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9/21
We decided in the morning to go to the Citadel. It’s a Friday and a lot of things are closed on Fridays but not the Citadel. Our taxi driver had to flag down a pedestrian to get a translation of where we wanted to go but seemed happy to take us there and didn’t demand 20LE as the other ones had. It was a pretty long drive (our book says it’s only 3km from downtown) but it seemed much longer. We gave the driver 15LE and he seemed really, really happy to get that.
We usually break our big bills at restaurants and tourist attractions. It was 40LE each to get in. So my partner handed over 200LE. As has happened before, the guy in the ticket window handed back 10LE (instead of the 120LE he was supposed to) and looked at my partner as if to say “we’re all finished here.” My partner didn’t move so the guy put down another 20LE and gave my partner another “all done” look. My partner finally said “where’s the rest of it? I gave you 200 pounds” and the guy took back the 10LE and put down two 50LE notes. It makes me sick to think that that probably does work on some tourists and I also wonder who keeps the money when it happens.
The Citadel (where the kings lived for 700 years) is one of the most expensive things to see in Cairo (maybe only next to the Pyramids). And it’s very impressive from the outside. Our book said it was over-rated and over-priced but we didn’t think so (it’s only $8 after all). We got there around lunchtime and from the top of the terraces you can hear all of the calls to prayer from all over the city at the same time. It was pretty amazing. The 3 mosques inside were also very beautiful although we obviously weren’t allowed inside because people were praying.
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