A Dancing Saddle

This is not your everyday saddle, definitely. This is an Egyptian dancing horse saddle and they aren't that comfortable for riding, in my opinion. The dancing horses are a tradition similar to high level dressage in that the movements find their origins in warfare and have now been refined to be performed to music.

Changing One's Stripes

This is an architectural fashion that one doesn't find much outside the Arab world, striped buildings. I believe that it dates back to Mameluke days although this building was more likely constructed in the early 1900's.

Getting Rid Of Rain

Now that we are going into summer, this photo brings back a pleasant memory of a winter rain storm. These men were sweeping the rain out of the street in front of the Egyptian Museum

The Shopkeeper's Stillness

Pedestrians blur past the owner of this metal work shop as he waits for an assistant to take an item down from a distant spot with a long pole.

Heavy Metal

Cart horses are still important in Cairo and some of them are cared for with the utmost of concern. This stallion who was standing alongside a busy street finishing his lunch has a particularly nicely turned out harness.

Sidewalk Shopping

Unlike Toronto or LA, where car parts are usually sold in a Canadian Tire store or some strip mall, Cairo has an area for car parts. This area is downtown where parking is almost impossible and rents for stores are astronomical, so some enterprising individuals buy vans and set up shop on a convenient sidewalk. Lower overhead means lower prices, but things don't have much of a guarantee.

Carrying, The Guys' Way

No one can say that Cairene's aren't brave. You wouldn't catch me riding a bicycle anywhere in urban Cairo, much less doing it with an enormous tray of bread on my head.

Easter 2008, Round One

Happy Easter, everyone...or at least Happy western Easter. We celebrate both the European Easter and the Eastern Orthodox/Coptic Easter, which will come in about a month. So today was the first Easter of the year. I spent it at an early Easter brunch with my Lebanese/Finnish/Egyptian/Canadian adopted/extended family in Maadi. We had a lovely lunch and then an air-conditioned (it was over 100F/38C today) Easter Egg hunt after which the adults had a great time assembling Kinder toys from inside the chocolate eggs. After that I headed back to the countryside to join another Easter lunch/dinner in a garden at a neighbouring farm with an outdoor Easter Egg hunt that had children working in teams to solve puzzles that would lead to the location of a buried treasure. The adult team leaders, including myself, had to be able to explain the directions of the game in English, Arabic, and Danish...though other languages were helpful and we resorted to a mom to help out with the Danish.

I don't think that I will be hungry for a while.

A Natural Model

I love the faces of people everywhere but Egyptians are very open and they are right there...in your face. This old man came up to me on his camel near the pyramids and demanded to have his photo taken. He was a bit disappointed that I would have to download to a computer to have a large view, but thought that the small picture he could see on the camera's display was pretty good.

The Cash Man

I'm often surprised by tourists who tell me that they've been warned about their safety in Egypt. I bet that this guy, the man who collects the cash at the gas station in Maadi, would last about ten minutes in Detroit or Chicago. No one pays for gas with credit cards here. It's all cash and it's all in his hand.