Three weeks was too long...

Trip Start Aug 25, 2008
1
7
Trip End Sep 15, 2008


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Where I stayed

Flag of Egypt  ,
Sunday, September 14, 2008

After a couple of nights in Alex there wasn't really much to do apart from head back to the capital to wait for our flight. In retrospect we should have planned it better in the first place - we could probably have managed to fit in a trip to Aswan or Luxor, or at the very least seen Siwa oasis by bus from Alexandria, but in the end we figured it was too late. Really I don't have a lot more to add about Cairo. Spent more time in ahwahs, drank more coffee, smoked more shisha, got hassled a bit more (I was actually complimented on my ability to cross the road from one guy - "You walk just like an Egyptian, straight across! You know the rules!" - who subsequently tried to sell me some hash)...

Yesterday we walked down into Islamic Cairo, which is incredibly congested (even walking down the pavement is a challenge in itself). The markets were interesting in a picturesquely-squalid kind of way, though I don't really feel I saw anything particularly new, since the bazaars in Istanbul were about the same or maybe even a bit nicer
Al-Azhar Mosque
Al-Azhar Mosque
. Lots of powdered spices for sale, perfumes, blokes making shishas, mosques etc.

The plan for today (at least for me, anyway) was to take a boat trip down the Nile to the Nile Barrages, described as the 'Coney Island' of Egypt. I kind of fancied a trip down the Nile anyway, since it's something I feel I've maybe missed out on. Sadly it wasn't to be, since the boats don't seem to be running. There were some people sleeping on the quay, but the boats weren't going anywhere. Again, I blame Ramadan for wrecking my fun!

So now I'm just killing time in an internet cafe, reading my massive (and incredibly depressing) biography of Mao, and maybe thinking of heading down to Garden City later on. Egypt has been pretty good at times, but now it's starting to drag a bit and Ill be glad to board my flight home tomorrow.
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