More Cairo with a side of Alexandria
My legs have been really sore the last few days. I think it might've been from descending into those tombs at Dahshur and Saqqara. Today is a bit better.
Like me, most of the cars here seem on the verge of falling apart. I think if one were to fall completely apart like the Bluesmobile at the end of the Blues Brothers, nobody would be surprised, and in fact would probably just continue driving as if nothing had happened. Same thing if the car split completely in half, they would just drive on the front wheels with the back dragging and making sparks.
I saw two "accidents" so far. In a traffic circle, I saw two cars sideswipe each other. They did in fact stop briefly and yell at each other in Arabic for about 20 seconds, before waving it off and continuing driving. The second was also in a traffic circle where I heard screeching tires and then saw a car cream a guy on a bicycle. He went down and a crowd gathered, but the crowd quickly picked him up (is that a good idea?) and dragged him to the sidewalk where the discussion could proceed unimpeded by 50 cars trying to drive past everyone. He was limping but beyond that seemed functional.
I spent yesterday in Alexandria, a city on the north coast named after Alexander the Great who decreed it constructed but actually died before he ever went back there to hang out. It apparently stretches about 20km along the coast of the Mediterranean and only goes inland about 8km inland, so it is a true coastal city. The proximity to the water means that a nice breeze blows through and makes the heat slightly less oppressive and brutal than it is in Cairo. It is also a quieter city, and I would say that I preferred it to Cairo certainly although it still suffers from the same disrepair and disregard on the part of the locals just like Cairo though in the local areas outside of downtown it seemed a bit better.
On the positive side, I visited the relatively newly constructed Library of Alexandria which was probably the coolest library I have ever seen. The exterior architecture and design is as impressive as the giant reading room which spans something like a dozen levels with a giant sloping windowed ceiling. It's quite a place to behold and definitely the coolest, modern thing I have seen in Egypt and probably will see.
In Alex I also walked along the Corniche, a many kilometer seafront along the Mediterranean which has fewer shops and markets than one might expect, which instead tend to congregate one or two streets inland. I also visited Montazzah, a former king's palace within a huge gardened complex spanning many acres, now occupied by mostly gardens but also containing a few high-end hotels, a casino, some restaurants, and the old palace which I think was at one point the President's residence but now no longer is.
As I walked back from Montazzah towards the train station, I walked along the coast passing many restaurant and beaches on which hundreds of tables with chairs and umbrellas were set up. It was dark by then and there were hundreds of people outside and all around eating their iftar meal to break the fast. I am told things are generally open quite late in Egypt, but the post-Ramadan flurry of activity and socializing lasting until 4am is actually one of the more interesting and enjoyable things I have experienced here.
Ahmed, my first Couchsurfing friend picked me up in Alexandria where he was visiting his family for the weekend, and we drove to the Citadel at the west end of the Corniche, a giant fort on the sea which was distinctly different than the Citadel in Cairo. Much smaller, much more sparse and plain design since I think it was mostly designed to be for defense and not a living quarters for royalty as was the Citadel in Cairo. We then attempted to drive to visit a tomb, but driving in Egypt and finding your way just about anywhere is not too easy, so although I got a nice driving tour of Alexandria, we never quite made it there. At several times Ahmed stopped to request directions of passerbys and this always had a certain comical quality to it in my eyes. Egyptians often speak loudly and quickly with a lot of body language and after the guy gave directions, he reached his hand in the car and patted Ahmed on the shoulder to say, you can do it man, go for it. It seemed to me like asking a stranger for directions on the street in NYC and then high-fiving.
I have seen or done few other interesting or amusing things.
The night before I went to Alexandria I met up with Couchsurfers in Zamalek, an Egyptian woman and her American husband who has been leaving in Cairo for 7 years. These were more or less the first non-muslims with whom I have hung out since being here, so it provided an interesting insight into some of the other people who live here in Cairo although it still seems to me a very small number (based on my limited experience) compared with the overwhelmingly majority Muslim community everywhere. They had a crazy cat which I enjoyed watching a lot, then they had two of the smallest kittens I have ever seen who they rescued off the street apparently parentless and were feeding with an eye dropper. They must've been only days old. They are both vegan (Couchsurfers, not the kittens) and cooked me an absolutely wonderful meal for which I am going to have to acquire names and recipes, but one of the dishes was a potato-like vegetable in some sort of green vegetable-pesto like sauce, which we ate over rice. This is apparently an Egyptian dish, not an outright invention on their part. Also there were a sort of fried dumpling filled with hummus, and another kind of fried dumpling for dessert filled with fruit and possibly nuts or dates and with a sweet dipping sauce. They also made a mountain of babaganoush and zucchini stuffed with tomato sauce and rice. We had a great conversation and I am going to try to see them again tonight before I leave for the desert tomorrow morning. I was exhausted after dinner so I didn't stick around too long, only long enough to participate with them in their Ramadan tradition of watching "The Biggest Loser."
Random interactions:
The cab driver on the way to the train station yesterday morning was excited that I was American and put me on the phone with his son who said to me, "How can I go to America?"
I met a Coptic Christian guy who also wants to go to the states. He told me many Egyptian people apply for the green card lottery since even if you want to go on a student visa, they expect you to have a certain amount of money in your bank account and that amount of money is very hard to earn here.
I had fuul (Fava beans) with tahini for breakfast finally.
Ramadan is everywhere for another week or two and although people are apparently tolerant of foreigners not fasting, I still feel awkward smoking and drinking water on the street during the day, and many Egyptian restaurants are closed. Nobody really seems to care, but it still feels like I am being stared at (I am, but not for that) and judged. That being said I have met a variety of people who are not fasting or who are at least smoking during the day even if they are. In Alexandria I passed a few cafes filled with smoking guys some of whom even appeared to be drinking tea. There are non-Muslims here to be sure, but even those who tell me they are not good Muslims who go to pray 5 times a day still fast. I suppose it is comparable to Jews who fast on Yom Kippur or go to synagogue on the high holidays but don't do anything else the rest of the year.
Yesterday I took the train back from Alex at around 9pm, on the same train as Ahmed and Chalid returning from their weekend visiting their families. The weekend here is Friday and Saturday and they work on Sunday again. It turns out by the way that you can smoke between cars on Egyptian trains. I rode 1st class going to Alex and 2nd class returning. These are both virtually the same. The seats are assigned and both are basically like any Amtrak train in the US except for the whole smoking thing. I wouldn't have known that actually, but I napped for about 30 minutes before Ahmed found me and woke me up to say hello and asked if I wanted to join him and Chalid for a cigarette, so I walked with them and we stood in between the cars for the rest of the trip since they both chain-smoke when they are not fasting. I did see a few 3rd class cars parked in the station when buying tickets and whatnot. These look more like New York subway car seating, though the seats are wood, the windows do not have glass in them, they are just open, and there is no A/C. They were hosing one of the cars down when I passed by. So I arrived back in Cairo exhausted and fell asleep around 1, not waking up til 11, which qualifies as my longest and probably best night of sleep since being here. I have generally not been sleeping well, mostly attributed to jetlag, often waking up at 5 or 6am and going out immediately, then napping in the afternoon. That being said, I feel pretty good today. I was originally going to the dessert today, but the buses tend to leave only in the early morning and late afternoon since traveling during the sweltering heat of mid-day is obviously not desirable. I also have yet to make a reservation at a hotel in Bahariya Oasis, my refactored next destination, so I will make all those arrangements today and probably leave first thing tomorrow morning. Tonight my main goal is to smoke sheesha, basically a hookah, a cultural experience in Egypt I have yet to try.
I am told apple is the way to go.
Update: I could not post this for a few hours since the internet was down, so I went out and took a walk in Zamalek and bought a few things at the grocery store. Then I spent a while trying to contact a hotel in Bahariya. It was amazing how few of them pick up the phone. I imagined it looking a lot like when Luke and Ben returned to his home to check on his foster parents only to discover smoldering skeletons in the desert, except with a ringing telephone. I finally was called back by a guy at one of the hotels and made a reservation, so I'm definitely going to Bahariya Oasis tomorrow (about where I plan to explore the options of visiting places like "the Black Mountain" and the "White Desert."
Like me, most of the cars here seem on the verge of falling apart. I think if one were to fall completely apart like the Bluesmobile at the end of the Blues Brothers, nobody would be surprised, and in fact would probably just continue driving as if nothing had happened. Same thing if the car split completely in half, they would just drive on the front wheels with the back dragging and making sparks.
I saw two "accidents" so far. In a traffic circle, I saw two cars sideswipe each other. They did in fact stop briefly and yell at each other in Arabic for about 20 seconds, before waving it off and continuing driving. The second was also in a traffic circle where I heard screeching tires and then saw a car cream a guy on a bicycle. He went down and a crowd gathered, but the crowd quickly picked him up (is that a good idea?) and dragged him to the sidewalk where the discussion could proceed unimpeded by 50 cars trying to drive past everyone. He was limping but beyond that seemed functional.
I spent yesterday in Alexandria, a city on the north coast named after Alexander the Great who decreed it constructed but actually died before he ever went back there to hang out. It apparently stretches about 20km along the coast of the Mediterranean and only goes inland about 8km inland, so it is a true coastal city. The proximity to the water means that a nice breeze blows through and makes the heat slightly less oppressive and brutal than it is in Cairo. It is also a quieter city, and I would say that I preferred it to Cairo certainly although it still suffers from the same disrepair and disregard on the part of the locals just like Cairo though in the local areas outside of downtown it seemed a bit better.
On the positive side, I visited the relatively newly constructed Library of Alexandria which was probably the coolest library I have ever seen. The exterior architecture and design is as impressive as the giant reading room which spans something like a dozen levels with a giant sloping windowed ceiling. It's quite a place to behold and definitely the coolest, modern thing I have seen in Egypt and probably will see.
In Alex I also walked along the Corniche, a many kilometer seafront along the Mediterranean which has fewer shops and markets than one might expect, which instead tend to congregate one or two streets inland. I also visited Montazzah, a former king's palace within a huge gardened complex spanning many acres, now occupied by mostly gardens but also containing a few high-end hotels, a casino, some restaurants, and the old palace which I think was at one point the President's residence but now no longer is.
As I walked back from Montazzah towards the train station, I walked along the coast passing many restaurant and beaches on which hundreds of tables with chairs and umbrellas were set up. It was dark by then and there were hundreds of people outside and all around eating their iftar meal to break the fast. I am told things are generally open quite late in Egypt, but the post-Ramadan flurry of activity and socializing lasting until 4am is actually one of the more interesting and enjoyable things I have experienced here.
Ahmed, my first Couchsurfing friend picked me up in Alexandria where he was visiting his family for the weekend, and we drove to the Citadel at the west end of the Corniche, a giant fort on the sea which was distinctly different than the Citadel in Cairo. Much smaller, much more sparse and plain design since I think it was mostly designed to be for defense and not a living quarters for royalty as was the Citadel in Cairo. We then attempted to drive to visit a tomb, but driving in Egypt and finding your way just about anywhere is not too easy, so although I got a nice driving tour of Alexandria, we never quite made it there. At several times Ahmed stopped to request directions of passerbys and this always had a certain comical quality to it in my eyes. Egyptians often speak loudly and quickly with a lot of body language and after the guy gave directions, he reached his hand in the car and patted Ahmed on the shoulder to say, you can do it man, go for it. It seemed to me like asking a stranger for directions on the street in NYC and then high-fiving.
I have seen or done few other interesting or amusing things.
The night before I went to Alexandria I met up with Couchsurfers in Zamalek, an Egyptian woman and her American husband who has been leaving in Cairo for 7 years. These were more or less the first non-muslims with whom I have hung out since being here, so it provided an interesting insight into some of the other people who live here in Cairo although it still seems to me a very small number (based on my limited experience) compared with the overwhelmingly majority Muslim community everywhere. They had a crazy cat which I enjoyed watching a lot, then they had two of the smallest kittens I have ever seen who they rescued off the street apparently parentless and were feeding with an eye dropper. They must've been only days old. They are both vegan (Couchsurfers, not the kittens) and cooked me an absolutely wonderful meal for which I am going to have to acquire names and recipes, but one of the dishes was a potato-like vegetable in some sort of green vegetable-pesto like sauce, which we ate over rice. This is apparently an Egyptian dish, not an outright invention on their part. Also there were a sort of fried dumpling filled with hummus, and another kind of fried dumpling for dessert filled with fruit and possibly nuts or dates and with a sweet dipping sauce. They also made a mountain of babaganoush and zucchini stuffed with tomato sauce and rice. We had a great conversation and I am going to try to see them again tonight before I leave for the desert tomorrow morning. I was exhausted after dinner so I didn't stick around too long, only long enough to participate with them in their Ramadan tradition of watching "The Biggest Loser."
Random interactions:
The cab driver on the way to the train station yesterday morning was excited that I was American and put me on the phone with his son who said to me, "How can I go to America?"
I met a Coptic Christian guy who also wants to go to the states. He told me many Egyptian people apply for the green card lottery since even if you want to go on a student visa, they expect you to have a certain amount of money in your bank account and that amount of money is very hard to earn here.
I had fuul (Fava beans) with tahini for breakfast finally.
Ramadan is everywhere for another week or two and although people are apparently tolerant of foreigners not fasting, I still feel awkward smoking and drinking water on the street during the day, and many Egyptian restaurants are closed. Nobody really seems to care, but it still feels like I am being stared at (I am, but not for that) and judged. That being said I have met a variety of people who are not fasting or who are at least smoking during the day even if they are. In Alexandria I passed a few cafes filled with smoking guys some of whom even appeared to be drinking tea. There are non-Muslims here to be sure, but even those who tell me they are not good Muslims who go to pray 5 times a day still fast. I suppose it is comparable to Jews who fast on Yom Kippur or go to synagogue on the high holidays but don't do anything else the rest of the year.
Yesterday I took the train back from Alex at around 9pm, on the same train as Ahmed and Chalid returning from their weekend visiting their families. The weekend here is Friday and Saturday and they work on Sunday again. It turns out by the way that you can smoke between cars on Egyptian trains. I rode 1st class going to Alex and 2nd class returning. These are both virtually the same. The seats are assigned and both are basically like any Amtrak train in the US except for the whole smoking thing. I wouldn't have known that actually, but I napped for about 30 minutes before Ahmed found me and woke me up to say hello and asked if I wanted to join him and Chalid for a cigarette, so I walked with them and we stood in between the cars for the rest of the trip since they both chain-smoke when they are not fasting. I did see a few 3rd class cars parked in the station when buying tickets and whatnot. These look more like New York subway car seating, though the seats are wood, the windows do not have glass in them, they are just open, and there is no A/C. They were hosing one of the cars down when I passed by. So I arrived back in Cairo exhausted and fell asleep around 1, not waking up til 11, which qualifies as my longest and probably best night of sleep since being here. I have generally not been sleeping well, mostly attributed to jetlag, often waking up at 5 or 6am and going out immediately, then napping in the afternoon. That being said, I feel pretty good today. I was originally going to the dessert today, but the buses tend to leave only in the early morning and late afternoon since traveling during the sweltering heat of mid-day is obviously not desirable. I also have yet to make a reservation at a hotel in Bahariya Oasis, my refactored next destination, so I will make all those arrangements today and probably leave first thing tomorrow morning. Tonight my main goal is to smoke sheesha, basically a hookah, a cultural experience in Egypt I have yet to try.
I am told apple is the way to go.
Update: I could not post this for a few hours since the internet was down, so I went out and took a walk in Zamalek and bought a few things at the grocery store. Then I spent a while trying to contact a hotel in Bahariya. It was amazing how few of them pick up the phone. I imagined it looking a lot like when Luke and Ben returned to his home to check on his foster parents only to discover smoldering skeletons in the desert, except with a ringing telephone. I finally was called back by a guy at one of the hotels and made a reservation, so I'm definitely going to Bahariya Oasis tomorrow (about where I plan to explore the options of visiting places like "the Black Mountain" and the "White Desert."
posted by Dan at 7:48 AM
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