6th April - Coptic Cairo and Start of Middle East Adventure

Slow start to the day as we had to pack up ready to go to our new hotel. We left our bags at the hostel and set of for the Midan Tahir metro station. We bought our tickets to Mar Girgis station which was 4 stops, only 1 Egyptian pound (20 cents) each. 

We visited Coptic Cairo which is the oldest area of Cairo. Places we visited were The Church of St George, Church of St Sergius - oldest church reputedly having housed the holy family as they fled Herod. Also Ben Ezra Synagogue, the Coptic Museum (which has an amazing collection of 4th, 5th & 6th century stone carvings, paintings and tapestries) and the hanging church.

We caught the metro back into town and made our way to the hostel stopping off along the way to buy a couple of felafel sandwiches for 1 pound each. So our very filling lunch cost us less than $1. We ate lunch in the common room of the hostel then headed off to our new hotel on the other side of the river. Our taxi driver got lost and had to stop 3 times to ask directions. The traffic was bumper to bumper all the way. We finally made it to our new lodgings and checked in. We met our group at 4pm, our tour leader's name is Ahmed and he seems very nice. After the meeting we set off for the Al-Azhar mosque. 

Ahmed explained the call to prayer to us as we were in the mosque as the call was being made. We then walked over to the Khan-Al Khalili markets and had a look around. We stopped of at an Egyptian fast food restaurant called GAD for dinner before heading back to the hotel and to bed by 11pm.