Al-Azhar Park

Turns out there is a park in Cairo. A great one--only a 20 minute cab ride away. So, it's not really accessible, and there's still no playground available to us (they've locked the one we used to play on)--but we did have a great family day at Al Azhar Park in the middle of Cairo a few weeks ago.

We happened to go to the park on the last day of a 2-week holiday for the Egyptian public schools, so the park was really crowded. You do have to pay admission, and while Jason was buying our tickets there were two things I wish I'd taken a picture of. One is that the ticket lines are segregated into a men's line and a women's line. The other was all the beautifully colored headscarves the women were wearing. I was surrounded by so many women and their headscarves reflected each color imaginable, and they were decorated with beads, sequins, and all kinds of patterns. The women here may be more limited in what they can wear (as in they must be so covered up) but they definitely use those headscarves to accessorize. (The headscarves are technically called higab, while the ones that fully cover their faces are niqqab.)

Anyway, we took a blanket and pillow to the park, as well as Luke's new basketball. When we got there, park officials took the basketball away for safekeeping, because apparently balls are not allowed in the park. Who knew? We walked around and explored, enjoying green grass, pretty water features, flowers, and the beautiful weather.

It was a pretty day, and we enjoyed the great views of Cairo. You can see lots of the mosques in the picture. You can also see a castle-like building up on the hill in the background. That's the Citadel. We haven't been there yet.

The Egyptian girls love Luke and often ask to kiss him or have their picture made with him. He tolerates the paparazzi pretty well.

Luke rolled down his first hill with Jason. He had tons of fun just running up and down, back and forth on this hill. He and Jason started a trend, and by the time we left lots of kids were rolling down the hill.

Luke had a great time just running and being a kid. All in all, it was a pretty cheap, good way to spend the afternoon. Hopefully next time we'll have more of the park to ourselves instead of feeling like all of Cairo is there!