Cairo - Islamic Cairo

A busy day, so we stopped for lunch in this funky restaurant...

Just outside the old city walls (no photos, sorry) there is the Mosque of Al-Hakim. We'd never been in a mosque before, and since everything is for sale in Egypt, we paid some guy a couple of Egyptian pounds and took the opportunity to explore around inside this one. Some photos:

Oops, got some dude praying there. I honestly didn't see him. I've just noticed him now in the picture.

These chandeliers you can see here were MASSIVE, easily 10 - 12 feet tall.

On the way back from the mosque, we passed by an onion and garlic market. It was the one neighbourhood that smelled pretty good, if you like garlic that is.

This weird little kid came running up to us when he saw we had a camera. He wanted us to take a photo of him so we told him to get in front of the garlic. The instant we took the photo, he started following us and repeated one word over and over again. It sounded like 'Bib!' We had no idea what he wanted so we kept walking. He followed us, shouting 'Bib! Bib!' and making movements with his hand as if he were writing something. Then the penny dropped...he wanted money. He was saying 'Bill! Bill!'...a 'bill' for the photo we took.

I got some money out of my pocket and motioned for him to take it. He just looked at me like I was insane. So I put the money back and we kept walking, with him following us. 'Bib! Bib!' Write, write, write. 'Bib! Bib!'

Then it hit me. He wasn't saying 'Bib', or 'Bill', he was saying "Bic!"...he wanted a pen, a Bic pen. I looked through my bag but I couldn't find a pen. We said, 'Sorry, no Bic,' and felt bad, as we guessed he wanted it for school. Then he remembered the money I'd offered him earlier. "Money!" he said then. "Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money!" he said.

"Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money!" he said, and said, and said. Our bad feelings quickly developed into an acute sense of irritation. I gave him some jellybeans to shut him up, and we fled.

THE END

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