Cairo: David Beckham is in town!

Cairo's zoo is over one hundred years old, which is clearly visible. In fact it's a big park, adapted to accommodate enormous amounts of families on Fridays and Saturdays that picnic and play football. Our travelguide states that visiting the park isn´t advisible for animal-lovers. If you really can´t resist the urge to go, then you shouldn´t go on Friday, the Islamic day off. Of course we do visit the park, on a Friday, and can't believe our eyes. In between eating and playing the visitors glance at the animals, that are lodged in far too small shelters. They climb over fences and feed the animals anything they like varying from mandarins to ice-cream and plastic bags. It's clear the animals are not the main feature to them.

At most cages that house dangerous animals an employee is standing who allows you to feed the animal for a small baksheesh (bribe of gift) or takes a picture of the both of you.
An old wish of mine is fulfilled: I get to feed a hippo some grass. I can´t believe the size of the animal from up close and the enormous mouth and teeth!
Walking a little bit further, another employees comes up to us and askes whether we would like to hold a baby-lion. For a baksheesh a bit bigger than we gave for feeding the hippo we're brought very sneaky into the lion's 'residence'. The cup is lured out of his cage and pushed into our arms while his mother roars loudly. Extremely amazing all of this.

This also applies to part of the animal-collection, mainly the dogs and marmots. In the Netherlands they're seen in pet-shops and never in the zoo. And the domestic cats; they're everywhere, in the cage of the royal vultures they're even stealing food.

A lot of animals show neurotic behaviour, like the Tibetean bear that constantly thumps his head against the bars. He very strongly reminds us of the Egyptian men with their ´thump´-marks on their foreheads. Whilst praying they constantly thump their head on the floor, instead of keeping a distance the size of a grape between their foreheads and the floor, as laid down in the Koran. The skin on their foreheads has become different in colour and structure, a callosity. For them it´s the ultimate sign to the rest of the world that they´re real believers.
Most fascinating in the zoo are the people that pay money to have a guard put their baby into an elephant´s mouth and videotape this and take pictures. Exciting, and very strange indeed!
One of the things that makes a visit to the zoo worthwhile, apart form looking at the people, are the beautiful trees. A lot of them seem to be over a hundred years old: enormous ficus with elegantly shaped trunks, huge palmtrees, cactus and our first baobab.

Cairo´s citadel lies in the eastern part of town. The famous Saladin started its construction in 1.176 AD to fortify the town against the crusaders. After that Mamelukes, Ottoman and the French under Napoleon flooded the country. They extended the fortress with palaces, harems and gates. Mohammed Aly demolished everything, except for a mosque that was being used as horses-stable. He wanted to build a mosque, but didn´t have the means to buy expensive stone. So somebody thought of a huge supply of marvellous stone they could have for free: the top-layer of the pyramids of Gizeh. They took this layer off and build an enormous mosque, which still can be visited today. Speaking of cultural barbarism. The mosque is very special though: Ottoman-style with Byzantine influences, a lot of marble that has been sawed and placed symmetrically. From the citadel there are magnificent views over the town.

Three times a week a group of Sufi-dancers perform in the citadel. Sufi isn´t really an artform, but a split-off of the Islam, just like Sunnite and Shiite. It´s an ancient and mystical Muslem-tradition; the dancers whirl around to reach a trance-like state in which they come closer to Allah. The appearance of the group, allthough organised for tourists, is breathtaking and very emotional. The music works the group up into a passion, faster and faster they whirl. Whilst turning, one colourful skirt after another is revealed and put aside, everytime another one appears. Not only the dancers seem to get into a trance, we´re also getting dizzy and are carried away by the spectacle.

The day after the sacrificial feast we visit the citadel another time. The square next to the mosque is literally overrun by youngsters. Boys and girls swarm around us. They look at Peter all the time and he seems to be the subject of their conversations. After some time the biggest hero comes up to Peter and asks timidly: "Are you David Beckham?"
Suddenly we understand all the interest and Peter decides to leave them under the impression they´re right.
"Yes, but don´t tell everybody!"

One at a time the boys approach Peter. They ask him whether he has got a pencil. As soon as he has got one out of the bag dozens of boys crowd around him. For fifteen minutes Peter signs false autographs on notes, money, sigarette-cases and bodyparts. He can imagine a little bit how it must be to be famous and he´s absolutely not jealous.