I have been mulling over in my head now for a while just how I'm going to blog about my trip. People keep asking what was my favorite, and it's difficult to answer because I enjoyed so much for so many different reasons. From portraits along dusty roads to camels along sand dunes, mango lassies on cushions alongside the red sea, to nights under the starlit sky. It was the perfect little get away and allowed me a lot of time to think, even in the hectic scatter of 35 million people and 8 hour bus rides into the dark.
After many long hours snowed into airports and a few hours of Polish Żubrówka, a delicious herb flavored vodka made from bison grass, we were in Cairo. A half dozen years to the exact date, and I was back in Africa again. Completely different Africa in a lot of ways but yet it carried so much of the same vibe. I liked it.
My first observations were that Cairo = craziness.
With an estimated 25 million and an additional 9 million that commute in each day, the place was pretty sogged, especially the roads downtown in late afternoon. You can expect to wait quite awhile, and did we ever. A lot of my first taste was spent in a car/bus commuting, it's not an easy place to maneuver and you can forget about any sort of road rules. If there's a free space you fill it otherwise you're fuckin' things up, and if you have a horn, for some reason you need to continually lay on it.
Advertisements are everywhere, tons of bazaars all sell virtually the same thing and each rip you off by at least 50%, but the bargaining is super fun! Brightly colored materials hang to dry from high-rise balconies and fresh, clean looking buildings are scattered among the rubble and half built dreams of the city. People live stacked upon each other, with half started/finished structures that make the already decaying buildings look like unwelcoming pin cushions. In most places the smog hung thick, an unhealthy spew over vibrant and breathtaking ancient landscapes.
There's people everywhere and everywhere there's people trying' to sell you something (or marry you.) Kids are brilliant little entrepreneurs, some wild some mimic various accents in their English, and so many of them good with a camera! The people were friendly and although a lot of things were left unspoken, it was perfectly OK. Aside from that, I noticed mosques towered and were magnificent in design, monstrous over the debris around them, I had the best rice pudding I’ve ever tasted in my life and women were far from a majority. I could have Bedouin tea and baklava for breakfast every day and am not at all opposed to bug nets or bug bites.
Oh and satellite dishes – I'm pretty sure everyone has one.
Enjoy my take on Egypt.
After many long hours snowed into airports and a few hours of Polish Żubrówka, a delicious herb flavored vodka made from bison grass, we were in Cairo. A half dozen years to the exact date, and I was back in Africa again. Completely different Africa in a lot of ways but yet it carried so much of the same vibe. I liked it.
My first observations were that Cairo = craziness.
With an estimated 25 million and an additional 9 million that commute in each day, the place was pretty sogged, especially the roads downtown in late afternoon. You can expect to wait quite awhile, and did we ever. A lot of my first taste was spent in a car/bus commuting, it's not an easy place to maneuver and you can forget about any sort of road rules. If there's a free space you fill it otherwise you're fuckin' things up, and if you have a horn, for some reason you need to continually lay on it.
Advertisements are everywhere, tons of bazaars all sell virtually the same thing and each rip you off by at least 50%, but the bargaining is super fun! Brightly colored materials hang to dry from high-rise balconies and fresh, clean looking buildings are scattered among the rubble and half built dreams of the city. People live stacked upon each other, with half started/finished structures that make the already decaying buildings look like unwelcoming pin cushions. In most places the smog hung thick, an unhealthy spew over vibrant and breathtaking ancient landscapes.
There's people everywhere and everywhere there's people trying' to sell you something (or marry you.) Kids are brilliant little entrepreneurs, some wild some mimic various accents in their English, and so many of them good with a camera! The people were friendly and although a lot of things were left unspoken, it was perfectly OK. Aside from that, I noticed mosques towered and were magnificent in design, monstrous over the debris around them, I had the best rice pudding I’ve ever tasted in my life and women were far from a majority. I could have Bedouin tea and baklava for breakfast every day and am not at all opposed to bug nets or bug bites.
Oh and satellite dishes – I'm pretty sure everyone has one.
Enjoy my take on Egypt.
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