[Egipto] how to be a Cairene

Nourhan, with the Nile in the background
an interesting and bold story surrounds how we met...i have nothing but good things to say about her. Go girl!

This post marks an important step on my blog...even though my blog is particularly aimed at my portuguese friends, i've took the liberty to change the posts language from portuguese to english in an attempt to break the barriers imposed by my wonderful native language. (epá...dava muito trabalho por esta gente toda a aprender português).

Mohammed, a nice company from Cairo
This old man stopped me while walking by downtown, he offered to show me the surroundings and he sure was a great afternoon company, in this photo he's preparing the all-arab "Nana Xei" or mint tea

Ullie, inside mosque Mohamed Ali, on the steepest hill of the Citadel of Cairo
one somewhat recent mosque, built two centuries ago by the Ottoman ruler Mohamed Ali, his - notoriously bad - taste can be seen all throughout the mosque's decoration...somehow he found that Paris at the time had something to give to it's oriental world.

Mohamed Ali Mosque, Outside court
the clock tower in the rear has a delightfully funny story and it somewhat reflects the lack of care shown by the historic exploitation this country has suffered...This was the "piece of crap" that louis phillipe of France exchanged with the Ottoman ruler of Egypt Mohamed Ali for the pharaonic obelisk now gloriously resident in the "place de la Concorde" in Paris. The clock was broken during the arrival in Cairo and has never been fixed...

the gatekeeper at mosque Al Rifa'i

The architectural vastness of Islam, inside mosque Al Rifa'i

myself inside Mosque Ibn Tulun, the 2nd oldest mosque in Cairo, over 8 centuries old

Re-learning how to play BackGammon with Mohamed, an old master

a typical downtown Cairene entrance

my company while in downtown at night...a bunch of curious kids

Citadel view from Al-Azhar park, relaxing while watching the sunset

The Iman with his pupils in Al-Azhar park