Sunday, Cairo; My Birthday

Yesterday, I got into bed at 4:30 and slept until 8:30. I got up, got dressed quickly, and went downstairs to have the same meal again. Then right back up to bed. Sleep, I believe, is the best medicine.

I got up and went for a tiny breakfast so that another fainty-feeling doesn't come over me, but the huge smorgasbord of things all turn me off. Just do not care for food in the morning. So it was lots of Tang (yucky) and off to the roof for a gander at the pyramids, but it is too polluted to see them this morning. And then I realized, today is my birthday. And the tears flowed because I feel so alone—not on the trip, but in life. Weird and distant as he was, I still miss my Dad often and intensely and I wish I had a real brother or a sister. Geez, isn't this supposed to be a happy day? It will change shortly when Dahlia gets here.

Off we go, driver, Dahlia and I, through the morning traffic. It is Sunday, the first day f the week. We go to Memphis (photos below) first, and the Mit Rahina Museum, passing carts with cabbages and cauliflowers. Honestly, some cauliflowers are almost a meter tall. They are the biggest green vegetables I have ever seen. And the cauliflowers. OH MY GOD!! The cauliflowers here would not fit in any fridge I know of. I mean they are like pumpkin size. It would take a single person a week to eat it.



So, here I am writing about vegetables on a day when I have seen the Giza pyramids, Memphis and Saqqara's Imhotep Museum. I have seen way, way too much in far to short a time. As I wrote at the beginning of this blog, this is not at all the way I usually travel. I am used to a far, far slower pace. This pace creates an knot of information in my head; an undigestible huge mouthful of fabulously interesting stuff. I imagine, or hope, that Kenya/Tanzania is different. I think looking at animals will be different than looking at these monumental human achievements.

This huge statue of Ramses landed face down when it fell, whenever that was, and so o ver time, the exposed side was eroded but the face side was protected by the sand and it is beautiful.






But what a birthday! After Memphis was Saqqara to see the step pyramid. I cannot listen to the guide, take notes and look at things, so I urge you to use Wikipedia to get an idea about what I am seeing if it interests you. I am using a downloaded off-line version of Wiki to remember what I have been told.






I touch Ramses!


After Saqqara, Dahlia asked me if I wanted a hot drink. She had been making lots of offers, she is a lovely woman and I was thrilled o have her as my guide. So we stopped, and I was trapped. I instantly was in a bad mood and I was as close to rude as Chris can get to the host of the place. I wouldn't look at him. We had stopped in a tourist trap—you know, a tourist shop disguised as a school of historical crafts. We were in an Indian carpet school. Damn! So I resolved to get it over with as quickly as possible by saying nothing, refusing all drink offers and by keeping walking. I used envy thing at my disposal to give off body language of disgust, and I was thinking about what I would say to Dahlia.


Surprise... I bought a $1000 silk carpet and it ain't big. I do not like spending money; I don't know why, but I have always been this way. Once, when I was maybe ten years old, I lost $10 that dad had given me. I think it may have been spending money for me, not to do errands, and it just disappeared. To this day, remember that it was a sunny day and that I had left my bicycle leaning against the Robinson's hedge across the street, and I sat in our dining room and thought about how hard Dad worked to earn that money to give me. I felt sick about what I had done. And I knew he would punish me, but I felt like telling him that no matte what he did, it wouldn't make me feel worse than I already did. He punished me anyway, but my point is that my emotional relationship with money goes back a long time.

But I bought the carpet because: the museum gift shop had nothing to offer; while in Morocco I got a large and unexpected book order; I wanted a qualitative, morally acceptable Egyptian souvenir; the vendor and my carpet are government sanctioned, made by hand, pure silk, historically accurate sign and colour; I have always wanted a classic and classy silk carpet; is great colour for my apartment; it is my birthday.


The pyramids and the sphinx are amazing, but no tears. They are more majestic than beautiful to me. They are more a product of labour than artistry to see today. It is the simple hieroglyphics and the simple statues that will stay with me. Although the jewelry is absolutely breathtaking, it is the stuff of the rich and powerful whereas the hieroglyphics, done with such perfect simplicity that impresses me. But then I am a writer and lover of words.














I was back at the hotel by about 1:30 and I like having the afternoon to relax and recharge, for tomorrow night is an overnight flight which could mean a set back in my recovery.