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This is my entry right after the travel : Cairo is huge, dirty, loud, unfriendly, often rip-off and complicated city. After taking bus and metro twice I decided to stick to cabs and bargain about the price. For me it all went well but almost all my friends got ripped off by taxi drivers. To keep it short : Cairo sucked. The city itself at the moment is only interesting because of its people and the aftermath or ongoing (subject for discussion) of revolution but not as a city itself. Yeah pyramides and markets are worth seeing but once u've seen them you're bored. Unless you know Egyptians..And here we come to the important part : I never met so many interesting and cool people who wanted to be my friends as in Egypt, they welcomed me, helped me if needed and even their families made me feel welcome. Also the political situation is strange - there is basically no government but military is in control. In spite of the situation its relatively safe. It's extremely interesting to talk to young people - almost all of them participated in the demonstrations in Tahrir and have a strong political opinion.
As a
tourist (woman) you are spotted from miles away and some run after you telling bullshit or even insulting and others want to engage you in a conversation or welcome you to Egypt.
I must admit I had a lot of difficulties with being a single redhead white woman in Egypt since it was much more conservative than I had thought and also much hotter (up to 40°C without wind and superpoluted). People see you from miles away and walk after you, call all their friends and stare, sometimes in a friendly situation, sometimes not so much. However with my mean person skills I always stayed away from trouble although it was really close sometimes :o)
Also a typical thing all people say - the poorest were the nicest. Stereotype but also fact.
Addition: The revolution is indeed still ongoing and unfortunately the goals are still not reached. Many people I got to know there after months became even closer friends. Lets hope Egypt will win strength again and that the bad parts of Cairo will soon be past.
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