Cairo is definitely a love-hate relationship. It is both one of the most interesting and most difficult cities I’ve been to on this trip. It actually reminds me a bit of Havana because it has so much personality. It’s not just another big city; when you’re in Cairo, you know you’re in Cairo. And it is a BIG city. Home to 24 million people and 8 million commuters (imagine the province of Ontario commuted to work every day to Montreal...), the traffic is insane and the city never sleeps. Looking out over the skyline, you see new high rises next to European apartments in between minarets from the many mosques with the odd Coptic Christian church steeple in the mix.
We parked ourselves at a great hostel on the doorstep of the famous Egyptian Museum, which took us the better part of a day to gawk at and probably could have taken two weeks to fully explore. They have so many artefacts that they leave a bunch on the lawn outside.
Despite the massive size of the museum, there isn’t enough display room for everything. They have an exhibit specifically devoted to Royal Mummies, as well as the bonanza finds of King Tutankhamun’s tomb, where you can see Tut’s iconic death mask up close and personal. The astonishing wealth of the Pharaohs is apparent here; King Tut’s copious goodies are all gold and precious stones and he was a paltry king compared to the big fish like Ramsis II!
Tourism is the second biggest industry here after the Suez Canal, and it shows. It sometimes feels like every Egyptian we meet is a professional Egyptologist, by far the most common university degree here and probably one of the greatest job titles I’ve come across. It’s amazing how much of their very ancient civilization is still around and being found. Egypt even has its own antiquities police, who are armed with not one but two AK-47s to protect cultural heritage sites.
We were unclear on whether the police are professional or conscripted; every Egyptian man must serve in the army here. They can reduce their time of service with education. A high school diploma drops you from three years to two; a university degree gets you down to one. And apparently a Western wife is a get out of jail free card... though no one could explain why.
This last clause may explain somewhat the excess of marriage proposals Mehron and I were bombarded with our entire time in Egypt. Most men we met, from the bus drivers to the waiters to random men in the street, were relentlessly pursuing our hands in marriage. We pulled our usual trick of inventing husbands at home in Canada, however in Egypt, this is insufficient. We were told we must also have Egyptian husbands! We were unable to avoid this unwanted attention no matter how hard we tried. Being foreigners was a big part of it as well, as we saw several local women in very tight clothing (and hijabs) escaping the comments and propositions, while no matter how much we covered ourselves, the level of attention did not vary.
This constant harassment made walking around more of a hassle than a pastime in Egypt, so we didn’t wander the city as much as we would have otherwise. We met up with Mehr’s friend Camilla who studies in Cairo several times to see a bit more of the town, including the big Souk market Khan el Khalili and landmark restaurants like Seqoia and Felfela.
Our favourite food by far was koshary, the national fast food, and the best place to get some is Abou Tarek, which only makes koshary and rice pudding. Now, when I describe it, the ingredients may seem unlikely but when mixed together, I assure you they are scrumptious. Take a bowl and pack it with spaghetti noodles, rice, rice noodles and macaroni. Add lentils and chick peas. Top with fried onions and pureed tomato. Pour on hot sauce and da’a sauce (garlic oil with cumin, coriander and other spices) and stir it up. Not only is it tasty, it is also very filling. One bowl of this got us through most of the day. To give an idea of how much we liked it, we ate it 8 out of the 10 days we spent in Egypt.
Would I go again? Final verdict: Yes, if only for Abou Tarek’s koshary and rice pudding!
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