We actually made it to Cairo! (Day One)

No, we didn't forget about the blog.  We were in oh-my-gawd-Egypt for six days, including three in Cairo and three in Luxor - an awesome trip, in both senses of the word!

Turns out six days isn't really enough to see that much of Egypt.  We really would like to go back, already, although we will need some time to catch up on sleep and take a few showers.  Egypt, or at least the small part we visited, was definitely not a typically relaxing vacation... much too alien, at least for me.  Countlessly valuable, though.

I will say I've never been around friendlier people.

We arrived in Cairo last Saturday without much of a plan.  The great pyramids of Giza, of course, and the Egyptian museum, but beyond that we were open to anything.

Alitalia got us in to Cairo only about a half-hour late.  Not too shabby.  Too bad we weren't on the side of the plane with a view of the Pyramids.

Through our window, we could see the city (18 million, I hear, with a further 1 million commuters daily) spreading out into the distance, until it merged into the fog of pollution and dust hanging on the horizon.  And we thought LA was smoggy!

After landing, we made it into the passport control area.  I've been through these several times, though mostly in Europe, but the way the Egyptians handled this was entirely new to me.

I knew we needed to purchase visas for entry into Egypt, and I knew they would cost us $15 (US), but I had no idea how to get them.  After spotting a few people affixing newly-purchased lickable-back stamps into their passports, we figured out that you have to go to a line of banks along the side of the passport control area, hand over your money (only in dollars or euros!), and stick the stamps they give you into your passport.

The Egyptian entry stamp is definitely the coolest one in our passports, by the way.

After being enlightened as to the proper way to fill out an immigration form (oops) we made it to the luggage carousel, where our luggage was waiting along with a representative from Echo Travel, who was to drive us to our hotel.

Or maybe not.

He wheeled us over to this Echo Travel box, where he left us and our luggage for a few minutes.  I kept expecting a sales pitch, having heard that Egyptian tour groups are remarkably up-front with the sales techniques, but it never came. 

A guy about our age entered, introduced himself, and escorted us out to his waiting car, where we sped (no, really, SPED) into downtown Cairo.

Our first ride through Egyptian traffic was exhilirating.  They don't use lanes.  At all.  Traffic lights, for the most part, are distrusted (telling ME when to go?) and Cairenes cross major streets one car at a time, standing in the middle of the lane until they see an opportunity.  People say Naples is a symphony of traffic, but in the face of Cairo, I have to downgrade it to a frothy pop tune.  I mean, there are DONKEYS in this traffic.  And people hanging out of buses!

I was almost sad to pull up to our hotel, the New Palace.  We were paying $9 per night for a double room, so my expectations weren't that high.

Luckily, I had read about their elevator, so it didn't come as too much of a shock.

The hotel itself was really surprisingly atmospheric and cozy!  Towels, and soap, and guys who called themselves Jamaica and Metallica... I guess to make English-speakers feel more at home?  I dunno.

We checked in and got a little settled, then went upstairs to the rooftop garden to meet with Metallica.  (His name is Ahmed, and he said he got the nickname because he liked their music.)  He's moving to Australia next week, as his fiancee lives there, so good luck to him!  We found this interesting because our Egypt travel guide mentioned in a throwaway passage that all of the good travel operators and boat captains eventually marry Europeans orAustralians and move away...

We met with Ahmed for an hour or so, and he put together a tour for us which would enable us to see not only a good chunk of Cairo, but also to get down to Luxor.  We hadn't thought we'd have time for this, so after a bit of discussion we decided to spring for the extremely reasonable tour package.  It would have been even more inexpensive if we hadn't insisted on getting a sleeper car for the night train to Luxor and back, since I hope our days of sleeping sitting up on overnight trains are behind us.

The evening call to prayer could then be heard blasting from loudspeakers all over the city.  It being Ramadan, this meant that the Muslims were allowed to eat, so Ahmed went to grab a bite.

After waiting an hour or so for the immediate post-sunset rush to calm a little at Cairo's restaurants, we walked over to Alfi Bey, a restaurant near our hotel that had been open since 1938.

It was sadly pretty disappointing.  I hated having to use an English menu, but since there was no way we could make sense of their Arabic one, I suppose it was good to have the option.

Their bread was just sad.  Bread in Arabic is 'aish, the same word for life - which shows its importance.  In light of this, the fact that Alfi Bey's was stale was even more of a travesty.

We ordered a pretty good sampling off of their menu, including stuffed pigeon (stuffed with barley, I think), rice topped with kidneys and liver (which were seriously overcooked), sauteed vegetables (passable, but bland), a yogurt dip (with a too-strong taste of something we couldn't place - herby), and a broken noodle and rice dish served in chicken broth (totally watery).

We did have a full meal for 56 LE (Egyptian pounds - about $10), so that was nice.  And we weren't hungry any more.

I have to say, though, that by and large the Egyptian food we tried was not very good.  We did have a few tasty meals, though they were from street carts.

Ah well.  The food was not really what brought us to Egypt! 

Since it was still pretty early, we went for a bit of a ramble through the streets of Cairo.

When I was talking earlier about Cairene traffic, I didn't mention this - they also don't like to turn their lights on at night.  They will flash their high beams every once in a while, but the preferred method of announcing their presence is long horn blasts.

Here, I think a couple of cars have their lights on because it's a large intersection.

We were trying to find a specific sheesha bar, a difficult task since during Ramadan the streets are choked with pedestrians at night - and even if they weren't, street signs are few and far between.  We did eventually find it, only to learn that it was closed for the entire month of Ramadan since they served alcohol along with their sheesha tobacco.

We did find McDonald's, though.

The streets, and many of the shops, were so packed with people it was difficult to move.  This store was selling some kind of sweet, probably for Ramadan break-the-fast, and was overflowing with people yelling and shaking money in raised fists, trying to get the attention of the harried cashiers.  It was like Christmas - I was reminded of the yearly video of housewives trampling each other for Cabbage Patch Kids, or Furbies, or Beanie Babies, or Tickle-Me Elmos.

Though people clogged every square foot of pavement, we couldn't travel more than a few feet without people greeting us.  I guess we stuck out, me without my headscarf and all.  "Welcome to Egypt!"  "Where are you from?" When we said "America" the response was almost always "America, number 1!  We love you!" with a thumbs-up.

I was like a small child.  Everywhere things to look at, everywhere people talking (some to me), everywhere new smells and lights and sounds.  It was all a bit much, after a while.

I also couldn't believe just how many different types of headscarves there were to see.  I wanted to ask a couple of women how they tied theirs.  Some were attached with beautiful dangling decorative pins, others just with straight pins; some covered the whole front and back to waist level, others just the head; some had two or three layers of different fabrics.  I caught myself staring more than once.

It was quite an introduction to Cairo.  After being out in it for only four or five hours, we went back to the hotel, where I fell over onto our strange little slat-beds, bushed.

Our agenda for the next day involved leaving at 8 for Giza and Saqqara.  Pyramids ho!

girlie

Comments

[dandyna]

omg you're going everywhere!!!!

[Boots in the Oven]

Hee, dandyna - we're trying to take advantage of being so close to everything! Living to travel...

[madonnaearth]

These blog posts and pictures were awesome; thanks! Loved the picture of the camels at the pyramids!

Walk where Jesus walked! and then only you will understand how not to judge others until you have walked their footsteps. Experience the Holy Land.