First day in Cairo: there's a storm a brewin (or is that just Cairo?)

For our first day in Cairo (April 6^th) we first sought out our second hostel. After approximately a 25 minute cab ride we arrive at the hostel that was in fact just down the street from where we were. The cab drive had to stop and ask for directions several times because he either couldn't understand our English or he didn't know where the place was although i think it was a combination of the two.

This is a good place to input a brief description of driving around Cairo and why we didn't try to walk to the hostel. We weren't sure how to get there and only some of the street signs are in English. In addition, we didn't know where we were in relation to the new hostel, even if we were in the same part of the city. So we hopped in a cab. Cabs are incredibly cheap, typically they are supposed to be less than 10 pounds per ride to most places in the city yet cab drivers always try to screw over tourists by charging no less than 25 pounds. (at the time, $1 usd was about 5.3 pounds I think). Now, when driving on Egyptian roads, there are traffic lights and street signs at most intersections. Unfortunately, Unless there is also a police officer acting as crossing guard, the traffic signals are optional. This includes at five way intersections with multiple lanes. Just a little honk and anyone could go any way they wanted. Silly me, I just mentioned multiple lanes. The lanes too are also mere loose suggestions on both roads and highways. A road with 1 lane will usually have two cars driving next to eachother. Even on highways, the lane markers are only suggestions at best. Ever see cars going both ways around a round-about? In Cairo, traffic circles go two ways.

Then you might ask, “How do pedestrians cross the street?” Good question. Ever see frogger? Thats pretty much how it must be done. The best way to get used to it is find a local and just do what they do. After a while we almost got used to crossing 6 lane streets as cars are whizzing around and swerving around us. Crossing at a crosswalk just doesn't mean anything when traffic signals are optional. Somehow though, it kinda works. From talking to people we found out that little dings are common, but deadly accidents as well as accidents that leave people mangled are rare.

Maybach just sitting on the sidewalk?

We get to our other hostel and begin attempting to map out our Egypt trip with the help of our overeager hostel owner at Wakeup Cairo. Sam was just getting over being sick with a fever and just not feeling well so we decide to take it easy and spend the majority of the afternoon in the Egyptian Museum. Before the museum we ate lunch at this place around the corner from our hostel and ate “kashery.” This is a dish of grains and beans that is very cheap, very filling and quite delicious. After lunch, the owner of the hostel, Peter took us out for some tea, Hibiscus juice and shisha. We sat, relaxed and got to know each other. Sitting outside at these cafe type places is very common. You really can't walk around any place in egypt without seeing egyptian men smoking shisha and drinking coffee or tea for hours. Egyptian coffee is Turkish coffee. The tea is also really good (I think its some sort of ground up Ceylon black tea).

Pavel working the Kashery

After lunch and relaxing, we continued on to the Egyptian Museum. This is the world famous museum that houses many artifacts from tombs and pyramids including the entirety of the King Tut collection, part of which made a brief stint in the Franklin institute a few years ago. Peter decided to give the 3 of us a free private tour of the museum. Yes this was very kind of him since descriptions of the museum were sparse and he was well informed. Turns out this free tour was more of an investment for him since we went on to book tours of the pyramids, as well as the temples around Luxor through him.

The Three travelers and Peter taking a break outside the Egyptian Museum

The Egyptian Museum was really cool, but I don't have any pictures from inside because they are not allowed. That night we met up with a friend of a friend named Aliza, who has been living in Cairo for the past 10 months (I think) so she could give us the lowdown on Cairo and Egypt (including how to get less ripped off by cabs). We met her at some hotel's rooftop bar and talked over a beer (my first of three beers that I had in Egypt). This was interesting because drinking is not very common in Egypt at all. Walking around, there are very few bars and even fewer places that sell alcohol. The bars are primarily for tourists. Egyptians are much more in to smoking (one of our numerous tour guides said that 90% of Egyptian males smoke cigarettes). Every cab we got in offered us cigarettes before lighting up. They were often confused as to why we would always refuse offers to smoke since so many of them do.

I guess religion dictates their vices there. No drinking, but smoking is fine.

Twas a good day, but the next day is pyramid day!!!!