incredible ‘king tut’ artifacts we’ve all come to know - the striped gold mask, the funerary elements, the gilded ‘coffins’ - amazing (all the more because of the lax security and casual display methods - practically post-its!).
we retire to the comfort of our hotel - we are checked in for our flight to tel aviv this evening, and decide to forego more of cairo for a (very) late lunch by the pool (fatoush salad in honor of my mother - her favorite!), enjoying the warm egyptian sun and a swim ...
more from tel aviv to follow!
h
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