After our morning adventures at the Sakkara tombs, we headed into town to visit a Sakkara carpet making school. The way that these schools were explained to us was that they were created to help give some of the more impoverished children a way out of poverty by providing them with both an education and a trade. They attend a regular school for half of the day and then attend the carpet making school for the other half of the day.
The carpets were made of cotton, or wool, or a combination of cotton and wool, or of silk. The silk carpets were the most expensive. Some carpets were relatively similar to the carpets I had seen in Turkey, while others were of more Egyptian images.
We were given a demonstration of the carpet making and then shown several of the finished products. I wasn’t interested in buying a carpet, so I just sort of wandered around the showroom while trying not to linger long enough anywhere to attract a salesperson. There were several people in our group and the other groups who were interested in buying something, so the salespeople were busy enough with them.
All prices were being quoted in US dollars. As was the case during my first trip to Egypt, eighteen years earlier, they seemed to be much more interested in American dollars than in their own currency. All cash transactions for various souvenirs, food, clothing, etc., were always quoted in USD.
People seemed to be insulted if you tried to give them Egyptian pounds. That wasn’t helpful to the tourists who weren’t from the US. We had people from the UK and from Australia in our group and on our ship. They had exchanged some of their own currencies for Egyptian pounds. Some of them found it so frustrating that they chose not to buy anything.
On my prior trip to Egypt, one of the women with whom I was hanging out was from India. She knew about the preference for USD in Egypt and had exchanged some of her own money for USD while still in India. But an Australian woman with whom I was spending some time while on this trip had not been told about that and had exchanged her money for Egyptian pounds. She told me that she wished her travel agent had told her to get USD instead.
You might think that it would have been a good idea to just use a credit card. Unfortunately that could be quite dicey anywhere other than the finer shops and restaurants. I only used my card twice to buy anything in Egypt. Once on the ship during our cruise and the other at the papyrus shop we visited as a group.
After leaving the Sakkara Carpet School, we headed for our lunch at the Al Badarashin Resort (aka Sakkara Country Club). We were greeted there by some musicians playing Egyptian music. All three groups from the Viking Amun and both groups from the Viking Antares were dining together on Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, East African, and Egyptian cuisine.
It was buffet style, so I had some of each of the following:
- Baba Ganoush (finely chopped roasted eggplant, olive oil, lemon juice, various seasonings, and tahini)
- Tahini (a Middle Eastern condiment made from ground sesame seeds)
- Falafel (a deep-fried ball or patty-shaped fritter of Egyptian origin, made from ground fava beans, chickpeas, or both, and mixed with herbs and spices before frying; these were made from fava beans)
- Roasted eggplant
- Carrots (which surprised me by being a bit spicy)
- Sambusa (East African crispy, golden-brown pastries filled with a mix of spiced meat, vegetables, or lentils)
- Stuffed Grape Leaves (the Egyptian version — Mahshi Waraq Enab — grape leaves stuffed with seasoned rice, herbs, and minced meat, layered in a pot and simmered with a tangy lemon and broth liquid)
- Pasta
- Barbequed Beef
- Barbequed Chicken
I put the Tahini and Falafel together in some pita bread, and the Baba Ganoush in another pita bread with the roasted eggplant (I know – eggplant and eggplant, but it was delicious). There was a lot of food and all of it that I had was mighty tasty. I felt I was revived and ready for our afternoon excursion.
Next – The Citadel of Saladin and the Mohamed Ali Mosque
