The Citadel

Today's journey for Heidi and I was by way of taxi. The taxi driver we found didn't speak any English at all, so we had to call a guy over to translate for us so we could negotiate a price. I suppose I probably haven't mentioned this yet, but taxis here do not run off of a meter. Sure, they come equpped with a meter, but much like traffic lights and lines on the road, they're just for show and don't actually perform any function. Well, after a bit of bartering, we got the driver down to 15 Egyptian Pounds (approximately $3 Canadian) for our 15 minute taxi ride. Now, one would think that since the taxi driver didn't speak the same language as us, he wouldn't bother with the small-talk... but he made an attempt at it anyways! It was kind of funny trying to communicate with this guy, and probably quite frustrating for him. After a lot of pointing and grunting and waving around of his arms, the driver finally figured out that Heidi and I are from Canada, are married, and have no children. I think I mentioned earlier that Heidi is always referred to as my wife when we go out sightseeing, as foreign women recieve a lot more respect when they are married. Now, back to the story. I guess having no children in this culture is quite unusual for a couple, and is even seen as unfortunate. This man, through various interesting gestures and sounds, appeared to be encouraging us to get busy making babies. I think if you're married, and don't have children, Egyptians percieve you as being unable to bear children. Well, eventually the driver became tired of attempting conversation with us and proceeded to pull out a wad of cash and count it while driving. I should remind you that traffic here in Cairo is completely insane, so watching our driver count his money while weaving in and out of traffic was quite unnerving. There were some very interesting sights on the way to the Citadel, but I didn't take out my camera cause I hate looking like a tourist outside of obvious tourist areas. I think we passed through the "City of the Dead" on the way, which I hope to return to and document for you folks. It's quite a sad looking area, full of poor people... and dead people (in their graves, of course).

Walking around the sights of the Citadel was fairly uneventful. Lots of annoying tourists and such. I can't stand tourists. So annoying and culturally insensitive. Yeah, I'm part tourist, but I'm also part resident, as well. So I don't suck. heh heh. Anyways, I took some pretty cool pictures and have created a new album for them. Click here to check them out! A large portion of the Citadel is now a really cheesy military museum which we weren't a fan of. First of all, you have to buy a photography license to take pictures, and second, it's so cheesy that you really don't feel the need to take a picture of anything in the museum at all.

Our taxi home was a little more expensive. Cab drivers like to rip of tourists, and it's hard to hide the fact that you're a tourist when you're white and you're walking out of a massive tourist area. 20 pounds was the lowest we could get the driver, and he wouldn't even drive me home. He made me walk home from Heidi's place. I think I'll boycott taxis until I take another one. Anyways, I think I'll sign off for today. Tomorrow we go to Alexandria, so I should have some nice pictures to post from there. Don't forget to check out the Citadel Photo Album!