Hey guys!!
I just finished my second full day in Cairo...
So far, Mom and I have been exploring the downtown area near the Nile. We have done lots of wandering/exploring, a little bit of shopping, gone to an amazing show, and finally this afternoon we went to the Egyptian museum.
Last night, we were not sure what to do for dinner, and were looking through a guidebook for ideas when we came across a note that the famous dancer Dina dances at the nightclub at a hotel we are staying quite close to. So, we decided to go there for some food and the show. We first ate some delicious Lebanese food while listening to two excellent musicians playing Oud and Riq (tambourine). As we were finishing our meal, we heard a big ruckus of joyous mizmar, drums, and men singing from somewhere in the hallway. Turns out it was the end of a wedding ceremony, and it was incredible!! Everyone was clapping and cheering, while about 8 dancers with large candelabras on their heads shimmied and spun around to the large live band. I recorded some of the music, so we'll see how that comes out. :)
We then sat around for at least an hour and a half to attend the show at the nightclub (we had a reservation for midnight... and Dina wasn't going to start dancing until 2:30am). Mom fell asleep in a random chair, and I read through almost the entire section on Cairo in a guidebook we had with us.
Finally we headed up to the nightclub, where we enjoyed a few singers and a couple of boring ones. :P
Next, a large band with a great, charismatic zill player came out. The singer was wearing: a short leather skirt, lacy tights, a leather jacket, and to top it off thigh-high leather boots with tons of rhinestones covering the top part of each boot. Sweet.
And at long last, out came another large band accompanied by the fabulous Dina!! She was more amazing live than I ever could have imagined by seeing videos of her. She did about 3 or 4 costume changes, including blue, green, gold, and black/gold - all of which were gorgeous! We picked up some good moves ;)
The Egyptian museum had so much to offer..... there were literally thousands of priceless ancient artifacts to look at. Our favorite exhibit was the "ancient egyptian jewelry" section. The museum was reminiscent of the rest of the city - not quite enough labels to know where you're going, but a LOT of amazing things to see and think about. Unfortunately, there were an annoying number of tour groups (full of people who were dressed in complete ignorance of the local culture, and clearly were going to see only the "sights" in Egypt, not any of the true culture), and we were treated much more like stupid tourists than usual. For example, all the locals were exiting through the regular doors, but we weren't allowed to go out that way - we were ushered to the exit that passes through the giant over-priced gift shop ;). Haha!
OK, computer's about to die... I'll post pictures soon!! <3
~Kerry
How awesome Kerry! Cant wait to hear more!
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