Magnoon!

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Second Day

Cairo, or Al Qahirah in Arabic, boggles the mind and the senses. The first impression simply overloads the brain; too much is happening in too many places too fast to make any sense of it. The insane traffic bound by no rules mixing with masses of apparently suicidal pedestrians, both dogging the donkey carts wondering the streets seemingly ignorant of the 20th century heap of humanity and technology surrounding them. Then as your eyes slowly adjust to the cacophony that surrounds them you begins to hear to the music of Cairo, a symphony composed of a thousand car horns, the vibe of a million pedestrian lost in their individual conversations, competing with hundreds of taxi radios blaring the latest Amr Diab or local Qu’ran reading while their drivers yell out their window, all beautifully harmonized, in that strange post-modern sort of way, with the clatter of horse and donkey carts and the timeless call to prayer. Cairo may be an assult on the sense, but I love it! I have never seen any city that can compare to the vibe and rhythms of this place. To say that its teeming with life understates the way people are crammed into every possible nook and cranny, every alley way choked with merchant’s shops or sheesha cafés with their clientele who converse in the simultaneously laid back, yet energetic manner that only the locals can pull off. It is really an amazing city.

Today we were on our way to see the Pyramids, not by tour bus but with our own car. You lose much of Egypt by seeing it through a tour bus; it’s not really the same country. So many of the creature comforts afforded by the tour buses also destroy the experience, the excitement, and really the point of being there. Our house is on the south side of the city, and to get to the Pyramids and the Giza suburbs we have to take the south loop of the ring road north and then west across the Nile and then follow the canal road north tell you hit the Pyramids. Although the Pyramids are impressive, and I am studying ancient history in the Near East, the trip to get there was more fun. For me the modern city of Cairo stole the show. The Giza Pyramids are overrun with tourists and it is one massive tourist trap. I swear the hawkers can smell the tourists like sharks on blood, and we found ourselves constantly trying to shake off the more persistent ones. I used to hate visiting the Pyramids because the hawkers are very good at putting the guilt trip on you. Until I gained some confidence and learned just how rude or abrupt I could actually be, it was quite stressful. I also don’t like visiting here because it leaves with a bad taste in my mouth about the country, and it shouldn’t because the people here don’t represent the way most people in the country do business, only those in the tourist sector. Not that I blame them entirely for trying to rip me off, if they find a sucker willing to pay their outrageous prices then more power to them!

Hmm, I’m not sure if I’m following any kind of narrative thread throughout this, so if its difficult to read, pardon me. I’m still new at this blog type environment.

I guess I’m gonna have to end it here, although I meant to use this entry to talk about Cairo and the pyramids, their both too great to fit even one into a single entry so I have a lot about each that I’ll have to leave out.

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