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Published: January 17th 2006
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Hotel Osiris Room
Our room in Cairo - minimal but clean. Today, we lounged around and didn't roll out of bed until 9:30 am for a leisurely breakfast on the balcony of our hotel, which sits on the 12th floor of a downtown building. The view would have been breathtaking if the city were not so run down and dirty. Nothing like having an alfresco breakfast while breathing in the amazing pollution. According to our guidebook, Cairo outpollutes L.A. every day of the week; breathing the atmosphere downtown is reputedly akin to smoking 30 cigarettes a day!
The population of Cairo is estimated at around 18 million; hard to believe so many people can be packed into such a small area. However, despite the overcrowding, the poverty, and the pollution, Shane and I have been amazed at the sheer friendliness and hospitality of the people here. It is like nothing we have experienced before. I was expecting to be inundated with tourist touts, but that has not been our experience so far. It is true that we have been approached about taking tours, felucca rides, and horse-drawn carriages, but a simple "No, thank you" has always been effective and sufficient. Far more common has been the enthusiastic "Welcome to Egypt!" greetings
Hotel Osiris Room Balcony
Cute balcony off of our room. we have received while walking down the street. Many people have happily stopped to help us poor, easily spotted, lost tourists and redirected us in the right direction. Perhaps I should briddle some of my initial enthusiastic and positive perceptions as we have not yet visited the truly tourists sports (ie. Aswan and Luxor). I imagine I may be changing my mind then.
I really wanted to visit Islamic Cairo today, but since it's Friday, all the mosques are closed for prayer. Shane wanted to save our visit to the pyramids for the end - so that left the Egyptian Antiquities Museum. The first hurdle was getting there. Luckily, our hotel is within easy walking distance to the heart of Cairo, Midan Tahir (the downtown "square") where the Museum is located. Imagine Midan Tahir as a huge traffic circle with tons of vehicles merging in and out - and you have to cross through it several times. It is similar to trying to get across Crowchild Trail during rush hour several times. You wait for a break in traffic, hold your breath, step out and walk across one lane at a time without stopping because you will get run
Hotel Osiris
The lobby in our hotel - very eye pleasing! over if you hesitate. The buses/cars/motorcycles/vans just slow down/swerve around/honk at you and somehow you make it across. A heart-stopping experience at first, but you become pretty ho-hum about it after awhile.
The Museum is a fascinating place with a dizzying number of displays of antiquities, many of which are uncased. The boy king Tutankhamun galleries were amazing! Shane and I also splurged on buying the extra tickets to see the Royal Mummy Room . I can't belive it costs so much to see 10 dead, mummified kings and 1 queen. But it is pretty wild to think these guys lived over 3000 years ago. Shane was convinced he could see the resemblance between some of the pharoahs like Seti I and Ramses II ("Sure, honey - that's nice.") It took us all of 5 minutes to see the mummies, but as we were leaving, we thought we'd get our 140 LE's worth and went back to examine them for another 5 minutes. Of course, no cameras allowed inside the museum (they X-ray your bag twice before you even get into the Museum to make
Hotel Osiris Breakfast Balcony
Here is where we had a delicious breakfast each morning, inhaling the smog with fantastic views of the pollution in Cairo. sure).
That evening, we went for a long walk along the Nile (which at some times smelt distinctly of urine) to eat at Abu as-Seid - what a fantastic restaurant! It served traditional Egyptian fare and was full of character. We had stuffed vines, lamb kebabs and chicken in a walnut sauce (it said on the menu that it was a very old recipe).
Thanks for everyone's comments. Just wanted to let everyone know that Shane and I feel very safe in Egypt. Violent crime is virtually unheard of and even pickpockets are very rare in Egypt. No need to worry. As well, with all that Shane and I want to see, I doubt very much we will have time to go over to Jordan (another trip in the future to look forward to!). There is still yet so much more to see in Cairo, but Shane and I will save it for the end - we will see what awaits us in Alexandria tomorrow! (I still haven't figured out how to add pictures - may have to wait a week until we get into Luxor where I can have them transferred onto a disc and then hopefully
Cairo Skyline
Views of Cairo as we sat eating breakfast at our hotel. I can upload them from the CD. However, it doesn't appear like there are too many internet cafes in Egypt with CD drives... Hmmm...)
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sheri
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sounds like you're having a great time - I would love to go sometime!