I woke up today without a real plan.

I’ve purposely slowed down my remaining days here in Cairo just because I had alot of back-to-back long days including my day in Petra, the tour through Wadi Rum, and of course, the epic journey to the Great Pyramids yesterday.

One lesson I’ve learned the hard way is that you just have to be willing to adjust your plans if you’re feeling tired or burned out and I’ve been feeling both.

What does that all mean for today?

Well, it means a late start and a short day with a long bit of doing nothing in the afternoon.

In a nutshell, it was exactly the kind of day I needed today.

I said it was a late start today but I was actually up at 7:30 this morning after a good night’s sleep.

I had some breakfast at the hostel, figured out my plan for tomorrow, and watched some videos before I finally left the hostel at 10:30 this morning.

As I walked down the steps from the 4th level where my hostel is located, I was suddenly acutely aware how sore my legs are.

I hobbled down the 95 steps (yes, I counted them) and hit the street.

After a quick stop at the currency exchange down the street, I was back on the Uber app.

Uber addicted

For some reason, the data on my phone keeps cutting out from time to time here in Cairo so the app wouldn’t load up properly.

Luckily, I’ve found that just restarting my phone does the trick and, sure enough, I was soon punching in my location on the app.

It was pretty chilly as I stood on the street corner waiting for my ride and I had a mental debate going on in my head.

Do I go all the way back up and down those 95 steps to grab my jacket or do I just take the chance of freezing my ass off through the day.

The car wasn’t arriving for 7 minutes so I had time.

Long story short, I hobbled back up and down those stairs, grabbed my jacket, and was soon in my Uber.

Ironically this car was the exact same car I had driven earlier in the week while I was in Jordan.   Same grey color too.

The drive was only 10 minutes and cost a measly 50EGP ($1.50).   I decided I’d be tipping all my Ubers an additional 50EGP each time I take it so this guy got a 100% tip from me.

Still super cheap.

The Cairo Citadel

At 11:15 I had arrived at my first stop of the day, The Cairo Citadel.

It’s a collection of different buildings including a couple of mosques and both the Police and Military Museums.

The Citadel is located atop a hilltop on the outskirts of the main part of the city so you’re able to get a really nice view of Cairo from there as well.

Entry to the Citadel grounds was 550EGP ($16) and, as I entered, I was surprised by how many school groups were wandering the grounds along with us tourists.

The first place I wanted to visit was the Al-Gawhara Palace but it was closed for construction or restoration or something of that ilk.

Whatever it was, I wasn’t getting in.

No worries, I just walked further down the road to where the mosques were located.

The first mosque I visited was the Mosque Of Al Nasser Mohammad Ibn Qalaun.

Phew that’s a long title.

The 14th century mosque, while having some pretty good architecture was just kind of okay in terms of mosques.

Let’s just say the biggest highlight and, honestly, the most photographed thing in the mosque was the cat who was calmly sitting on his cushion on a chair at the entrance.

Next, I went to the Police Museum which also contains the old Citadel Prison.

The museum itself is just a small 4 room building.

I’ve said before that I’m not really a museum guy and I’m more of a visual learner.

Show me some cool displays and I’m all over it but make me read a bunch of stuff, well, sorry, that’s just not for me.

Anyway, I was pretty much in and out of the museum in 5 minutes.

On my way out I stopped to pet a cat who scratched me.

Okay, lesson learned.

The real highlight of the Police Museum really is the viewpoint outside where you can see all across Cairo.

So, the verdict on the Police Museum?

Well, for me, it was kind of lame but the view all but made up for it.

Oh, and don’t pet the cats roaming around outside of it.

Next, it was on to another mosque.

This one is the highlight of the Citadel called the Mosque of Muhammad Ali.

As I entered the grounds, it soon became apparent why.

I was so impressed with the courtyard design that I almost missed the actual door leading inside the mosque.

And, of my God…

Wow…

It was amazing!

I actually think I liked this one more than the Blue Mosque I visited in Istanbul a couple of years ago.

That was the last stop I had marked on my map and I started to make my way towards the exit.

There’s also the Military Museum but, like I said, my propensity for museums isn’t really that high.

As I was looked for the exit, I came across the entrance to the museum and, well, I got enticed by the cannons and statues I saw on the grounds outside of it.

Again, all you need is some cool visuals and you got me and the grounds outside of the Military Museum had plenty.

I didn’t actually go inside the museum.   I just snapped a bunch of photos outside.

By 12:30 I was exited the Citadel grounds and hopping back on the Uber app.

Lunch in Al Azhar Park

The Al Azhar Park is only about a 5 minute drive away and I couldn’t think of a better place to visit on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Plus, there’s the Citadel View restaurant located in the park which someone had recommended online.

Nice, lunch in a nice restaurant in the park.

Entrance to the park was 40EGP ($1.10) and the first thing I did was head straight to the restaurant.

It was almost 1pm and this boy was hungry!

Now, I knew that dining in a restaurant in the park would be more expensive but I was already with that.

Sometimes you just need to have a fancy meal and, besides, even the more expensive meals here in Egypt are still less than what I would pay for a meal back home.

I got sat at a table outside overlooking the park and looked over their menu.

The prices were pretty much what I suspected but the variety of food looked good and it was all authentic Egyptian food.

I had to wait for awhile before I finally flagged down a waiter.

I ordered the starter of cheese and tomato (65EGP, $2) and the Ma’amar with meat Tagen (295EGP, $8.50) as my main meal.

What I got was, well, possibly one of the saddest meals I’ve ever been served.

The cheese and tomato was a big bowl of some sort of cheese spread with a few diced tomatoes in the middle.

And the Tagen?

It was a huge clay pot of rice with about 1oz of lamb meat in it.

I’m not even exaggerating!

I picked through all the rice and took the small amount of lamb bits out of it to count them.

There were 6 bite size pieces of lamb in that sea of rice.

My plan was to also have dessert there but, honestly, I really didn’t want to give them any more of my cash.

I ate the bits of tomato and cheese and nibbled on the little portion of lamb and rice and I was done.

At least it won’t ruin my appetite for dinner later…

And, if anything, if gives me a good story to tell as I’m doing right now.

After lunch I just strolled through the park slowly.

It’s amazing what walking through a park does for your mood.   It doesn’t matter if things are chaotic or if you’re having a bad day, a walk through the park solves all.

I walked past the trees and fountains and saw kids playing and groups of people setting up picnics all over the park.

There was a lake in the middle of the park and this calming elevator type music playing lowly over the speakers throughout the park.

I just walked through and giggled at how ridiculous that lunch was.

I was happy.   I was content.

A chill afternoon

At 2:15 I was out of the park and ready to head back to my hostel.

Like I said, it was an easy day today.

The Uber I was taking said it was beige but when it apparently arrived, I couldn’t find it.

Turns out it was brown.

After about 15 minutes I was back at the hostel and in for the rest of the afternoon.

I watched some videos and also got ahead of the game by starting to put together this blog.

Dinner with Aly and Friends

At 6pm I finally headed out again.

I was off to have dinner with Aly, a man who I met on a drunken night in Oaxaca, Mexico about 8 years ago.

He lives here in Cairo and had always said if I was ever in town to look him up.

So, here I was, about to meet up with a man I had met one brief night playing drinking games at a hostel in Mexico.

Of course, there wouldn’t be drinking tonight cause, well, I don’t know if you’ve heard but this area of the world is kind of Muslim and they’re not really into that whole drinking thing.

Instead I was meeting him and his friends at this Yemini restaurant in the Dokki neighborhood just over the Nile River on the Giza side of Cairo.

I was going to take the metro over but then as I got to the street I figured why not just Uber over there too.

Of course I hadn’t planned on rush hour traffic and I also hadn’t planned on not being able to find my first Uber driver when he arrived and promptly cancelled my ride when we couldn’t find each other.

I ended up finally catching an Uber with a man name Osama who, unlike my previous drivers, spoke pretty good English.

We had a conversation about a few things including the fact that he works in customs clearance during the day and moonlights as an Uber driver at night.

He told me in a four hour shift he makes about 10USD.

See, I told you Uber was cheap here in Cairo.

Finally, at 6:50, we finally pulled up to the restaurant.

The rid cost 110EGP ($3.15) and, because I enjoyed our conversation, I tried to tip him 100EGP instead of my normal 50EGP but, to my dismay, the tip on the app was only limited to 50EGP.

I arrived 20 minutes late to the restaurant so Aly had ordered everything ahead of time.

I found him and his friend Engy sitting in the corner at a table filled with food.

There was a plate of chicken and rice in front of each of us and a couple communal plates of chicken livers and lamb in the middle.

Now this is a dinner!

Eventually Omar also joined us and all four of us sat around enjoying our dinner and our conversation.

Not long after Engy left but myself, Aly, and Omar continued on.

As the bill arrived I had the full intention of picking up the entire tab but Aly grabbed the bill and told me it was his treat since he had invited me.

Such a nice gesture.   I had heard that Egyptians were very hospitable and had various traditions when it came to how they treat guests.

We were headed somewhere else for dessert so, in turn, I told them that I would pay for that.

After a quick pitstop at a bakery and then a fruit and vegetable stand where Omar did a little Sunday night shopping, we all hopped into Omar’s car and headed back to downtown Cairo.

It was time for dessert!

We stopped at a place called b. laban which apparently translates to “with milk”.

It’s on a road filled with people and the crowd in front of the place was insane.

They only do takeout so Omar ordered some different desserts trying to navigate what I could and couldn’t have with my gluten allergy.

He ordered me a cup of lemon and vanilla ice cream and a dessert version of Egypt’s national dish Koshari.

I can’t actually have Koshari since it has pasta in it but I could try the dessert version.

It was made with rice pudding, cream, and mango.

There was also a filo dough on the bottom that I left alone and some semolina crusted flakes in it which I was on the fence as to whether I could eat or not.

As we sat on little benches in the middle of a alleyway, a cat appeared.

This was perfect since I had been lugging around the rest of my chicken and rice in a takeout container just so I could feed some cats.

The little cat was soon joined by another, and then another, and another, and, well, in the end there were 5 cats down by my feed enjoyed my leftover dinner.

Needless to say, this brought a huge smile to my face.

And, yeah, I know it’s kind of silly to constantly stop and take photos of the strays I meet along the way and it’s kind of weird to be feeding cats in the middle of Cairo but, dammit, it gives me alot of joy.

After dessert we all parted ways as I did the short walk back to my hostel.

By 11:00 I was back in my dorm room.

It was another great day.

No big attractions like the Pyramids yesterday but, still, an amazing day without all that.

Tomorrow I have a day trip booked through the hostel taking me to 3 pyramids just south of Cairo.

It’s an all day affair that starts at 8:30am.

Should be fun…