home•itinerary•world map•guestbook
Egypt
Cairo Days, Sheesha Nights
Cairo, December 6, 2006
We've been spending the last three days or so exploring downtown Cairo, which is so much different than we imagined that we almost don't know what to say. The city — or better, what we've seen of it so far — is huge and clearly a world capital. It's a place that is truly East and West, ancient and modern. The people here remind us very much of New Yorkers — nice enough but clearly in a hurry. We both like this city so much that we'd consider living here for a time, though the air pollution might make a longer stay undesirable. Andy has begun to study Arabic, though a more rigorous study plan would be required to learn this language.
One of our favorite activities is to go to a café and order a tea or beer and a sheesha (also known as a hookah or a hubbly-bubbly). You sit and read and puff on the water-pipe (Of course, it's tobacco only! What are you thinking? Drug use carries a death penalty in Egypt!), which is very relaxing indeed! We have yet to make it to the pyramids, or to the Egyptian Museum for that matter, although we have hopes of doing some tourism this afternoon. We have to go to the Australian Embassy today to get Liza's visa, and if that doesn't take too long, we should be able to see some things today. Let's see how it goes!