Alrighty then!   A new day and a new country!

To say yesterday was a long day would be a huge understatement but, in the end, I made it and here I was waking up in Egypt.

I arrived last night around midnight and just crashed right away.

After a nice, deep sleep, I awoke this morning at 8:30.

Before anything else, I was claiming that bed behind me that had been vacated at 4am this morning.

Unlike the bed I was had slept in last night, this one had a power outlet next to it and a nice storage shelf beside it.

I also discovered that one of the cabinets in the shelving unit had a little key in it that locked it up.

Just what I needed to store my valuables in.   Perfect.

I moved all the beddings and finally setup all my stuff.

Good morning Cairo!

An Egyptian breakfast is included with this hostel so I joined the other people staying in the hostel at the little dining table in the main reception area.

Along with me, there was also a trio of Chinese people deep in a Mandarin conversation and an Indian YouTuber claiming 1.2 million followers.

I really wanted to chat with the YouTuber just to kind of pick his brain about how that all works but the conversation was very halted due to his limited English and, well, my complete lack of Hindi.

For breakfast I was served a tray of different small plates: spicy vegetables, refried beans, a boiled egg, and a plate of fresh made falafels.

Not too bad of a way to start the day!

After breakfast I returned to my room where everyone else had checked out.

I took the opportunity with the room to myself to finally finish off yesterday’s blog and just to kind of relax and figure out what I wanted to do for the day.

After such a long couple of days, I had decided to cancel a planned day trip to Alexandria coming up to give myself an extra day here in Cairo.

With that extra day I could space things out a little more and just take it easier each day.

I’m literally giving myself a vacation in the middle of my vacation.

Now there was no need to get out there early today or even to get out there at all.

I could literally just lie in bed all day and do nothing if I wanted!

15egp big water from hostel 43cents
Fri holy day

Riding the Metro

In the end, I ultimately decided to finally get my ass out there around noon.

I was feeling pretty rested and ready to see some of Cairo.

My plan today was to visit an area to the east of the city called Islamic Cairo and, if I felt like it, to also visit the Coptic Cairo area to the south.

Both were accessible by metro and took about 20 minutes to get to each.

So, off to the metro I went!

My hostel is about a 10 minute walk from a metro station located Tahir Square.

So this was where all the big name hotel chains were.

And McDonalds.   And Dunkin Donuts.

Yeah, this was definately the tourist zone.

Gotta get my ass outta here as soon as possible.

I went down into the metro station, bought a ticket at the booth (8EGP, 23cents), and stood to the side trying to figure out exactly which line and which direction I needed to go.

Soon I was heading down the stairs to hop on the train.

I appeared to be the only tourist on the metro, or at least the only white guy.

The metro ride was pretty simple as signage was in both Arabic and English.

I had to do a transfer between lines and it seemed like it took forever to walk from one line to the other.

It didn’t help that half the escalators were out of order and it was so warm down there.

By now my long sleeve shirt was tucked away in my bag and I was just wearing a tshirt.

I looked around and I was the only one.   Everyone else was either wearing jackets or long sleeve shirts.

Guess they’re just used to the heat down here.

Now, I say heat, but it was really only 21C out so certainly not ridiculously hot.

Just warm enough to be in a tshirt is all I’m saying…

Islamic Cairo

By 1:00 I head reached the Bab el Shaaria station which was a short 10 minute walk away from the entrance to the Islamic Cairo area.

Have I mentioned the traffic here in Cairo is crazy?

Yeah, well, it is.

So many cars.   So much honking.

Oh my God, so much honking.

Leaving the metro station, I had to cross through major traffic to cross to the other side.

Ain’t no stop lights here or crosswalks.

Nope, you just had to do what you parents always told you not to – just walk into traffic.

It felt a little like playing that game of Frogger from ages ago as I just kind of zigzagged around the traffic to get to the other side.

So, from what I can tell, Islamic Cairo is not a touristy area at all.

I might have crossed paths with one other foreigner the entire time I was there this afternoon.

It’s a bunch, and I mean a bunch, of locals walking around past all the hundreds of small shops on their way to visit the different mosques scattered throughout.

After passing a few street stalls, I finally stopped at one that had fries and falafel cooked up in a giant metallic bowl.

I asked for some of each and she loaded them up into a pita.

Oh, she was making me a falafel sandwich.

I didn’t have any way to communicate that I couldn’t eat the pita bread so I just took the sandwich and picked the good stuff out of the pita as I walked down the street.

The sandwich was super cheap at a cost of only 20EGP or about 58cents.

After I was done the falafel and fries, I lugged around an empty pita shell for a bit before I came across a vendor selling ice cream.

I mean, who can turn down ice cream, amiright?

I asked for two scoops in a bowl and my heart dropped when he showed me a calculator with what I owed him keyed in on it.

200EGP.

That’s about $6.

Now, I had just gotten a sandwich for 58 cents and here was this guy trying to charge me 6 bucks for ice cream.

I had, sadly, committed the cardinal sin of shopping as a tourist and that was I didn’t ask “how much?” before I ordered.

Honestly, I was lulled into a false sense of security with the honest woman at the falafel stand and the low, low price I had paid there.

I ended up haggling it down to 100EGP or about $3 and chalked it up to a lesson learned.

Not soon after, I used Google Translate to find the Arabic for the phrase “how much?”

I learned the phonetic English for it (cam tham-amman) and also took a screenshot of it so I could just show it to a shopkeeper beforehand

Hey, I’m nothing if not prepared…

I passed through a couple of gates on the northern side of Islamic Cairo called Bab al-Futuh and Bab al-Nasr and started walked down the main street known as Muizz Street.

Now, I say I was walking down the street but they really were more of pedestrian pathways crowded wall to wall with people.

However, to my amazement, there were scooters constantly meandering through honking their horns and the occasional car as well.

On one street there was actually a trio of tour busses navigating down past all the people walking.

To my delight, and probably because this wasn’t really a haven for tourists, I wasn’t accosted at all as I walked down the street.

No one asking me to go in their shop.   No one offering me anything.

Nothing, nothing at all.

Of course, no sooner had I made that observation, I turned down another street and was all of a sudden accosted left and right but, yeah, for the most part it was clean sailing.

I did pass by several mosques along the way but opted not to enter them.

I was happy just experiencing the walk through this hectic local area.

I ate a pigeon

At the tail end of my walk at the south side of Islamic Cairo was Farahat Grill.

Farahat, by the way, translates to pigeon.

The place is recommended as a go-to while in Cairo and who was I to deny what the internet told me.

I had the place marked on my map but at first I just couldn’t find it.

I did see a little place with the words Farahat on it but it just looked like some small takeaway place so I continued looking around the area where I had it marked.

Eventually, I did retrace my steps back and take a closer look at the place I had seen, and well, that was the place.

Yes, it did look like a takeaway place but as I walked towards it, one of the men clad in red shirts ushered me down the alley to one of the dining areas.

I ordered the rice stuffed pigeon along with a side of fries and a Coke.

They also gave me a complimentary Arabic salad, bread and hummus, and a bottle of water.

So, to eat the pigeon, you’re just supposed to grab it with your hands and get in there with your teeth.

I tried to pick it up but it was so hot to the touch I had to put it straight back down.

I ended up cheating and just busting it open with a spoon and fork to let it cool off a little.

I did eat it with my hands though and, well, thank God I carry around wet wipes in my daypack cause my hands were a greasy mess afterwards.

Oh, and I know you want to know – it tastes like chicken.

In total, I paid 270EGP ($7.70) for the meal and I feel like I got pretty good value considering I was trying something I had never eaten before.

With that price, I was even more sure I got ripped off by the ice cream guy earlier.

Coptic Cairo

After lunch, I walked back up through the crazy streets to get back to the metro station.

Another game of frogger and I was heading down the stairs onto the metro leading to the south where I’d find Coptic Cairo.

This is a religious area home to a few churches, namely the Hanging Church named for the fact it hung over the street of the ancient Babylon fortress.

I got off the metro around 4pm and, well, I found where all the tourists were.

Holy moly, what a difference.

I went from walking shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of locals to doing the same with a bunch of tourists.

I entered the Hanging Church and after walking around for a bit, I walked towards two other attractions – the Cavern Church and Saint George’s Church.

I couldn’t tell exactly from my map how to get to them and I finally surmised they were enclosed within The Coptic Museum grounds that were next to the Hanging Church.

I had no interest in visiting the museum but I paid the 280EGP ($8) entry fee and headed onto the grounds.

After a quick look around, I attempted to follow a path that looked like it led me to the churches I wanted to see.

However, someone working there told me I couldn’t go down there.   I showed them where I was trying to go and they basically told me I had to exit the museum grounds and go around on the outside to reach the churches.

So, yeah, I just wasted 8 bucks.

I did walk around outside down the street and found a closed door for Saint George’s church but a man coming out of the door told me there was no entry.

Okay then.   Whatever.   I’ve seen enough churches anyway, missing a couple won’t be the end of me.

So, the visit to Coptic Cairo was kind of a bust.

It did get me warmed up for what to expect at the touristy sites coming up both here in Giza and later in the week when I reach Aswan and Luxor so it wasn’t a complete bust.

Plus, I was able to crank out a few paragraphs of content about it for the blog, so there’s that.

leaving for hostel 430
train came
walking down looking for better car and doors just closed no beep warning
luckily today I was just moving at a slow pace with nowhere to be at any particular time

Hanging with Shawn

At 4:30 I was back at the metro station.

The train came and the cars all looked pretty full so I started walking briskly towards an emptier car and then, without any kind of beeping warning, the doors just closed.

Oh, well, guess I missed that train.

Six minutes later, I was finally on the metro on my way to my hostel and by 5:15 I had arrived.

I dropped off my laundry which they charge by the piece instead of a flat rate for a load.

Turns out it’s a much better deal this way as they only charge 5EGP (14cents) per piece so in total I’m going to be paying less than $2 to get my laundry done.

Since I had left earlier, a new person had checked into my room named Shawn.

Well, that’s his English name.

He’s a Chinese national who was visiting southern Egypt the last few days and was stopping here for one night before heading back home.

His English was very good and he was very friendly so we chatted for quite awhile.

And then he surprised me when he said he had been living in Egypt for the last 4 years.

Oh, that was a curveball!

Turns out he’s a middle manager for a construction company and he travels around the world spending weeks, months, or even years at different places.

He’s not only traveling and seeing all these unique places but he’s submersing himself into them by living there.

When he said he was returning home tomorrow, what he meant was that he was going to pop into his car and drive back up north to El-Alamein where he’s been living the last 4 years.

Anyway, like I said, we chatted for quite awhile.

He’s been to a bunch of countries I haven’t been yet like Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uzbekistan, and The Maldives.

It’s amazing the fascinating people I’ve met on this trip and it really hits home what I truly value when I travel.

Dinner Time

By 7:30 I was feeling pretty hungry again.

Shawn suggested this Egyptian chain restaurant called Gad so I headed down there.

They have a variety of Egyptian dishes on their menu and I went for the mixed grill which gave me a little bit of everything.

Along with a side of rice, I had some kebab, a roasted chicken and a skewer of veggies and chicken.

In total, I paid 370EGP ($10.50) which was probably more than what I should be spending on Egyptian food but it was also pretty cheap compared to what I’d pay back home.

Soon after I was back at the hostel and in for the day.

Now that was the kind of day I like when I travel.

A slow, go at your own pace with nowhere to be at any time, kind of day.

A day experiencing Egyptian culture.

A day trying new food.

And a day making new friends.