Final Day in Cairo

Today was my last day in Cairo, and I'm a bit ready to go! Mainly because the noise, traffic and smog is horrible and reminding me on NYC! I've always preferred much quieter places when I travel, as NYC is quite a headache with all the noise pollution there. Today I met Dina at the Egyptian Museum where we spent an hour or so touring around. Amazing artifacts, especialy the Tutenkhaman exhibit, but many items were not clearly identified and NOT protected by glass or even watched by security like in most US museums. You could easily run your finger over 3000 stone hieroglyphics! (yes I did and yes I cleaned my hand). I'm not sure which mummies were destroyed during the revolution, but they all looked there to me. The musuem in Cairo is a defininte, but definately only takes a few hours. Afterwards we headed to Old Cairo where there is a religous compound (sorry cannot seem to find the name) but withing the compound there is a convent (Deir al Banat) and several churches, namely; St. Shenuti, Church of the Virgin Mary, St. Georges and Abu Sgrib (Church of the Holy Family) where it is belived Jesus, Mary and Joseph spent time in hiding from King Herod during the early years of his life. In addition, there is Ben Ezra Synagogue and Amr Abn Elzas Mosque. We then hopped on the Metro just a few stops to Sadat, which is closed to Tahir Square and my hotel, and ate at a well known Egyptian restauant, Felelfel. I just had vine leaves as I was trying not to eat to heavy, late train ride tonight. Dina had the mixed grill which was looked amazing. Apparently with the stuffed vine leaves is an egyptian delicacy called kawaraz, which is "camel knee". Now I have had tripe, and this falls in the same context. Same consistency expect...well its hard to explain. I will not bring a can home with me. Afterwards, Dina and I parted ways and I took a walk along the Nile and watched the sun set. Beautiful experience, a bit noisy but worth it. I am off to Luxor tonight on the 10 pm express train. Until then.