Harris World Tour

Sunday, December 30th, 2018. Today we got up late. We were going to see the Cairo Citadel (Salah al Din Citadel) and the Muhammed Ali mosque but I honestly just wanted to see my mom. Daniel wanted to stay home but I didn't feel comfortable leaving him alone. Luckily, the WiFi wasn't working well so he ended up coming with us. The kids and I took an Uber to the hotel that we got for my mom. At first, I was very nervous not going with Gregory but Daniel calmed me down and I was OK. We made it to the Hotel Baron before my mom and Ali did. I was a little anxious because they had left their previous hotel before us! They arrived shortly after and I helped them check in. The hotel was ok but their room didn't have heat and the patio door didn't close well. Thank God my mom just goes with the flow and thinks everything is great. She invited us to eat lunch in the hotel restaurant. I love my children, looking at the menu and saying that everything was expensive. My mom so...

Saturday, December 29, 2018. Today we woke up early because we hired a local guide to show us some sites. We decided to start in Coptic Cairo since it was near our apartment. This is also called Religions Community because of all the churches, a synagogue and a mosque all close to each other. We met our guide, Mo, outside the oldest mosque in Cairo, the Amr ibn Al As.  He explained that up until the 1950s, people of different religions use to live in peace together here in Egypt! What happened? I wonder.  Mo studied Egyptology and was very passionate and knowledgeable about every building, history, religion and anything we asked him about. We started the visit with the hanging church which we had seen before but this time with an explanation . We proceeded to see St George's basilica, then Ben Ezra synagogue before finishing in the mosque. Mo pointed out the similarities in decoration in all 3 buildings.  After that, we went back to Khan Al Khalili where we vi...

Thursday, December 27, 2018. Today we went to the Egyptian Museum which is located on Tahrir Square. We got there around 10:30 and it was kind of crowded. We thought about getting a guide but they charged a lot so we went in by ourselves. It was huge and impressive. It took us a while to figure out what we wanted to see but after a while we split, Gregory and Daniel went to one side and Sunshine and I to another room. We saw so many impressive things that it is hard to describe. All I can tell you is that we stayed there until 2:00pm, went to Koshary El Tahrir for lunch where they only serve one thing, koshary! Koshary is rice, macaroni, lentils, tomato sauce, and fried onions. It was tasty, filling and cheap! By then, Sunshine and Daniel were done but Gregory wanted to go back. I wasn't sure what I wanted but I preferred to be inside a place than outside in the streets of Cairo. I really can't find beauty in this city and I'm not trying to be negative. We went back to the ...

Thursday, December 27th, 2018 Today I woke up very excited to see my mom! She left on the night of December 25th and arrived today at 4:00am. I thought they were going to sleep in but when I checked my phone, I already had a message from her. She texted me asking us to hurry up that she was dying to see us. Of course, I hurried everyone up to get ready to go. We had breakfast, took Uber to her hotel, and got there around noon. It felt so good to hug her and I couldn't help it but cry. I really needed her so much and I was so thankful that she came to the rescue. We spent the rest of the day in her hotel, the Mercure Sphinx. It wasn't super fancy but it was quiet, clean and pretty. She brought us many bags of presents for everybody: clothes for Sunshine and me, Mexican candy for Daniel and tequila for Gregory, which he and she started to drink right away. We were going to eat out and went we went outside to look for a place to eat. The street was cold and noisy. My mom immediate...

Wednesday, December 26th, 2018. Stay at home day Got up at 10:00am, had a nice brunch and stayed home almost all day. We needed to rest, to catch up with the blog, find plane tickets for Luxor, find a place to stay and do laundry. Ah, how I miss my washing machine and my dryer! Today I used a washing machine that has the washing on one side and the spinner on another. You have to manually move the clothes to the spinner section and now I’m debating if I should hang  my clean clothes  outside . All Cairo is dirty, even the air, it is just so dusty but I don’t know where else to hang up my wet clothes. See everyone, it's not all vacation! Daniel finally made his brownies with Nutella that he has been wanting to bake since Jordan. That was our lunch! We snacked in the afternoon and around 6:00pm, Gregory and I went out for dinner to Tahrir square. He found an restaurant called Cafe Riche which is considered the oldest restaurant in Cairo. The food was just OK, small portions a...

Tuesday, December 25th, 2018.  It is Christmas day and I felt a little blue. Ok, I did cry a little because it did not feel like Christmas and I was not happy to celebrate my birthday in Cairo. My sweetie Gregorio gave me a hug and I felt better. We had a quick breakfast and waited for Gimmy (our host) to drive us to the pyramids in Giza. We told him that we would only need two hours so he waited for us. We ended up texting him twice asking to pick us up later because we had so much to cover. Tip: Bring lots of cash to pay for the admission at every site and every museum. They do not accept credit cards and they charge to go in and you also have to pay separately to enter each pyramid. Luckily, Gregory had taken some money out the night before and we used it all! We warned by our host and his Canadian wife to be careful with the vendors. They try to get money out of you for everything, even for taking a picture! We told them that we knew because we had been in Istanbul and Petr...