First day in Cairo

After getting back from our wedding and cross-Canada tour, we were in Germany for just a few days (I think I was at work for three of them) before heading to Cairo for a week. This was mostly a honeymoon, but the exact timing and destination were determined by the wedding of Omar, a friend of Jeremi's from the Navy, who was getting married there at the beginning of August. (Otherwise, we might not have planned a vacation to the desert in August, but the heat really wasn't as bad as we'd feared.)

Our first day in Cairo was a bit insane, I have to admit. Our plane arrived around 2:00 am, which isn't a great start, and then we had to wait in this incredibly long and slow line at immigration, because there were really that many planes arriving in the middle of the night. (I think the last scheduled flight got in around 4:30, and then there was nothing until 9:30 or so, which should have been the first indication that the hours of operation there are not quite the same as those that we're used to (especially here in Germany!).

We also didn't really understand the process properly, and thought we could buy the entry visa (which cost something like 10 euros each) at the customs desk, but were told once we'd made it to the very front of the line that no, we had to go back and buy it from one of the bank tellers that were operating there. We had thought that these were jut foreign exchanges, but they were also selling visas. And so we had to go back, buy the visas, and then wait in the whole line again. A planeload or two from Saudi Arabia had arrived in the meantime, so the line was even longer, In the end, it took us more than two hours to make it through customs.

By the time we went to pick up our luggage, it had long been removed from the belt. We looked around for a long time before finding it in a room off to the side, accompanied by some airport employees. Then they wanted us to pay them some baksheesh, or tip, for, you know not stealing it. I was not impressed, and I was really tired, and refused so strongly that they didn't ask again.

From then the next step was getting a taxi to the hotel. There were some fancier limo-type hotels, but these were rather expensive. I'd read online beforehand the going rate for a standard taxi fare, and most recommended taking one of the ubiquitous black and white cabs, if only for the experience. These are mostly really old cars, which are often missing such niceties as bumpers. They're driven in the most aggressive fashion imaginable in the most insane traffic that we'd ever seen. They're all equipped with open luggage racks on the top, where the driver put our suitcase without any straps or ties to secure it, but it did make it safely to the hotel, so I can't complain. We also ended up sharing a cab with a guy from Yemen who was there on business, which led to quite a detour on the way to the hotel (at 4:45 am, after being up all night), but it did let us cross the Nile twice, and wonder over the number of people on the sidewalks in the middle of the night.

Finally we got to our hotel, and collapsed for a few hours before being woken by the sounds of the city, specifically the rather insistent call to prayer. We got ourselves up, and headed out to explore a bit.

Also online we'd read that it was pretty easy to get lost in Cairo, and that there was a good street atlas available for sale at the bookstore of the American University in Cairo, with English transcriptions of all the street names, so this was our first destination. The bookstore was located toward the north end of one of the major islands in the Nile, so we headed toward the river, not far from our hotel. Here I am, checking out the river for the first time in daylight:
To get there, we had to cross a couple of busy streets. Being a city of about 20 million people, there are lots of cars and lots of pedestrians. What there aren't a lot of is traffic lights (at least not any that are obeyed) and pedestrian crossings. The traffic was entirely organic, as if someone had just introduced a few million cars to a city full of people, and let them all decide individually how the rules should evolve. Jeremi likened it to the flow of blood cells, where they all sort of bump up against each other, but end up getting where they're going. However, as inexperienced foreigners trying to cross the street, it was a little scary at times. Mostly we just tried to cross when other people were crossing. Occasionally when we'd been waiting for a while for a break, some nice local would even walk us across the street. (How pathetic is that!)

This is a picture of the road running directly parallel to the Nile at this point, and you can see a family crossing altogether. They're standing directly in the middle of one lane of traffic, and you can see a car approaching from the left, coming toward them. But the lane markers are just suggestions anyhow, that truck loaded with tomatoes was sort of driving in the middle of the two lanes. While everyone there was completely used to it, Safety Bear Julia was cringing in fear. (Aren't you just waiting for that little boy to drop the ball that just barely fits under his arm, and run after it?)
The island we crossed onto was pretty posh, with a big country-club like compound, and a lot of foreign embassies. There were also lush gardens along many of the roads. Here Jeremi's checking out one of the beautiful blooming trees, which had giant seed pods (one of which he's holding between his fingers).
And some more lush, irrigated landscaping:
After wandering around for quite some time and asking directions more than once, we found the bookstore, and bought not only the map but also a few novels for each of us. The store was filled with English-language books, and the selection of novels was way better than we can get in Jena, and much better than that found in major train stations (which is where I buy most of the rest of my books for pleasure reading).

After getting something to eat, it was approaching sunset, and we thought it would be a nice time to visit the Cairo Tower, which offers a great view over the city, in order to get our bearings.

Here's the view looking directly to the south, where you can see the two branches of the river splitting around the island, as well as a substantial layer of smog over the cityscape. And then looking to the west, across Giza. (Cairo is actually sort of two cities, Cairo and Giza, lying on the east and west sides of the Nile respectively.) There, deep in the smog, along the horizon, you can almost make out some shapes if you squint...
Okay, so it's really hard to see here, but at the full resolution of the photo (or with our eyes, at the time) you can just make out the shape of the pyramids in the distance. I thought this was pretty damn cool.
Then we were waiting for the big finish of the sunset, as I thought that with such a heavy smog layer the colours might be really fantastic. What I hadn't anticipated was that the smog was so heavy that the light would be completely absorbed and back-scattered, and there wouldn't be any left to make a nice scene...Still, it was a nice view over the city, and it was beautiful to watch the city slowly growing dark, and all the lights coming on. Here's a short video Jer took to show the general scene, as well as how windy it was up there!

From there we headed back toward the main city, and were wandering around Ramses train station looking for a bar I'd read about online, looking at our map, when someone asked us if we needed help finding something. We really did, and we ended up striking up a bit of a conversation with the guy, Khalid, who spoke quite good English. His friend Karam also spoke some English, but was completely fluent in German, as he'd studied in Germany, and was married to a German woman. We ended up taking them up on their invitation to join them at a coffee house nearby, where we sat enjoying some strong, sweet tea (in my case) and some chilled hibiscus tea (in Jeremi's case, with ice cubes that left him rather ill the next day). They were really friendly, and able to answer lots of questions we had about the culture, and what was and wasn't appropriate (especially in my case, with what I should be wearing). Khalid was Muslim, as are the majority of residents, while Karam was a Coptic Christian, like about 10-15% of the population, and were able to tell us something about these communities as well. We chatted for quite a while, and finally parted ways at around 1:00 am, after agreeing to meet up the next morning to head to the Pyramids.

Walking back to our hotel, we couldn't believe how many people, including families with little kids, were out on the street. Part of the reason is the weather - it's so hot during the afternoon, that many people stay in to avoid the worst of the sun, and go out in the evening instead - but much of it is also a cultural difference. Here we were around 2:00 am on a major commercial street, and people were out shopping! Most of the stores in this neighbourhood were open particularly the abundant shoe stores. It was really strange to see, especially coming from Germany! In some ways it was good that we'd had such a late night the night before, as it helped reprogram us for Cairo time (which is only an hour ahead of Germany in terms of geographical time zones). On a side street we also stumbled across this shop...
...yup, it's called "bazar", like my mom's maiden name. I thought it was worth a photo at least.On our way back to the hotel, we also stumbled across an alleyway only a block away, which was completely lined with fruit and vegetable stalls, with a few bakeries thrown into the mix. (A short aside about the bakeries - it was possible to buy fresh flatbreads at any time day or night, because there was a small army of boys wandering the streets with a wide box filled with bread balanced on their heads, waiting to sell their wares.)

The smell was intoxicating, as the guavas were all ripe. The selection was amazing - they have as many varieties of mango as you'd see apples in Canada, rangin in size from five centimeters to twenty-five, and in varieties of colours. Naturally, we bought a few things to bring back to our room.
Here's a picture of one of the vegetable stands, displaying just some of the variety of eggplants, okra, zucchini, peppers, etc. It was such a pity that we couldn't cook while we were there. Finally, we made our way back to our room, and got some sleep before the adventures to follow the next day.