Cairo is absolute madness. Madness. 18M people, dirty, chaotic, polluted and just manic in every possible way.
The few days I spent there were amazing.
First, I saw the pyramids at Giza. They were so beautiful from afar but a bit of a disappointment up close. I thought they’d be bigger than they were. Like the Acropolis, the Pyramids are an amazing site but the commercialization of the place just made me sad. I guess some sort of commercial system needs to be set up to deal with all the tourists, but it takes away from the awe of such an ancient place. I would have loved some time to myself there to really explore but with all these tour groups shuttling around it was hard to find some quiet time to experience it all. The panoramic shot of all nine pyramids was something though. They are gorgeous from afar.
After Giza, I met up with Anna at the Hyatt on the Nile. Such a beautiful hotel. We’d had dinner there the night before – in a traditional Egyptian restaurant with shisha and live Arabic music. Breezy, great company, great food. My first experience with Africa! We decided to walk from the hotel to Coptic Cairo (Old Cairo). We didn’t realize how far it would be and ended up walking through random streets and neighborhoods for about an hour. The thing that I noticed right away was how little, if any, women there were on the streets. They seem to make a point to not make themselves visible. And so Anna, and I, in our summer dresses, were obviously totally out of place. It was a real eye opener to life in a Muslim country where gender roles are very rigid. There is such comfort in numbers when it comes to travel. We managed to find Coptic Cairo and ended up in the middle of a bunch of Easter celebrations – Christian and Greek. Music, flowers, families. We also made friends at a little cafe – Anna bargained our meal down to less than half their asking price and I think the owners were so amused that they didn’t care to argue! EVERYTHING in Cairo is bargained for! Even menus!
We then went to Khan el-Khalili (the “sook” or market). It was absolute madness. First, we managed to bargain down our cab ride from 30 Egyptian pounds to 7! Seriously, I couldn’t believe Anna! She was amazing! I honestly think that the driver would have taken any amount of money to take us to the market across the city. He seemed really amused – mostly because we were obviously two fish out of water, with no real idea where we were going or how to get there. He took us through the City of the Dead neighborhoods. In Cairo, millions of people live in cemeteries. They’ve built little neighbourhoods with shops in some of the largest cemeteries in the city! And even if he couldn’t speak much English, it was so much fun communicating with him! He dropped us off a few blocks from the market and we walked into street after street looking for the bazaar. We ended up in some random neighborhoods that looked like slums. We saw slaughtered animals hanging from windows, people cooking on the streets and EVERYONE stared at us. It was a little unnerving. And then a fight broke out between two men and everyone started running down the street. We coyly slipped past them. Eventually, we decided to call a co-worker who lived in Cairo to try and figure out where the heck we should be going. After telling him that all we could see were dead animals and food markets, he asked me to give the phone to anyone who spoke Arabic. Luckily, there were two police officers there and they ended up escorting us to the market. So much for adventure.
We then proceeded to bargain our way through some wares. I bought a necklace and a few little trinkets. After a few hours of back and forth, we managed to get ourselves four shisha pipes (gorgeous ones) for a great deal. Bargaining at a market like that is just good fun. It’s a game and these merchants are smart! Really smart. I’m SO bad at it. Had it not been for Anna, I would have overpaid for EVERYTHING in Cairo. She bargains everything down to at least 10% of the asking price and they respect her more for it.
We then went to dinner at an outdoor restaurant by the Nile with white couches and tents. It reminded me a lot of Island in Athens. I LOVE outdoor bars and lounges (North America has yet to get them right!).
Overall, it was great fun! Mostly because it was uncomfortable, unnerving, markedly different and completely unknown. The chanting at prayer time, the language, even the perpetual orange haze that hangs over the city added to the beauty of the place. It is madness everywhere, all at once.
