Skiing in Cairo

Probably could have named this post a bunch of things as I had a very busy day . Ahmed was working and I was with Ayman to start the day . His English and my Arabic are both getting better :) first thing up was to go check out the Citadel . Ayman ordered a car from this shitty company I refuse to mentio anymore and we got there in due time to check out the sights there . Everything is so cheap here including admission fees which were about 200 £ Egyptian which equals roughly $15 or so .... that is not bad compared to some of the scams I've encountered like one certain tower back home that costs around $40 to go up in an elevator :( when we got there it was so sunny that I couldn't even see . No joke this was one of the few times in my life that I wish I had brought sunglasses 😎 

 

I used that hoodie I was dragging around with me to shield the sun . It didn't help really and I must have a few pics with some hard core squinting going on lol ! We went into the military area with all the planes , tanks and other weapons of war on display which was pretty cool to see . There obviously was a military presence there as there is in most of Cairo . Don't be freaked out if you go there and see this . It's not a bad thing , they are there for the right reasons . After the military section we went into the mosque ...

 

I took my shoes off at the entrance to pay respect and then entered with the enthusiasm of a child . I'm not really religious or anything but I do respect that people around the world have their own beliefs and have every right to believe what they want to believe . Who am I to tell someone that what they believe in is wrong right ? I'm really into embracing how people go about their lives and I still love hearing the call to prayer every few hours . I think it's super cool and its interesting to experience this . The mosque was massive and very beautiful and as I wandered around I could feel this amazing vibe in the air as if all the other tourists were just as excited as I was . When we exited the mosque I was blinded by the sun again hahaha . Look at me complaining about the sun when I haven't seen much of it for months . I should embrace it shouldn't I ? 

 

We hit the prison area and man oh man I feel bad for whoever ended up in these ones especially the last one where there were wax figures of a man being tortured . Pretty sure that whip wasn't for tickling or some fetish :) there was also a police area which had guns that were used for political assassinations in Egyptian 🛶history which seems littered with this activity based on the amount of guns on display . There was also an encased booth with samples of drugs , I joked about having a sample and Aymin laughed and said not to say that stuff lol . I could have had a great party with that stuff hehehe 😛

 

We were on a bit of a schedule which I was hoping to keep today . And for the most part we did .... we hopped in another car and went to Mall of Egypt where we were meeting Ahmed to go skiing , yes skiing on snow !!!!! When we got there we walked past a restaurant that sold sheesha called Tamara , it was a Lebanese restaurant and I was kinda hungry so we went for a bite to eat and some sheesha . I ordered some apple flavour sheesha and Aymin ordered his regular unflavoured sheesha and they didn't have it . His face immediately dropped :( yeah he needed his sheesha and this wasn't helping ... I ordered some wings and got him some too with the hopes of turning that frown into a smile . The wings were decent but the cost was expensive compared to every other meal we had over the 5 days and to be honest what they consider expensive I didn't really notice . 2 orders of wings , 1 sheesha , 2 colas and a tea for under $20 CDN seems like a bargain to me . Ahmed showed up from work and we walked over to the indoor snow hill . 

I went skiing once in my life and that was about 25 years ago , and I used to snowboard but I decided that skiing would be easier since your feet have a little bit more freedom . 2 hours of skiing cost us £200 Egyptian each which is around $20 CDN . We got suited up as everything is provided and we hit the ski lift .... first ride up and I fell down , at the bottom of the hill , this isn't gonna be as easy as I thought . When I made it up I shit myself a bit and almost chickened out but embraced it and hurled myself down the hill . I didn't fall so the next time I did a Facebook live video which is hilarious . I never did fall while going down the hill but I did find a way to fall on the way up 2 more times , once at the top getting off the lift and once in the middle of the hill . It's a bit embarrassing but who cares right we were having a good ol time . After a couple hours we figured we were running late to go see the Sphinx light show which was supposed to start at 730 in English based on what the website says but like I said these tourist websites here are not informative at all . We got there only to be told the show was almost over then we had one of the street hagglers try to scam us into going to watch it from his cafe which Ahmed went to check out and it was not even a cafe . It was someone's balcony , and the douche tried to charge Ahmed just for taking a look at it . These people near the pyramids are absolute leeches and I would highly suggest to avoid and ignore everyone that approaches you if you ever do go there . 

We went back to Kirdan in Maadi to have some sheesha or I think the boys were gonna lose their minds hahaha ! The Manure vs Citeh match was on telly so we chilled and watched that while Ahmed went for a nap and I was also educated by the other Ahmed on the far left in pic above about RollerBall ???? It's basically handball on roller skates and he is the president of the African federation which is very cool . I need to check out this sport as it looks fast and as I know handball is not a wussy sport so this has to be good . After a few hours of hardcore chilling we went to the River Nile for a boat cruise . There was nobody there which was odd and Ahmed said that even the ski hill was quiet compared to usual and it was confusing . We got a boatman to drive us up and down the Nile as we played some Egyptian music and danced around which was really funny and even the other boats passing us joined in with the clapping 👏 

 

The cruise was cheap too as it cost the four of us a total of £160 Egyptian at this point I'm sure you can do the math right ? Ok it was roughly $10 CDN :) after dancing on the Nile we went to have a special sheesha . As I said this is a way of life here . I am 150% sure that I was the only person not from here in this row of cafes which were set up with TV's and play stations to play footie on . This sheesha came in a coconut and was by far the best one I had all week as if I'm the aficionado now right ? We played vids until 5 am there then called it a night as the sun was coming up only because I have to fly the next afternoon and I really should get a few hours sleep . I had such a good night out with the guys that I kinda forgot it was my last night . Usually that last night is filled with thoughts of how I'm gonna miss the people I'm with but tonight was too much fun to have any worries .   

When we got back to Ahmed's place it was about 5:30 am and Ahmed doesn't have to work because over here Friday is like our Saturday . Yeah weekends here are Friday and Saturday . I packed up my bags and hit the sack .... 5 hours of sleep before I have to wake up and leave . Tomorrow I fly back to England to watch Aston Villa . My trip is almost over .