ADVENTURE DAY

Cairo, Egypt

How do you top a day at the Pyramids? Get in a white unmarked van with a stranger. But let’s start at the beginning…

Today was the day we decided to head into Cairo and attempt to do our own sight-seeing, sans tour guide. We wanted to have a big adventure day, and ended up getting a bit more that we bargained for.

We came to realize that our hotel in Giza is five-BAZILLION miles away from downtown Cairo. Luckily, they offer a shuttle bus, but although their website says they offer a shuttle bus to downtown Cairo, it’s actually to downtown Giza, which made our day planning a little interesting.

Being New Yorkers, we decided we would take the metro into Cairo, since our shuttle bus was dropping us off right near a metro stop, and it was only 1 Egyptian Pound (that’s the equivalent of about 17 cents US). Luckily for us, one of the young men who works the reception counter was taking the shuttle bus to the train station and he offered to show us the way—good thing, too, because we NEVER would have found it on our own! He was very sweet and very cute (which one of our friends asked for a cute Egyptian man?) and walked with us to the train station, helped us across the crazy streets (no crosswalks—you have to step into traffic, make eye contact with the driver and hold up your hand in a signal to stop. Um, kinda scary…), showed us where to buy our tickets, and helped us on to the train.

They have separate cars for women if you so choose, but we followed our little helper. There was another girl on the train, but we were the center of attention. The men were fascinated with us and couldn’t stop staring. Because of that, upon exiting we promptly covered our heads with scarves hoping to avoid further ogling.  Unfortunately, it didn’t work—apparently it’s obvious we’re not from around here…

We ventured into the Cairo Opera Complex on Gezira (Arabic for island), which is directly across the Nile from downtown Cairo. The grounds were very beautiful and the complex housed a giant music library and modern art museum as well as their opera house. We have no idea what operas they were currently performing as everything was written in Arabic. Oh well. But we did learn that they offer the Live from the Met performances like they do in the States—very interesting! I had no idea it was worldwide.

(Miriam outside the Opera House)

After leaving the Opera complex we went looking for the Cairo Tower, which was easily found by looking up, but not so easily found by wandering the streets. Eventually we found it, being followed relentlessly by a man with his horse-drawn carriage offering to take us for a ride. Even La shukran (no thank you) and ignoring him wouldn’t work…everywhere we went his horse was sure to follow…

Side note from Miriam: Cairo is where our cars come to die.

Seriously, most of the cars here are from the 70s and 80s and look to be on their last legs. It’s ridiculous and rather funny looking.

(Random tree we found outside Cairo Tower...)

(Cairo Tower)

We went up to the top of Cairo Tower (610 ft high), where I was immediately petrified, as the view was outdoors and there was merely a metal fence holding us back. But the views were amazing. Looking down the Nile, we saw ships and feluccas sailing, and across the way was downtown Cairo and Islamic Cairo, home to the Citadel and its picturesque mosque. On the other side we could see Giza with the Pyramids off in the distance. It was really cool.

We wanted to walk along the Nile promenade, and while trying to find the entrance, we discovered that young Egyptian boys are rather forward. We got accosted by two different groups of young boys wanting to take our pictures and shouting “Sex! Sex! Sex!” at us down the street. I was taken aback yet highly amused. Stupid boys.

When we found the entrance to the promenade we learned that foreigners have to pay an entrance fee so we decided not to go. We saw a bridge nearby that would take us into Cairo, so why not cross the Nile for free instead of paying to walk along it?

(On the bridge over the Nile)

While walking along the bridge we were too busy taking in the sights to notice that no one was really walking across the bridge to Cairo, but, rather, walking across the bridge away from Cairo. A man named Tarek stopped us and said there were some demonstrations in downtown Cairo, so it wasn’t a good idea to go there today. He had to walk instead of take the train because the metro station was closed due to the demonstrations. He was quick to explain the demonstrations were peaceful but didn’t want us to possibly get into trouble. He works for one of the hotels on Gezira, is studying English at the American University, is married to an Australian woman, and has two kids, one named Nancy. And, yes, we learned this in less than five minutes after meeting him.

One thing I can easily say, Egyptians are very nice and very willing to help you whether or not you need it. As Tarek explained, a good man is the one that will help you and not ask for money.

He told us that we should check out a bazaar on Gezira that has excellent shopping and offered to show us where it was. We have no idea if he was truthful or not about the demonstrations, but we didn’t have a set plan to our day and decided to take the adventure. He walked us back across the bridge and hailed a “bus” for us. And by “bus” I mean a white unmarked van.

(An example of our bus)

We have seen tons of these white vans over-flowing with people since we’ve arrived. Turns out they are like “dollar” busses in NYC. You hail it, get in, say where you want to go, and he continues to pick up additional passengers along the way. Tarek even paid our fare—granted it cost 75 piastres, which is less than 15 cents US. He even gave us the change and said to keep it always and think of him. Haha. It was fun—and our seat wasn’t attached to the floor! Awesome. A young girl our age got in as well and was excited to have a couple Americans in the van with her.

It was here that my Princess nickname randomly continued, and this time Miriam was mollified when she was crowned Queen. Tarek had no idea what he was starting when he called us those nicknames… right, Queen Miriam?

Tarek let us out not at a bazaar like we thought but at a tour agency that takes you to official shopping centers. Doh! The guy there was a government approved tour agent who was willing to take us around shopping at stores where we wouldn’t be pressured into buying like the shops do in the markets. Miriam had really wanted to go shopping so we figured we would give it a shot. If anything, we’d get driven around Giza for just a couple bucks.

First stop was a jeweler, who had lots of pretty (and expensive) things. Needless to say, we didn’t get much, but I did get a necklace with my name in hieroglyphics in a sterling silver cartouche. It’s pretty.

Next stop (and the last stop, we decided) was a cotton market, where they sold t-shirts, tunics, galabiyaas (the Arabic outfits), bedding, and table cloths, and, while it was really beautiful, it was also really expensive…so much for Egypt being cheap! We passed on any purchasing, and decided to head back to the hotel.

Along the way, we discovered that our driver was not very good at his job, and when you don’t see a road in front of you, you make one…Through a construction site. Awesome.

(Not sure how I feel about the construction site drive-through)

(Talk about hauling a$$...)

We got back to the hotel with little to show for our day but a lot of crazy memories. At least it was entertaining.

Side note: last night, while eating dinner outside, the bugs decided to make a meal out of us. Miriam seemed to be the delicacy on their menu as she has 75 bug bites from her shins down to her feet (!!!). I am not even kidding. She just counted—60 on one leg alone. Yikes! Needless to say, she’s itchy.

Amusingly enough, we never actually made it into Cairo proper today.  Ha! Oh well. There’s always tomorrow…

(Goofing around on the hotel grounds)