Egypt Day 2 - July 6th

Started the day with homemade breakfast made by the local family who runs the hotel - felfela included with omelettes and mango juice. We then hopped on the bus to the inner city of Cairo, also known as the nice part of Cairo. We headed off with a tour guide to visit Cairo’s most beautiful and well known churches and mosques. First, we visited what is one of the biggest Christian churches in Cairo that is only 30 years old. The church is carved into a limestone hill and is shaded with this huge rock, while the inside was carved into perfect stadium seating. The second church we went to was in the same area. This church was more of what you see in Red Rocks, Colorado, with a large outdoor stadium seating built into the hill. The area around these two churches was very poor. The Christian village was the ugliest side on town, as our tour guide liked to say. It was actually Cairo's trash dump and it smelled like it too. The Christians within the area would package and sell the dump off to China, and that’s how they made their living. After we saw the churches, we moved onto mosques. The first one we went is where Muhammad Ali lies. It was built into the biggest hill in the city with huge walls surrounding the entire campus. This was so beautiful - the colors and the culture inside was so amazing to see. We saw locals praying during one of the four prayer times during the day. It was very cool to watch and listen. The next mosques was in the city center near our hotel. This Mosques was also surrounded with walls, but unlike the other mosque it wasn’t a complete campus. When we walked in, we where told we could not enter without being completely covered. It was really cool to be apart of the culture, but we all looked ridiculous. When we were all finally dressed, we entered into the forum area with a water station. This is where they must clean their face, hands, and feet before they go to pray. This is the spot to do this. When we entered the mosque, it was beautiful inside. Locals that practice would just hang out or nap inside the mosques after praying. These mosques are some of the best kept areas in Cairo. After the churches and mosques, we went to Egypt’s biggest bazaar. It was chaos. The streets were small with shops exploding on each side, with people chasing you down to ask you to buy things. It was a really cool but stressful experience. I got lots of goods. After the shopping, we went to pick up some dinner and head to the hotel for the night to prepare for our soccer game the next day against local Egyptian women.