Lyn and Leon go to ...: Museum, Mosques and Markets

That morning we met our guide, Naila (51 with a French accent), and the three other Australian women who made up our party in Cairo. In our very own minibus, we headed first to the Egyptian Museum.

The museum was like a great jumble sale of treasure. I couldn’t see enough.

I was struck by the lack of information. Inevitably the focus was on Tut’s treasures but there were important artefacts everywhere. The labelling was sometimes typed and occasionally handwritten in languages including English, French, Arabic and German. There were courtyards of sculpture and endless very dusty cases.

Lyn was discovering the endless need to tip – for everything.

Went to the toilet in the museum and then had to come rushing back to Leon to get money to tip.

Off we went to lunch at a restaurant, then to the citadel and then the bazaar.

Very tiny streets (no cars) – sheep wandering down them – people really do bother you all the time here.

If people bothered Lyn it was hardly surprising. Even decently attired for our afternoon mosque crawl she must have been a startling sight for your average Egyptian male. It was at the jewellers in the bazaar here that I bought Lyn her gold earrings and her cartouche pendant.

Lyn found people 'bothered' her. I wonder why?

The mosques were a wonder. So were the workers and archaeology students using traditional tools, often perched up high on terrifying scaffolding.

The photos were taken as unobtrusively as possible to avoid embarrassing calls for baksheesh...

The Egyptian government at this time was trying to enforce a ridiculous exchange rate. Illegal money changing was profitable and rife. Despite a tight budget we felt shamefully affluent at times.