The oldest parts of Cairo are the Christian parts, they predate the city itself by about 400 years.

Walking downtown Cairo is… a skill. The sidewalk is taken over by vendors so you have to walk in the street, dodging in and out of lanes of traffic, waiting for an opening between two buses to shoot between them, it’s the most insane street seen I have ever seen many times over.

I was walking around the bazaar for a few hours today, the crowd you see in the picture above was pretty typical and I was keeping myself pretty aware of my surroundings.

After about an hour of wandering I suddenly felt a tickle on my right front pocket, I figured out right away what was going on and I knew that pocket was empty so I waited a second to see what happened, I felt fingers reaching inside, I reached down and grabbed his hand and squeezed hard, he yelped and hurried on ahead of me. I’m pretty sure he was using the allen key in his hand to open pockets a crack and then slipping his fingers inside, he was really bad at it though.

The number of metal detectors and x-ray scanners I walked through today that were not turned on…. everyone just pretends they are doing something, hand your bag to the guy, he literally drags it through a powered off scanner, put your phone and such into a bin and walk through a powered off metal detector, pick up your stuff (that no one has looked at in any way) and continue on your way… it’s security theatre on a whole new level.

These pics are pretty self explanatory, pyramids and street scenes, going inside the great pyramid was unbelievably cool.

 

There are some guys near my hotel dressed in full riot gear with machine guns, etc who sit behind a bullet shield all day and all night as far as I can tell, every time I walk past them they look extremely hot and dusty. I passed them earlier this evening and thought “I should get them some cold drinks” and then I thought “I could never do that” as it’s way outside my comfort zone, then I thought “well now I have to do it” so I went into the market nearby and brought them a selection of drinks, they were cautious at first and then really pleased, it was fun.

Good Morning Cairo! Looking Hot!

 

Spent 5 hours, from 9-2 today at the Egyptian Museum, I had planned on just winging it and not taking a guide but a nice older man outside the museum said “This is not like a museum in Europe, trust in me that you need help” I liked him so agreed and Abdul became my guide for next 5 hours, he was right.

The museum did have air conditioning but was still really warm and after five hours and no food or water I wasn’t feeling great, had to sit down eventually with a spinning head, I managed to find an AC vent and stood there for a few minutes until I could venture outside and head back to the hotel for a nap during the hottest part of the day.

I woke up around 5pm and headed out again, this time to find a hat for the pyramid trek tomorrow. I wandered around near Tahrir Square, the heat was down to about 33c now which I could manage.

Found a koshari place for dinner, it seems lots of cafes here just serve one dish, this place has only koshari, a simple dish of macaroni, lentils, chick peas, onions, garlic and tomato sauce, it was amazing (and $1.50) I wasn’t that hungry because of the heat but the food ended up making me feel 10x better.

After dinner I decide to explore the subway, Africa’s only real, major subway system. It was… intense… got good and lost and finally had to start figuring out the arabic signage to get unlost again… also learned that the ice cold subway I first got on was an anomaly and the rest were ovens. I did not see one single other white person on the subway anywhere, people stared, and were really nice, several offered me their seats…. not sure if it was because I am very not local or because I looked sweaty and baffled.

 

 

Best friend I made all day:

Cairo is hot and dirty and loud and crazy and busy and dry… on a level I really had not expected. It hit 39c here today, when I was arriving and I think my usual style of just wandering all day while traveling is going to have to change to more of a point and shoot style if this heat/dust/sand/smog keeps up. My eyes are already watering from the smog.

My hotel is on an island in the Nile in the middle of the city, it’s a little worn down but fine, not really any internet though so there might not be a ton of picture posts.

I got settled in around 7pm and went out to find an ATM, a market and some dinner.

A few blocks from the hotel I saw a sign saying “cafe” and stepped inside, I was in a tiny room, about 5×5 with a till and a kitchen, the guy at the till asked something I didn’t understand and motioned up an iron, spiral staircase. I started to climb, the smallest stairs in history, I had to bend my body around the staircase to get up.

I came out in what appeared to be someone’s living room… uh… there were two men, two ladies and two little girls, the men were on the floor praying, there were two tables, sort of in the living room. I was going to leave when one of the women motioned for me to sit and wait, I did.

Once prayers were done, the men asked where I was from and sat with me, we talked quite a bit, I ordered… something… and a coke, the owner/father brought me a bottle of water and said “drink this first”. We talked until my food came and they excused themselves, one of the most unique dining experiences I’ve had…

The meal was a sort of stuffed bread, full of chicken and artichokes and mushrooms, it was really, really good.

Sitting in their living room:

My meal, really good: