an exhibit and the unexpected

Recently I read about a showing of contemporary art at a local gallery called Darb 1718 and decided to check it out. The theme of the exhibition was bread, in particular the wholewheat pita that is literally the staff of life here in Egypt, called 'aish baladi.' The gallery was showcasing the work, in mixed media, of 13 different artists. A further bonus was that this gallery was located 'just behind the hanging church', as the web site casually proclaimed, near Coptic Cairo, the historic Christian area only four convenient metro stops away from Maadi. So Connor and I hopped on the subway and were whisked to the walled city-within-a-city that is Coptic Cairo.

I insisted that we didn't need to print the map from the gallery website, as the directions looked so easy and surely we would spot it the second we got off the train. Well we started wandering (it turns out, in the correct area) and once we left the immediate vicinity with its historic churches and excellent museum filled with loads of tourists--literally 15 seconds after we left this very popular site--we were in a different universe altogether. Life for the Cairenes who live just outside the carefully-manicured courtyards and abbeys of the Coptic neighborhood is hardscrabble. As we continued to explore/look for the gallery, we walked by men tinkering with cars so worn out and worked over that I couldn't imagine they would ever carry a passenger again, but yet admired their perseverance nonetheless. Even though we were in the middle of the city, there were herds of goats and sheep milling about. Children ran through the streets giddily and shouted 'Welcome to Egypt!', a popular and charming phrase that locals use frequently here. A maze of precarious apartment buildings with laundry hanging out to dry between windows was a scene that has remained unchanged for centuries. While I catch glimpses of neighborhoods like this while in transit, it's rare so far that I have found myself immersed in one, and it really was fascinating and an honor to be present. We felt safe, even looked after, within this urban village. Finally we bumped into the gallery in question, which was at the end of the one very polished street around, and took in the paintings, short films, and interactive exhibits within. While some of the pieces were engaging, I couldn't help but think the real learning experience, and the images I will take away with me from that day, were actually from our accidental stroll through the backalleys of this neighborhood. In a matter of minutes, we were whisked away from the bustling metropolis and into a culture that operates on a completely different sense of time, space, and necessity. It's a glimpse into an alternate lifestyle that most of the tourists who had been bussed in to see the orthodox architecture and ancient icons, then quickly bussed out to continue their whistlestop tour of Cairo, had no idea they were within mere meters of. It is that Egypt, however, that I think people will gain the most from experiencing.

a day at the beach

Yesterday we hopped in the car and made the 90 minute trip along the highway (and I mean THE highway; there's only one road that goes there) to the closest resort area on the Red Sea, called Ain Sokhna. A little Arabic for you: literally 'ain sokhna' translates to 'hot eye' but in reference to the place it means 'hot spring.' Ain Sokhna is a very new beach area, having sprung up just south of the industrial area of the Suez Canal to accommodate the burgeoning well-heeled population of Cairo. Many well-to-do Egyptians have condos here that they frequent during the winter and expats see it as a quick getaway from the city. Connor and I were even joking that we should snap up one of the $30,000 apartments available in some of the lesser-developed neighborhoods.

We arrived at our hotel, which wasn't one we had heard of before but it was the most reasonably-priced one I spotted online, in the late morning and checked in. The place is new and I think desperately wanting to be 4 star digs but seems solidly in the lower-mid-range hotel class to me. We quickly headed to the beachfront. I was hoping for a long walk in the sand, but the coastline allocated to our hotel did not stretch too far and was bordered on one side by a shipping container area and on the other by a brick wall that enclosed a fancier resort immediately to the north. Ahh well, I was looking forward to my first dip in the Red Sea anyway. Well...the second I stepped into the water, a clay squidginess thrust itself between my toes and with each progressive step, I nearly lost my footing and toppled in! Both Connor and I found the sea floor too off-putting to go much beyond our ankles. We knew that Ain Sokhna's waters have nothing on its more established neighbors to the south, the international resorts of Hurghada and Sharm el Sheikh, with their crystal clear waters and world-class scuba areas. However we didn't expect to be, well, grossed out! Hmm.

After a couple of hours reading under a beach umbrella, we were antsy and decided to explore the rest of the greater Ain Sokhna area, partially in hopes of finding a better meal than the pricey buffet our hotel was offering later. Since Ain Sokhna is comprised solely of resort hotels and condos, we only spotted a combo Pizza Hut/KFC, which we were planning to go for in a desire for non-all-inclusive normality. We ended up choosing to do some reconnaissance work at another hotel we'd heard good things about, called the Movenpick, which I thought maybe was as Swiss as Haagen Dazs but does have genuine European roots. We strolled along their beach (acting natural, assuming a confident air of actual Movenpickers), took note of their watersport options and the fact that the bottom of the sea here was covered in stones, not mud, and had a light meal in the waterfront cafe. We both agreed that that is probably the hotel we will choose whenever we do head back for a weekend.

Back at our hotel, in which we were the only Westerners staying, we were kept up by a live folk music show occurring by the pool directly below our window, although it finished mercifully at 11pm. We headed back to Cairo this morning and were back in our own flat watching the latest episode of 'The Office' well before noon, which was great. It was definitely good to see what Ain Sokhna is all about, but I think we'll more often than not save our shekels, and our time off, for beach trips further afield.