Back to Cairo

Monday, October 6, 2008
Travel to Cairo, Egypt

Well the convoy left Hurghada on time and we headed to Cairo. I can honestly say I have no memories from the trip other than attempting to sleep…..which I actually did quite well. All the night shifts I work are finally paying off as it turns out I have absolutely no problems sleeping with lots of noise or lights or whatever.


We arrived back at the Swiss Nile Inn in Cairo around 1000.Of course that is a little early to be checking in but we did it anyways. My room did not actually get cleaned until closer to 1300 (1pm) so I found some things to do to kill the time. When the time I spent online did not turn out to be long enough I went for a walk….a nice long 2 hour walk….in the heat.

One of the bridges that crosses the Nile in Cairo

Being back in Cairo was actually a treat compared to Hurghada. Much easier to walk down the streets. While a few guys may take a look, they certainly are not making comments and definitely not taking time to bug me.

The area of the city we are staying in is poverty stricken. People work and work hard because nobody is going to help them out if they don’t. Walking past the familiar carts with watermelons, kids selling different types of bread ( I actually saw one kid drop a couple, pick it back up and throw it back on the pile), the goats and cow and all that stuff. I also happened to pass a couple people selling fish on the street…live fish…in a little tub (although there were less alive on my way back to the hotel). It is still the final days of the feast, so a holiday, so there were a lot of people wandering around. I found a couple parks down by the river. I quickly realized that they were private parks and that you had to pay to spend any time there ( I took a couple pictures and then left). This is how they keep “less desirable” people out of the parks. It was very interesting to see.

The view of the Nile from one of the private parks

Of course the tour was not complete although we did have the entire afternoon to ourselves (to recover from the overnight bus ride). The group reconvened that evening to head to the Sound and Light Show at the Sphinx and Pyrmids. Although none of us really had high expectations for the show it really was more sound than lights (we had hoped for a couple lasers or something). It gave a good run down of Egyption history but as expected was really corny.

One of the pyramids....all lit up

After the show and heading to dinner

The night was topped off with an amazing dinner at a restaurant right down on the Nile called the Sea Horse Club. Really great food, great conversation and a great atmophere. The restaurant was pretty empty until around 2200 (10pm, right when we were getting ready to leave) as families started to pile in.

Outside the restaurant. We just thought this was fun.

The trip back to the hotel was a little sombre. It was the last few moments that the 11 of us would be spending together. We also passed a bridge being lined by people…entire familes and babies and everyone. It isn’t just the feast for the rich but for the poor as well and while they may not be able to afford the Sea Horse Club, hanging out on the bridge that crosses the Nile will do for them.

I head to sleep trying to reflect on the last 10 days and still looking forward to the next 2 months. So many thoughts in my head but mostly I need to make plans for tomorrow.

Julie