Back to the grind.

I'm completely unmotivated to write this post, but sort of feel like I need to keep up my momentum.

I finished, washed and blocked the sweater that I knit while in Egypt. It started out as a chunky tee for Chey, but finished off as a chunky tunic-tee for a Christmas present (it's too big for Chey, I did not measure on the trip, I just kept on knitting). It was almost entirely knit on the two big drives we did while in Egypt, to Alexandria and Whale Valley.

Here it is. I picture it with skinny jeans and a belt..... on a 10 year old girl... cute eh?

I've also finished my winter All-in-One prototype. I was going to do a pattern for the snake mitten scarf I made up for Chey last Christmas, but by the time I finished my test knit for the pattern, I lost interest. So I revamped the idea and came up with the All-in-One. It's a hat, scarf and mittens in one item..... hopefully with a lower chance of being left at school....... I need to tweak it a bit, but I hope to have a pattern finished before winter ends.....

Final Days....

I'm rather sad about this post... It just seems wrong to be writing about our final days in Egypt from my computer in Calgary. The entire trip feels like a surreal dream.  We are all sad to have left our family in Egypt, there were quite a few tears shed in our last couple of days....... but, I digress.... Here is a description of our last four days in the City of a Thousand Minarets...

The day after our trip to Alexandria, Mohamed took us to The Citadel where we explored the Muhammad Ali Mosque, the military museum and El-Nasir Mosque. We had finally learned (we're slow learners, apparently) to avoid school groups as much as possible to avoid being mobbed by adolescent Egyptians looking for pictures with us (when we weren't being approached for pictures, we were Kinneared, it was bizarre) I really didn't mind most of the time, but inevitably, once we allowed one or two girls to start taking pictures, we would, in no time, be overrun.... One funny thing did happen on this day though.... As we were walking down the hill away from the Citadel to where Mohamed was waiting, a large gathering of several school groups started screaming and waving excitedly.... I turned to look behind us, thinking that maybe someone famous was there, but nope..... it was our family they were screaming at......

After the Citadel, Mohamed took us to the Ibn Tulun Mosque, the only mosque in Cairo with an exterior staircase on its minaret (which we were able to climb).

Our final stop for the day's tour was in City of the Dead (a large Cemetery where over 500,000 people live and work) to visit a glass blowing shop where all of the glass is made from recycled material.

On our way back to Christina's to prepare for our evening felucca ride, we stopped to look over the city. It was pretty smoggy/smokey, but the view was still beautiful

We then went on a Felucca ride to enjoy the evening on the Nile....

We couldn't get all the kids smiling nicely at the same time.... sigh..... 

The next day was our trip to Whale Valley (Wadi Al-Hitan), where hundreds of fossil skeletons have been found showing the evolution of whales from land mammals to ocean dwellers. It was a hot, sweaty, three kilometre hike..... 

Our police escort to the desert allowed Dale to hold an AK47.... for a fee.

We had a lot of fun deciding what the formations looked like.... Long Neck (aka, apatosaurus), anyone??

see Christina, I told you I wouldn't write about you staying behind in the hut to knit... oops.....

After a morning ride with Eli (look at him go!)....... we began our final day of touring which was centred around Islamic Cairo. We visited the oldest street in Cairo containing the Blue Mosque (under extensive renos, we were only allowed to take pictures through a window) and the Mosque of Khayrbek (neither of which are open to tourists). We then walked down the street to a palace that has a tunnel to the Citadel. Our final stops were another mosque containing columns from three different time periods (I'm sorry Mohamed, I can't remember the name of the Mosque) and the Tentmakers street of the Khan el-Kalili.

See how smoggy/smokey it is??? We were able to see the pyramids from this vantage point earlier in our trip.... The smog descended on the day after our sunset ride..... 

Khayr Bek Mosque

Blue Mosque, named for the tiles

 Beautiful stained glass in one of the wives' rooms of the palace and Eli checking out the view from the mashrabeya windows (used by Islamic women to view the street without being seen)

Street of the Tentmakers.

We then visited the family tomb of Muhammad Ali Pasha. Another of our non-tourist stops.... it was amazing...

This mosque is no longer used as the road fell away. We tried to take a picture of it almost every time we passed, but either forgot when we got there, or weren't quick enough with the camera..... We finally snapped a picture on our way back to Christina's...

I started our last day in Egypt on a quiet, morning horseback ride with Christina (I rode a total of five times while in Egypt) and then did a little shopping before packing and getting ready to head to the airport at 2am (Egyptian time)...... 27 hours later, we walked in our door..... and none of us can believe its over.......

I want to thank Opa and Cary for getting us to Egypt, we would never have been able to go without you. Thank you also to Christina and David for allowing us to stay in your beautiful home and share your life for a few short days. Finally, Thank you to Mohamed for being such a wonderful guide and helpful interpreter and amazing person. And, of course, Amelia, for all of her extra work around the house. 

I've set up a slide show of some of my favourite pictures if you're interested, you can also access the album by clicking on the slideshow and then clicking "view all"

Slideshow Here

I'll get a post going about the knitting accomplished on my trip after my jetlag is over..... 

Days 8, 9 and 10.....

But before I get into that, I totally forgot to write about the Nile-o-meter. It was the day that we went to the Hanging Church and the first Mosque( our first day of touring). I'm not sure how I missed it, because I thought it was so cool. It was built over a thousand years ago as a way to calculate how much tax to charge the citizens of Cairo. Too high or too dry and there would be no tax ( floods and droughts were national tax exemptions it would seem), but at sixteen arms taxes would be collected.....

Ok, back on track.

Day 8 was an easy day. It was Devin's birthday and the plan was to celebrate at Fagnoon, an Egyptian children's art center. There were tons of activites. The kids chose silkscreen, pottery and a water fight to finish it off..... It was awesome!!

Day 9 was also a mellow day. We went to David and Christina's golf club, Katamaya.

Day 10 was long, but fabulous. We drove to Alexandria to explore the Roman sites there. On the way we stopped at Lion World. A small zoo........ With a ton of dogs? I guess when zebras, camels, lions and tigers are in your backyard, you have more exotic fare in your small zoo..... like Newfoundland Dogs.... although we only took pictures of some Great Danes.....

I have to admit that I was happy that I didn't notice the dead monkeys hanging from the ceiling.... 

Once we entered Alexandra we got going with the sites....We started at the site of a Roman Amphitheater.

We moved on to Pompey's pillar. A Roman Triumphal column that was mistaken for the tomb of Pompey the Great (A Roman military leader) during medieval times (it was built 300 years after his death).

Next were some ancient Roman Catacombs. We weren't allowed to take our cameras in, but the guard allowed us to take some with our phones (for baksheesh).... I don't have any to post here, you'll have to wait until I do my finale post at home.

Finally we explored Qaitbay Fort (built in the fifteenth century on the site of Cleopatra's palace and the famous lighthouse, both of which had fallen into the sea during several enormous earthquakes in ancient times)......

This will be my last post written IN Egypt... I will finish the story of our journey from Chilly Calgary on the weekend. We fly out early Friday morning.....