On a lighter note…. I am pleased to finally be able to publish this blog entry, now that the recipient of the secret gift detailed therein has received her surprise!

Cairo, Egypt, 29 December 2010

From Gwen Comes To Egypt

My cousin Gwen arrived safe and sound last night, after some sightseeing in Amsterdam along the way. We started out light on the first day, sleeping in till noon, having a leisurely lunch at Costa Coffee, and wandering across the Qasr al-Aini Bridge to the Opera to get tickets for tonight’s Nutcracker. They were sold out, so we got tickets for a piano concert instead.

When we arrived at the Egyptian Museum, it was closed. (FYI, it closes early on Wednesdays, which the guidebooks all neglected to mention.) So we decided to head over to Khan al-Khalili to do a little shopping and experience the Arab souq. Gwen’s good at bargaining!

We were on our way out when we spotted the man laying out animal skins and leather footrests. He also had a taxidermied fox and a pair of taxidermied rabbits. It was that latter that made Gwen stop and say, “That would a perfect gift for my mom!” It’s a long story best summed up by a phrase my mother loves to use in her defense, “But Auntie Viv is the only eccentric in the family!”

When we went out to dinner later, we left the rabbit on the coffee table in our living room, where my German roommate Amir agreed it looked hilarious. When my French roommate Sana’a came home, however, she startled Amir away from the book he was reading with a scream. It took him several minutes to remember the rabbit in the living room, and it took Sana’a several hours to get used to it, but eventually everyone agreed it was great for a laugh!