Cairo Dreamin’
After accidentally spending a full four months in Dahab, there wasn't much time left for Cairo (and none for Alexandria, which was the original destination). The two main reasons for still coming to Cairo, rather than flying out of Sharm el-Sheikh, was to visit a local friend and visit a random GPS coordinate near Heliopolis.
The friend had a last minute change of travel plans and ended up not being in town, while the random GPS coordinate turned out to be a pile of rubble, which piqued my interest in it even more, but let to know clear answers. Anyway, the stay in downtown Cairo - ie the Cairo where you can still find the last fading vestiges of the early to mid-20th century - was a great way to end the trip.
Good morning Cairo!
After accidentally spending the past seven months in the desert, the pendulum has ironically swung all the way to the side when it comes to foliage, with this view from the bedroom window....
Night & Day in Cairo
Same dog, slightly different car. Spotted last night around 10pm and this morning around 830am.
NB: If you like seeing dogs on the roofs of cars, you'll want to keep an eye on this page over the coming days....
Bazooka Fried Chicken & Chocolate
If anyone still had doubts that late capitalism is becoming an unsustainable, pointless mess of self-parody that's inevitably going to collapse (hopefully sooner rather than later), we present you with this branch of Bazooka Fried Chicken & Chocolate, in a formerly rundown but now freshly gentrified part of Cairo's old downtown.
It should also be noted that it was packed with customers yesterday afternoon, while the entire seven floors of shops above it were completely deserted, aside from the sales people milling about, looking depressed and chain smoking, and one very out of place foreigner in search of a new baseball cap failing to find anything (but appreciating the AC on the lower floors nonetheless).
Garden City Mornings
Came across this automobile that looks like it has some stories to tell, on an early morning wander around the aptly named Garden City district of Cairo….
5 o'clock Shadows
What a 5 o'clock shadow looks like in Cairo.…
Full disclosure: This is actually a 5:29pm and 28 seconds shadow. But that doesn't sound as good, so in the spirit of the typical travel blog fakery, liberties were taken with the truth. Apologies if you feel misled!
Famous Fried Brains and Liver
When you've barely eaten any meat for the past seven months, but a plate of legendary old Cairo fried brain and liver is just too tempting to pass up come lunch time. Mmmm mmmm!
Total cost for a 1/4 kg combo with salad, bread and tahini: E£80, or €1.57
Sunset on the Nile
Sunset on the Nile. Sort of. Brought to you by Google Maps, which doesn't have any idea which streets are open to pedestrians and which ones dead end at heavily fortified embassies or five-star hotel complexes.
Meat on Sticks
Human-sized spools of meat on sticks being sliced by humans dressed like meat on a stick seems a bit excessive and perhaps a little demeaning to us, but this place is incredibly popular, so they must know what they're doing.
Sunset from Al-Azhar Park
Cairo is a chaotic, heaving, dusty megalopolis of some 30 million people (Wikipedia will tell you 20 million, but it really depends where you stop counting), and if you want to see it in all of its chaotic, heaving, dusty megalopolitan glory, well, then you're pretty much out of luck - on account of the aforementioned dust and it being quite flat. But Al-Azhar Park at sunset is still a very nice spot to be.
Pro-Tip: Assume that the bottom gate will be closed, so if you walk all the way down there thinking you'll be able to exit that way, you'll instead be left with a choice between dropping down a wall that's way too high to drop down, climbing over a fence topped with razor wire (which leads to the adjacent cemetery), or walking all the way back up and around to the main exit.
Early Morning Stroll
Early morning Cairo - about the only time it's pleasant to walk around the city these days, unless you're a fan of super high temps and gusts of wind that feel like someone just opened a giant oven....
World's Coolest Pop-Up Café
When you neither need nor want a coffee at 10pm, but then come across the world's coolest pop up café and don't feel comfortable taking photos without ordering something....
NB: The super friendly lady who runs this magnificent set up would have been fine with the photos sans coffee, as she also tried to refuse payment afterwards. Not a lot of tourists wandering around this part of town on a Friday night apparently.
Egyptian Breakfast
The most typical Egyptian breakfast: Foul medames (ie spiced fava bean stew) served with various accoutrement - three falafel, slightly spicy tomato and cucumber salad, pickled vegetables, jarjera (Middle Eastern arugula) and 3-4 pieces of fresh bread.
Total cost: E£30, or €0.59
Oops!
When you fly to Athens to get lunch with someone and have a return flight 2.5 days later, but then one thing leads to another and all of a sudden it's eight months later and you're a resident of Egypt. Oops! Strange times. Strange, strange, strange times....
Heart Attack Fried Chicken and Burger
Located just around the corner from Bazooka Fried Chicken & Chocolate. No idea if they've got the same owner, but it wouldn't be surprising.
[Insert same critique of late capitalism becoming a sad parody of itself from previous post here]
Postcards >> Streets Flowing with Blood
Today marked the start of the second most important celebration of the Islamic calendar - Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of the Sacrifice - commemorating that one time God showed his comedic talents by making Abraham think he needed to sacrifice his son, before the first ‘Gotcha!’ prank in recorded history. Haha, that God is hilarious when he wants to be!
Anyway, in lieu of photos from this morning’s (or tonight's) walkabout, where the streets of Cairo were literally flowing with blood from all the freshly slaughtered sheep and cows and at least one camel, here's a shot of some postcards that got dropped into a postbox earlier today.
If you've been following this page for any length of time, you'll know that means the next stop is the airport. Eid Mubarak Egypt! Until next time.....
Travel Facts: Original Facebook HQ
Fun Fact: The original Facebook HQ was actually located in downtown Cairo, before those sexy twins bought the rights to the concept for the equivalent of $17 when they were on holiday and moved it to Harvard, and then in turn had it stolen from them by that creepy ginger cyborg, who of course went on to deftly turn it into the personal data collecting, misinformation spreading, society destroying, evil monopolistic behemoth that it is today. Or at least that's what we heard, so it's probably true....
Natinal Alchives
FYI, close enough is almost always good enough, and perfectionism is an unhealthy personality trait. These are things you're often reminded of in Egypt, where it's always best to embrace the chaos, disorder and imperfections.....
Twilight Football Match
Twilight football match in Cairo, below Al-Azhar Park. The consolation prize for trying (and failing) to leave the park through the no longer operational lower exit. Totally worth the few extra kilometres of walking....
Egyptian Innovations
An Egyptian innovation in mini market product displays - cuts out the need for purchasing additional shelving and also acts as its own colourful marketing tool. Simple and effective (for delivering empty, overpriced calories of fake food to the masses).
A little window shopping in downtown Cairo....
Kit-Kats of the World Unite
Same same but different: Cairo Kit-Kat v Berlin Kit Kat v Amman Kitkat v American* KitKat
*Photo taken in Pokhara, Nepal, although the global KitKat brand is owned by Nestle, which means that if you want to get technical, the geographical origin of this last shot is actually Hell, since that's where Nestle's HQ is located....
James Bond and the boys....
NB: That chap on the bottom is Sheikh Mohamed Metwaly Sha’rawi, aka 'The Preacher of the Century' and still a popular figure in Egypt apparently. I'd never heard of him until I started wondering who this guy was I kept seeing on a lot of vans and buses.
And I was going to give my honest opinion of Sadat and Nasser, but thought I'd save that for a post with a photo I took of the street signs at Nasser and Sadat intersection. I've also got a few things to say about the absolute scum of the Earth incompetent current dictator they've got and his pathetic shiteating grin that's plastered up all over the country, but I was waiting till I left Egypt for that, just to be on the safe side.