Cairo Day 5: The Citadel

Day 5 was supposed to be our trip to Alexandria, but getting up early just wasn't happening (for Abby at least), so we pushed back the day trip and decided to go to the Citadel instead.  It was a bit tricky getting there, as it was pretty far from the hostel, so we took the metro to closest station and then took a taxi.  Since the Arabic name is not the same as the English name, we had a slight language barrier issue trying to convey to the taxi driver where we wanted to go.  This was not our day for taxis to say the least.  The driver flipped on the meter which is a rare and unusual occurrence in Cairo but when the fare came out to only 11 pounds, he immediately reset the meter and insisted the fare was going to be 25 pounds.  Steve argued with the driver for a bit, but since he didn't speak hardly any English, it was futile.  While it really wasn't much money, feeling like people can rip you off at the leisure wasn't a warm fuzzy of the trip.

The Citadel, however, was excellent.  The complex is pretty large and includes several mosques, a police museum, a military museum, and some nice babs (gateways). The whole thing is on top of a big, easily defended plateau.

Steve hopped right in front of my picture!

Beautiful Muhammad Ali Mosque

Close up of the Mosque

We got to go into the mosque.  The interior was beautiful.

Inside the Sultan al-Nasir Muhammed ibn Qala'un Mosque, a much older mosque.

Weapons on display.

Steve in the Military Museum

The museum was housed in a beautiful palace. Unfortunately, much of the museum was closed off for unknown reasons.

Pouting by the tanks.

Oddly shaped tree; see the hanging bag? The guy with the sweatshirt on his head is there to tell tourists to stay away from the wall, as it would be a pretty big fall from there.

Fortress

A fun day!

It was a great day at the Citadel, and a pain in the rear to get a taxi to take us back.  We didn't want a taxi all the way back to the hostel, just to the nearest metro station, and it was almost impossible to convince a driver to take us to the metro.  We knew it was going to be a lot more to drive all the way back to the hostel, since it was located in the downtown area and the traffic there is pretty bad.

Unfortunately, we ended up having to tell the driver we were going to El-Marg, which is the end of the metro line and at least 12 miles away.  Only after that would he stop trying to convince us to drive back to the hostel.  Sadly, small lies seems to be necessary to ease traveling.

Catch up on the rest of our trip:
Holy Mother of Chaos
Cairo Day 0
Cairo Day 1

Cairo Day 2

Cairo Day 3: Part 1

Cairo Day 3: Part 2

Cairo Day 4