So, I want to dedicate this post to 2 major things - a bit of sightseeing in Cairo, and the experience of managing things on my own in this immense city; and the other one is a bit of a cultural insight.
(and the first round of pictures are uploaded to
Cairo...20 million people in one place, if you are fast on the highway it takes 4 hours to get around it. And total craze...I thought traffic is crazy in Jordan, well I feel safe back in Amman after the days of Cairo :P
Everyone talks about the legandary pyramids and they are indeed awesome! But did
you know (besides people who have already been there) that the Gizah pyramids are actually part of the city? That it is surrounded on 2 sides by blocks of flat and to check out the sphinx you need to walk max 200 meters from the first fast food restaurant? That was an interesting experience :P
Also the camels....yeah, I finally got to ride a camel, but after this I can barely imagine how people survived full days on their backs....it is super inconvenient. So I shifted to horse, thinking that the horse is led by a dude and I just need to stay on the horse, well I was wrong. 2 minutes after shifting the guy gave me the lead, yeah do it alone (for this you need to know that I have no idea how to ride a horse, the last time I was on a horse was at least 10 years ago, it was a pony and it was led in a circle and I was screaming on top :D). But I managed to survive the experience, by the end I was pretty fine with the directions, well the speed controll was never working (I dunno if my horse or I was more stubborn on what we want :P).
It was also really an experience managing taxis in Cairo. You need to argue and bargain for each and every ride. There are taxi meters, but of course not in use. As foreigners we will usually the ones targeted to be ripped off, with not really high success :) we either always had argumentative people, with or without basic arabic knowledge or someone speaking arabic....usually the first version. But by the end of 3 days in Cairo we all knew the key words: numbers and NO.
But sticking to the sigthseeing: before the conference was the birthday of the Prophet...so we went to see the celebrations. Well, they were scary :) a looot of people just shouting and singing in a language I have no idea about. But this whole march did lead us to a beautiful place in Cairo, Khan Khalili - the market. Every kind of things you can imagine...and you can of course bargain for. I was amazed on the effect of knowing a few really basic things in arabic...prices got halfed in a matter of a second. I had very fast a bunch of other foreigners from the faci team hanging up to come bargain, though I don't think I'm the best in it :D
We have also seen the Mohammad Ali citadel and went to a religious garden (sorry I forgot the name) right above Islamic Cairo/the old city. Well the view was amazing from there and we could here the prayer for basically every corner of the city. And obviously we had like half an hour just for pictures....I felt like a japaneese tourist (or I can say a normal young arab guy put on every possible picture, it is insane how much time people can spend here with pictures).
And about the culture...well many people say that all arab countries are the same (though they usually have the picture of a Gulf country in mind). But it is sooooo not truueee, gosh, I never ever imagined such diversity in a region! Even when we say that Central Europe is diverse, it is nothing to the diversity and variety of MENA. Also the so many different ways of being muslim and still being a good muslim. Nevertheless there are common points everywhere, but I would never ever dare again boxing in this region into "arabs" or "muslims" it is just so surficial and has no value at all behind it. I have been facilitator on this conference, and as someone trying to lead people and pass on messages I can assure anyone who tries making one box out of the region: you will not succeed then. Besides knowing that they are all really different cultures it is also true that people are really proud and sensitive of their identity.
Sensitivity of identity, just something random popped up in my mind writing this line. 15th of March happened during the conference itself. I was never a big fan of national holidays, I always somehow felt they are rather a waste of time. But I was wrong again. I think I have never been that proud to wear the tricolor than this day. Feels interesting reflecting on this point. I was not shouting out loud to everybody, but I was proud to be the only hungarian and I was proud celebrating my national holiday.
I guess it is enough of random insights for today....though I have a lot just popping up in my mind. I though that this conference will not give me that much...but it was the best choice I made before heading for the future. Ok, back to work, yalla :P
(and the first round of pictures are uploaded to
Cairo...20 million people in one place, if you are fast on the highway it takes 4 hours to get around it. And total craze...I thought traffic is crazy in Jordan, well I feel safe back in Amman after the days of Cairo :P
Everyone talks about the legandary pyramids and they are indeed awesome! But did
you know (besides people who have already been there) that the Gizah pyramids are actually part of the city? That it is surrounded on 2 sides by blocks of flat and to check out the sphinx you need to walk max 200 meters from the first fast food restaurant? That was an interesting experience :PAlso the camels....yeah, I finally got to ride a camel, but after this I can barely imagine how people survived full days on their backs....it is super inconvenient. So I shifted to horse, thinking that the horse is led by a dude and I just need to stay on the horse, well I was wrong. 2 minutes after shifting the guy gave me the lead, yeah do it alone (for this you need to know that I have no idea how to ride a horse, the last time I was on a horse was at least 10 years ago, it was a pony and it was led in a circle and I was screaming on top :D). But I managed to survive the experience, by the end I was pretty fine with the directions, well the speed controll was never working (I dunno if my horse or I was more stubborn on what we want :P).
It was also really an experience managing taxis in Cairo. You need to argue and bargain for each and every ride. There are taxi meters, but of course not in use. As foreigners we will usually the ones targeted to be ripped off, with not really high success :) we either always had argumentative people, with or without basic arabic knowledge or someone speaking arabic....usually the first version. But by the end of 3 days in Cairo we all knew the key words: numbers and NO.
But sticking to the sigthseeing: before the conference was the birthday of the Prophet...so we went to see the celebrations. Well, they were scary :) a looot of people just shouting and singing in a language I have no idea about. But this whole march did lead us to a beautiful place in Cairo, Khan Khalili - the market. Every kind of things you can imagine...and you can of course bargain for. I was amazed on the effect of knowing a few really basic things in arabic...prices got halfed in a matter of a second. I had very fast a bunch of other foreigners from the faci team hanging up to come bargain, though I don't think I'm the best in it :D
We have also seen the Mohammad Ali citadel and went to a religious garden (sorry I forgot the name) right above Islamic Cairo/the old city. Well the view was amazing from there and we could here the prayer for basically every corner of the city. And obviously we had like half an hour just for pictures....I felt like a japaneese tourist (or I can say a normal young arab guy put on every possible picture, it is insane how much time people can spend here with pictures).And about the culture...well many people say that all arab countries are the same (though they usually have the picture of a Gulf country in mind). But it is sooooo not truueee, gosh, I never ever imagined such diversity in a region! Even when we say that Central Europe is diverse, it is nothing to the diversity and variety of MENA. Also the so many different ways of being muslim and still being a good muslim. Nevertheless there are common points everywhere, but I would never ever dare again boxing in this region into "arabs" or "muslims" it is just so surficial and has no value at all behind it. I have been facilitator on this conference, and as someone trying to lead people and pass on messages I can assure anyone who tries making one box out of the region: you will not succeed then. Besides knowing that they are all really different cultures it is also true that people are really proud and sensitive of their identity.
Sensitivity of identity, just something random popped up in my mind writing this line. 15th of March happened during the conference itself. I was never a big fan of national holidays, I always somehow felt they are rather a waste of time. But I was wrong again. I think I have never been that proud to wear the tricolor than this day. Feels interesting reflecting on this point. I was not shouting out loud to everybody, but I was proud to be the only hungarian and I was proud celebrating my national holiday.
I guess it is enough of random insights for today....though I have a lot just popping up in my mind. I though that this conference will not give me that much...but it was the best choice I made before heading for the future. Ok, back to work, yalla :P
