Ugh Cairo

---

So, despite the lovely view and the potential of fireworks (of which our neighbours were proving plenty), we didn’t quite manage midnight…but set an alarm for 5 mins before. The hotels and houses in front let off a few…not the Opera House but not too shabby.

We decided on a lazy morning to give Beeb some more recovery time, and then headed in to Khan El Kahlili for some lunch. Another delicious serving of juices and some tasty chocolate filled things gave us some energy for perfume buying and general wandering. But there’s only so many conversations one can have about ‘best price’ before it becomes overwhelming, so we jumped in an Uber and headed to the Egyptian Museum.

It’s in a state of flux as the new museum in Giza is “opening” but no one really knows when. So some of the tired old display cases are now empty, their contents either completely disintegrated away and added to the ubiquitous dust, or moved to the new location. But what we’d really come to see was King Tutankhamen’s gear, and happily, he was still around (well, he himself is actually in his tomb in Luxor).

Checked out his gold (no frankincense or myrrh) and then subjected the kids to the mummified animals. Then we had some time to kill before the start of our food tour. But Cairo is unfortunately not really the place for strolling or hanging or enjoying the surrounds. It’s the place for trying not to get killed as you walk along the road because they have shut the footpath and you have to dodge about 50 vehicles per second weaving and honking and maybe not really looking where they’re going. It made the 10 minute walk to our meeting spot feel like an episode of Squid Games.

We sought shelter in the serenity of the Hilton for a while before meeting a group and being bundled into a battered old mini van for a quick trip to a local neighbourhood. We sampled some ‘breakfast’ food before testing some snacks. Then we headed to a restaurant for ‘lunch’ where we tried some slow cooked meats, a rice sausage and some other deliciousness we hadn’t had before.

But poor Beeb had reached the end of her night and we had to leave before we made it to ‘dinner’ and ‘dessert’. Back along the death highway before we thankfully made it the the safety and serenity of our apartment in one piece.

---