Egypt, Day 6

Back in Cairo!

After sorta sleeping on the train, we were all feeling pretty great heading out again wearing the same clothes and with no shower- yummy :) But it was such a great day!  Early morning photo op on a bridge over the Nile (see left) followed by visiting a couple of Coptic churches and synagogues in Old Cairo- including one that had a little side museum of Tools of Persecution.  Hmm...
(The picture below is of one of the churches, not the museum... silly formatting)

The big thing on Friday's schedule was visiting the Egyptian Museum--if you ever get a chance to see it, do!  Arguably the best museum in the world for ancient collections, I was blown away by what I saw in there--the treasures from King Tut's tomb, the Rosetta stone.... wow.  However, the experience was slightly tainted for me; the world had kinda been spinning the whole time we'd been in the museum, but I figured I was just exhausted like everyone else.  But it was when I was in looking at the mummies of the pharoahs (somewhere between Hatshepsut and Tutmoses III, I think it was) when I actually collapsed and couldn't really see for a bit... The nice Irish lady in front of me caught my arm after I fell into the wall... oh man.  So my teacher and program director sweetly half-carried me down the staircase, through the crowds, and out the front gate in a grandly embarrassing  manner...  So that's my experience with the Egyptian Museum--collapsing in the mummy room and getting escorted out.  Definitely didn't get as much out of that visit as I'd hoped to :P   But it was still amazing!  (Oh, and I wish I had pictures of this, but again, cameras weren't allowed! Dangit.)

Luckily the really dizzy nonsense didn't last long- and then the Cairo Hard Rock Cafe was a pretty good cure ;)  I'd actually never been to a Hard Rock before, so it was definitely a new thing for me.  And definitely delicious.  Haha... I'm still looking a little off in this picture though--my lovely medical assistant only let go of me long enough to take this picture- she was afraid I would fall over again :)  Fun afternoon though!  (By the way, the picture on the right is of the bathroom door in there. What the heck?)

After lunch we spent a little time shopping in one of the famous bazaars in Cairo, the Khan al-Khalili Bazaar -- wow!  Wishing I had pictures of that, too.

One of the coolest things we did on this trip was have sacrament meeting in one of the conference rooms in our hotel that night.  We just had to fit it in when we could on this trip-- it's not exactly like we could just pop into the local Cairo ward :)  I got to lead the music (we had to sing quietly so we didn't disturb the people in the lobby!) It was just a really neat meeting.  And a good way to end Friday!