Today, on a walking tour, we visited the village of Esna and the market. This was a short walk from where the ship was berthed. The above photo was suppose to be of the sad donkey when this young man jumped in with his cats. Then he followed us around for the next 10 minutes asking for 1 dolla. I wasn't going to pay him I didn't ask to take his photo and we didn't have any change. But it turned out to be a great photo so sorry cat boy.
Above:- he is foot ironing, yes that is a thing!
Lots of textiles in this market and lots of 'vultures'.
You can't let your eyes drift to any of the wares on show as you will be pounced on by the sellers . No window shopping, no pointing and something or admiring an item, no comparing two items.
Above- This is Fatma the guide for this tour.
Then after the mayhem of the dirty dusty market we visited the Coptic Christian Church.
Jesus has a chandelier coning out of his head.. really.?
There is a shopping story to tell from this market experience,
but I'll leave that until the end of this post...
Then we were back on the ship by 10am, and set sail for Aswan.
Today's onboard activities started with an Egyptian Hieroglyphic class.
This is my effort, in a cartouche.
I'm a cup, K,
a feather I/Y,
and an owl M.
This is my witchy interpretation, a cup is a vessel that holds water/fluid/chardonnay, all essential for life, a feather flies on a bird above, looks down on the world and can see things from a different perspective, and the owl is wisdom.
Ooooh, I like that, and because I liked it, it's going to cost me dearly in the next day or so. More of that to come in a future post.
Then there was a falafel cooking demonstration (very tasty) and a talk on medicine in ancient Egypt, some of the instruments we use now were first invented then and here.
Then it was the wheelhouse tour with Captain Harby.
A bit choppy out on the Nile today.
The galabeya story
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We decided to don the traditional Egyptian dress for the galabeya night party. Most of our fellow passengers also dressed up and all the crew and program directors were dressed to the nines.
We needed to buy galabeyas at the Esna markets. We only had Egyptian pounds left that were equal to about 35 Australian dollars. We were told that they should be about $10.00 each.
I saw a dress I liked, it was not the traditional galabeya white, it was red, and I foolishly pointed it out to Graham. Then I was in the tiny shop (smaller than our bathroom), no idea how I got in there, do they just suck you in? Then I saw the same dress on display in turquoise, oh I like that one better. He looked me up and down, you'll be an extra large.. okay sadly I agree extra large. He then materialised this turquoise XL dress out of nowhere, then took it out of the plastic bag and put it in my hands.
While this was going on, Graham was out the front of the shop having a discussion about his galabeya with my mates cousin/uncle/father.
Then we started to discuss rates for the two galabeya's and their price was more money than we had. We tried to bring the price down with bargaining. we are hopeless at bargaining..
Then I tried to give it back to him.
He wouldn't take it.
So I threw the turquoise dress on the floor of his shop!
(Back in the plastic bag of course).
We left the shop.
Then he chased us down the street.
We gave him every bit of money we had.. (about $35.00 Australian).
But have 2 beautiful galayas, and if anyone would like to dress up as Lawrence of Arabia or Queen Cleopatra please get in touch...
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