And life goes on in Cairo!

It was too much politics and demonstrations in my life in past few weeks. I needed a break from all of it and I succeeded.

First of all though, sorry I cannot help it, let me summarize the situation in Egypt as of now: it is far from stable, demonstrations of opposition continue, yesterday demonstrated also the Muslim Brotherhood in Giza to show its support to the president. President Morsi was speaking to public three times in the past week, trying to calm down the escalated situation, to explain his right and good intentions to put himself above the law, and last but not least calling for a national referendum on the draft constitution on 15 December 2012. New constitution was voted on by the Constituent Assembly last Thursday – a sudden vote, President Morsi had asked for extension of time for drafting constitution for another two months the week before… The opposition got consolidated, thanks to President’s Morsi’s last steps, in a new National Salvation Front (NSF). It plans to fight against President Mohamed Morsi’s constitutional declaration. The new constitution is far from perfect. Fortunately, the article 68 concerning women rights, I described in detail in my last post, was dismissed. But still there should be done more. You can read about the draft of constitution’s shortcomings in the  Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International, UK  reports, and a comparison of Egypt’s suspended and draft constitutions was nicely done by BBC.

Back to life:

I went for a walk on Saturday. It was a perfect sunny day. I walked toward the Sultan Hassan Mosque and Salah El Din Citadel. Even though there were demonstrations happening in the city, I did not see anything. Everything was calm. Life went on. After I wrote this, I could not get this song out of my head: Noah and the Whale – ‘L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.’ – yes, it does remind you of The Kinks’ Lola :-)

I was taking photos and started to relax. I love street vegetables and fruits vendors. To go to a market is one of my favorite activities here.

I love the smell of markets, and also the fact that you can buy anything there: from fruits to pots and pans. Prices of vegetables and fruits are usually not negotiable but prices of other goods…oh, man, lot of fun.

I was slowly approaching Ibn Tulun Mosque when I got a nice view through a barred window. While I was taking a photo, a guy approached me. He told me: “Madam, the mosque is open”.

I should have known that he works in the mosque but I did not mind to be guided inside. The guy asked me to pay 40 EGP for the entrance. That was too much – to compare koshari, one of my favorite dishes, costs around much less than 10 EGP and it is full dinner. I bargained the price down to 10 EGP – the guy put the money in the mosque box and said: “That was for the mosque, after you finish you also have to give some baksheesh to me”. Of course, that’s the trick :-)

He opened a door leading to the minaret for me. I climbed up and the view was amazing:

on the Citadel:

and also Ibn Tulun Mosque:

I spent up there a long time. The sun was slowly getting down; the colors were changing, I was sitting on the top of the minaret and relaxing. I got very calm, I felt connected with the Universe again, I felt, as one famous Czech writer called it, the unbearable lightness of being.

On the way home, several people greeted and smiled at me, guys from my favorite café Arabesque waved hello. It felt good, I was welcomed, I was home.

Even after I climbed 11 floors to my apartment, I was not sweating: a good sign that the weather was not so hot anymore. I knew a bottle of nice white wine, brought from Venice, was still cooling in the fridge. I thought:

Life is not so bad…;-)