First Two Days in Cairo

I am starting to wonder what I did in Cairo - but it is all coming back to me. Having been back in Scotland for over week, I have quickly been returning to my Scottish lifestyle and getting away from worldwide traveler mode.

The first day I arrived in Cairo it was 1am. Duso met me at the airport - thank god! - and we went back to his apartment, which is in the Al Manyal district, close to the city center. The airport was not as horrendous an experience as I thought it was going to be. I did get very confused due to lack of signage and got into the wrong line. I didn't help that all the Germans on my plane were equally confused - the plane had left from Cologne, Germany - and Germans do not know how to form a proper queue. The British do know how to do that right. There is even a joke that Brits will get into a queue for absolutely anything and often they do not even know why they are in a queue.

Eventually I made it through passport control. I had to buy my Visitor's Visa for $15 from one of the many banks next to the passport control lines and then had it stamped by passport control and was set free to try to get my luggage and avoid people trying to sell me stuff. By the time Duso and I made it to his apartment, it was pretty late. We had a quick snack and went to bed.

The next day we did a grand tour of Cairo, visiting the old Islamic citadel and the bazaar. The Citadel was built in response to the Crusades as a military strong point for the city. There is also an absolutely gorgeous mosque there and as the whole complex is on a hill, the view is outstanding. In the distance we could see both the pyramids of Giza and the older ones of Saqqara. There are also a strange assortment of museums there including an old Ottoman palace, a military museum, and a police museum. Like any great country, Egypt believes in Revisionist History and Duso and I found it very funny to see which wars Egypt had actually won. We were also very intrigued to see if the military vehicles parked in the garden were made of metal or plastic. They certainly looked like they were plastic, but they sounded like metal when we hit them, and the signs said they were real.

A sidenote - in Egypt, no one follows the rules. We were going to go into the Police Museum, but the guard told us it was closed. We started to walk away when he called out, 'If you are quick, you can go in'. But then we would have had to give him a 'tip' and we didn't really care that much about a police museum. As for the rules, it is most apparent in the traffic. Although there are lanes painted on the streets, no one actually drives in them, creating their own variety of lanes ranging from 2 to 20. If I had driven like that, I would have been dead in instants. But I guess the Egyptians have figured it out as pedestrians follow similar rules as the drivers. I have learned to be an excellent jay walker since I got to Britain - all motor vehicles have the right of way - but no where as near to as good as those who have lived in Cairo.

Later that day, we went to the bazaar. From what Duso was telling me, there is only one true bazaar in Cairo and it is much more a Middle Eastern tradition than North African. I kept forgetting that Egypt, despite being Muslim, is in fact North African. The bazaar was exactly as I imagined it - narrow alleys with vendors selling absolutely everything imaginable. It is a major tourist destination as well so the vendors speak almost every language and try to lure customers in with their best English phrases (which I mentioned before here). Most of the stuff is pretty useless - need a fake copper Egyptian cat with hieroglyphics on it? - although I think my favorite random stuff was the giant baskets of spices and herbs. For some reason all the vendors kept saying, 'Want belly dancing?' and would gesture to a back room. I kept thinking it was the Islamic version of strip clubs and when I mentioned this to Duso, he laughed. 'They have belly dancing outfits', he said. That explained a lot. Although why would I want a belly dancing outfit? Then again, I saw tourists buying tons of junk.

I did make several purchases in the bazaar. Postcards, for one, but I was planning on buying them anyways. Then I, with Duso's help, bargaining for two beautiful linen scarves, one of which I gave to my friend Kat in Germany to thank her for hosting me. The best thing I bought though was a beautiful pair of earrings. Duso and his roommate have gotten to know a shop owner in the bazaar named Hani. Hani and his brother run an antique shop that sells a lot of interesting artifacts from Iran, Iraq and other parts of the Middle East. Hani also runs a jewelry shop where he handmakes all of his pieces. I bought the earrings which are made from beautiful red stones and a carved wooden scarab with copper and turquoise details. Unfortunately, the scarab fell off when I later went horseback riding, but that's another story.