Had a BLAST again yesterday!

Okay, so we might have been a little over zealous, but we ventured out for another adventure- two days in a row!  This time we planned to just run down-town for a little bit, but once we met up with our friend Carrie, we realized we could stay down there for the day.

So, we made it off the train around lunch time, took a taxi to the closest item on the map we could find-- a middle eastern embassy.  That was an interesting conversation with the taxi driver.  :)  Anyway, we walked to the Fish Market and had an amazing lunch.

Little Man really enjoyed the seafood soup. . . . despite the claw sitting on the plate beside it.  :)

The restaurant was on a boat docked on the Nile and you picked out your fish you wanted, the way you wanted it cooked, and the sides, and they brought it to you.  As is. Ours was fried.

Needless to say, it did taste good.  :)

We left there and went to the "zoo."  We had heard it was cheap to get in, but some people thought it was good inside and others thought it was miserable.  Sadly, had it been cheap, it might not have been so miserably disappointing.  For Non-Egyptiams, the price was 20 pounds a person, Egyptians are 2 per person.  It appeared to be like a park, with a few animals in very small cages here and there.  There were many people there, many with small children, and many of them sitting around on blankets with picnics.  As I type that, it doesn't seem that bad.  But it was one of the cultural experiences where we felt like we needed to leave.  Quickly.  Not because we were in any kind of danger, just because the situation didn't feel right as foreigners.  To top it all off, it was incredibly dirty.  Like "Boys, walk around here for an hour and don't touch ANYTHING" kind of dirty.  When you are 3 and 5, that's kind of like asking you to solve a calculus equation.  Impossible.

 Anyway, we left there and headed back towards downtown, where our evening activities were.  We were meeting our friends and arrived a little bit early (due of course to our early departure from the previous mentioned activity).  Once again, we pulled out the handiest book of all time, Lonely Planet Egypt, and looked up activities in the downtown area.  We didn't have enough time to go to the museum, but there was a little shop that looked interesting so we went to find it.  And let me tell you, as much as the zoo was a disappointment, this little store was a joy!  It was amazing and beautiful, lots of incredible handmade gifts, cotton items, glassware, games, bags, clothes.  What fun!  We will definitely be back to this one before we leave!

The night ended with the "meeting," and "family" from different lands gathered to praise the Risen L-rd.  It was amazing.  We left a little bit early, as we were with some friends who had two little girls, plus our two little boys at a meeting that started at 7pm.  When we walked out and got to the square this is what we saw.  Beautiful.