Lanes are Just a Suggestion

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The flight to Cairo was bad... A crying baby, no sleep, and someone was throwing up at their seat as we were landing (we could hear it but not see it thankfully!).
We landed in Cairo at 6am, we got through passport control with no problems. The guy who helped us let us stamp our own passports which was kinda cool! We had to wait a long time for our luggage. We were there so long that we were both worried that it was not going to appear so when it did we breathed a sigh of relief! Our hostel was supposed to have a car arranged to pick us up at the airport... They didn’t. We walked around for a while checking out all the guys with signs. None of them were for us. We eventually decided we were going to take a cab and went out front to get one. As soon as we got to the door we were bombarded by Taxi drivers. The guy at the information desk told us to take a white cab not a black one because it was cheaper... Only problem was that the white cabs were on the other side of the road and the swarm of drivers around us drove the black cabs. We eventually settled with one for 80 Egyptian pounds (which is way more than what we needed to pay) just wanting to be on our way. And so our Egyptian adventure began...

They drive like crazy here!!!! Lanes are more of a suggestion than a rule! As are seemingly one way streets, turning lanes and so on... There is so much traffic. It does not matter what time of day it is there is constantly, literally, bumper to bumper traffic! Everyone honks their horns, not as an aggression, as far as I can tell, but more of a Hello I am here sort of thing. There are not many stop lights, in general there seem to be police standing in intersections letting through blocks of traffic at un-timed/ uncoordinated intervals. My family in South Africa used to joke that the trash was the national flower there... They got nothing on Egypt! There is trash pilled everywhere! In the streets, on the sidewalks, the river looks like trash trucks backed up to it and dumped their load down the side. It is disgusting! The air is so polluted, you can see it while you are in it. Not like at home when you see the pollution from afar but then when you are in the city you don’t notice it... Here if it was any thicker you would be swimming through it. The city to me, feels like it was once grand, and then abandoned and re-inhibited years and years later after it had fallen apart. The buildings look like they should all be abandoned but people live in them, and businesses set up in them, they go on with what they have, not trying to fix any of it properly and therefore aiding in the destruction of what’s left. It is fascinating here though, the people, the culture, the dirt, the food. Cairo the city, is not a place I would spend a lot of time in because of how dirty and polluted it is but it is also an experience I am glad I have had and would not want to miss out on. It makes you wonder what it was like before it became a city of overpopulation, traffic, and trash.
Anyways.... Our cab driver struggled to find the hostel that we had booked called Dina's Hostel. After stopping to ask directions at least 10 times our cab driver, who didn’t speak English, pulled over and got out and pulled our bags out of the trunk. He lead us down a dark, narrow, dirty ally way and turned to go into what appeared to be an abandoned building. The stair case reminded me of the building in the movie Quarantine... Dusty, dark, and looking completely abandoned we began to climb the stairs. We walked up 3 flights before finding the first sign of inhabitants, a light in a corner room. An accounting office. We stopped again to ask him for directions and he took us to a small rickety elevator and sent us up another 2 floors. I was surprised the elevator moved, and then again surprised when it didn’t break down with the 3 of us in it and our 2 backpacks! The elevator stopped and we navigated our way out and around piles of wood, dry wall, paint buckets and plastic. The floor we stopped on looked like a construction site. Construction materials everywhere, the floor had a thick layer of dust on it and to our right above a little entry way was a sign, "Dina's Hostel" . Happy that we at least finally made it we ignored the mess, waved the cab driver good bye and thanked him for all his help (I think the cab driver was very happy to be rid of us!). Dina's Hostel said online that it was managed and run by women for women. We were checked in by a man, young but still of the male gender 😊 He took us down another construction ridden hallway, into a room filled with crap! There were 2 bunk beds with the bottom bunk on each made up but lying across the top of the two, like a bridge, were 6 mattresses piled high to the ceiling. There was another bunk bed, not completely built yet, over in the corner, bags of cement mix (or something like that), and all kinds of other things. An inch thick layer of saw dust on the floor, as well as cigarette butts and soda cans, no glass in the windows, no lock to the door, and multiple other construction materials. We checked in at 8am... The guy said that they would clean up the room for us. Trying to not be overly girly and freak out we said fine and went to their common room and got onto the internet. The longer we sat there the less I wanted to stay. The people working there were not too friendly, (and all male!) the people staying there did not really seem to be happy, and I had another one of those gut feelings telling me to get out! I told Alex I didn’t want to stay. We quickly looked online, found another place called American House near the Cairo Museum, and decided to go. We went to get our bags, the hallway to our room was now filled with construction workers, at this point we had been sitting waiting for 2 hours, and we got to the room and nothing had been done to change the state of it, this just solidified our decision to leave. The other thing that was very annoying is that all the other people staying there were on a side and in rooms not under construction. They tried to get us to stay by putting us in a non-construction room with some other people but something just didn’t feel right so we left. As soon as we were outside on the street and in the sunlight I felt instantly better. We started walking and climbed into a white cab hoping that when we found the next place they would have a room for us. The driver spoke next to no English but he was a lot nicer than the first one! The building that American House is in is right on the street! No creepy dark alley ways! We climbed up 4 flights of stairs(that for the most part were lighted and Not covered in dust!) and walked into an actual reception/hang out area! Ackmed(not sure if I have the spelling right, probably not!) greeted us and we pleaded with him for a room! He had us put our stuff down, showed us the rooms and bathrooms and asked what our plans were. We told him we wanted to stay 5 nights in Cairo and then we were taking the Night Train down to Luxor for 5 nights. He said that was too much that we would not need so much time. He had booked a trip for another girl who was traveling alone and would be leaving the next night on the night train for Luxor. The trip included pretty much everything that we had been looking into doing, all the historical sites, camping in the White Desert, and a ride on a Felucca. We decided to do it! It would take all the stress off of our shoulders on how to plan everything and how to get from A to B.
After getting settled in, Ackmed took us down the street and showed us where the bank was. Then he took us to a little local Shisha place for tea and shisha! It is not far from our hostel, easy to find and full of locals. We sat and had a cup of tea and tried Apple flavored Shisha! It was a lot of fun, I’ve never tired it before and it gave me a bit of a light headed feeling that I kind of enjoyed haha! It was a nice afternoon and helped me to relax after the mornings stress. After that we decided to venture out onto the streets. Alex had lost her cord to charge her computer and so we went on the search for a new one. We were helped by 2 guys who lead the way, and supposedly got Alex a good deal on the cord, although it was still more than she would have paid in the states she was happy to have one. The guys seemed nice enough but we didn’t want to take any chances, they invited us out for tea and we declined and headed back to the hostel. That night we met Stacy, the girl who we would be traveling with for the next few days, and were sent on a Dinner Cruise.... It was TERRIBLE!!!!! The food was really bad as was the live entertainment. I was stressing out again slightly because I was worried that the rest of our trip was going to be the same, terrible and overly touristy orientated. If the rest of the trip we had just set up and paid for was anything like this I was not going to enjoy my time in Egypt at all. We went to bed to the sound of the people yelling below and the cars on the streets, It was actually very loud and I eventually had to put headphones in because I couldn’t fall asleep.
The next morning we were up bright and early. They gave us breakfast which was a long skinny roll of bread with butter and jam and a cup of coffee. Alex, Pablo(a guy staying at the hostel, and soon to become a new friend), and I set off for our first pyramids. We were taken to Imhotep Museum & Saqqara first, also known as steep pyramids. They are pretty run down, the pyramids were crumbling and so they are currently in the process of trying to restore/preserve them. It seems like they were just getting started because only a small section at the bottom was done but they were placing new blocks to cover/preserve the original pyramids. There were also lots of little temples around this area. As we walked up a man took our tickets and started walking us around, he was hard to understand and knew few words in English. He would point to what was obviously a cow (part of the hieroglyphs) and say "cow, butcher cow" and then look at us with a big smile like this was a great explanation/ service he was giving us! At one point he stopped and said "ok take picture here" so we pulled out our cameras and started taking photos, then walked into another room, seconds later we heard our guide and another lady guide yelling about it, turns out photos were not allowed.... Oops, can’t take it back and we didn’t know so there is not much we could do about it after the fact. We gave him a small tip once he said he was done and then wondered around on our own for a bit before heading back to the car.
After that we thought we were heading to Giza... Not. The driver pulled over at an essential oil factory that was obviously run by people that were his friends. We went in and sat down, The guy that worked at the oil placed asked me if I was annoyed because to him I looked annoyed. In all honesty I was a bit annoyed but really I was just more surprised since I didn’t know we would be stopping there and they did not ask or tell us that we would be. I shook my head no and then listened to their little spiel, drank some Hibiscus Tea, said thank you and were on our way. After that we were taken to a Papyrus gallery. This place was packed with artwork and tourists. Alex got a great deal on a few different pieces and I got one that has the eye of Ra on it and EPIC in hieroglyphs underneath! The particular thing I got is meant for names, they are put into a circle of infinity and so the guy looked at me funny and asked me quite a few times if epic was correct! It made Alex and I giggle. Next our driver asked if we wanted to go see a carpet factory where kids make Persian rugs. We said no! Then he wanted to take us to a jewelry place but we told him No again that we just wanted to go to Giza. Finally we got to Giza, and once again he took us to one of his friends businesses, who takes people in on camel and around the entire area. After extensive amounts of No's were said we were taken to the gate. Pablo, Alex and I walked the entire area. The 3 large pyramids and the sphinx(which we didn’t get up close to because you had to pay another entrance fee to walk up closer to it, but the view from the road was just fine. Walking around can be annoying because everyone is haggling you to ride their camel or take a picture with their camel but overall I’m glad that we walked. It was amazing, it is nice to feel the pull of your muscles, your feet dragging through the sand, and see the great size slowly grow larger and larger. The 3 of us took many photos, walked around the few temples(one of which we got to climb down into a tomb which was awesome!) we didn’t have to pay to go into these. Then we circled the 3 large pyramids, and walked up the "mountain"(that’s what they called it but really it was just a hill!). At one point we saw a man beating a young boy(maybe 9 or 10) with a camel whip. Don’t know what for, all I know is that I was absolutely appalled and felt so helpless. Being a woman I had no right to step in here but it was very hard for me to stand and watch. Luckily another Arabic man went over and tried to stop the guy and then eventually a police man on camel went over to see what all the commotion was about. The young boy walked away with his little donkey crying. It was really a terrible thing to watch. We made it to the "mountain" top and sat and stared at the view. From here you could see all the large pyramids, most of the little ones, and the city behind them down the hill. It is amazing how extensive Cairo is. I realized it was big when we got off the plane, but when you are up on the hills by the pyramids it really hits you, the city just goes on and on, with seemingly no end. We spent a good 2 hours inside walking around, we headed back to the gates as the sun was setting, as we got closer the people working there were quick to shoo us out saying that it closed at 4pm. But I did get a few good shots of the sun setting first!
After that our driver offered to take us to a buffet dinner place, we were quick to refuse after our buffet experience on the dinner cruise. Once back to the Hostel I cleaned my leg and then Alex, Pablo, and I went on the search for a local place to eat. We didn’t have to wonder far, there was a little hole in the wall looking place just over a block away that was packed to the brim with locals. We walked in and they told us it would be a 5 minute wait. It smelled good! We were taken to a small table cramped into a corner of an overstuffed room. We were the only tourists in there! It was great! They only serve one thing, what they call Koshary. It is a bowl of macaroni, noodles, and rice with lentils, chick peas, a tomato spice sauce, and fried onions on top. Then you can add a chili sauce on top or a garlic sauce. It is great, one of my favorite things I’ve had here. It was cheap, about 40 Egyptian pounds so around $8 for 3 servings and 3 sodas! After that Alex and I took Pablo to the Shisha bar that we had gone to the day before. It was easy to find, we shared a cantaloupe one(which I liked better than the apple!) and each had a cup of tea. We spent about an hour there talking and smoking before heading back to the hostel. Alex had to finish packing, I had already finished earlier, and so Pablo and I hung out on the balcony and watched the traffic and people below.
At 9pm Alex, Stacy and I were picked up to be taken to the night train. We were a block down the road when I realized that I had left my purse, with my passport and money back at the hostel. The cab couldn't turn around, so he pulled to the side and the guy, who was going to the train with us, and I ran back to the hostel and got it. I almost got run over by cars and motorcycles only a few times! I still can’t believe I did that, but I’m glad I realized right away and that my purse was still there sitting on the table when I got back! We ran back to the cab and were on our way again!

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Comments

[anonymous]

Glad you didn't stay at Dina's Always follow your instincs! Can you bring me apple shisha!