Greetings from Cairo

August 24, 2006-- Cairo, Egypt


After twenty one mind and butt numbing hours, I am finally in Cairo. The trip was uneventful, my baggage made it unscathed, and I am pathetically grateful that I don't have to make the return trip anytime soon. I am sitting in my hotel room listening to the cacophony of horns, traffic and people five stores below me, trying to decide if I want to leave the hotel to hunt down some street food for dinner. So while I am deciding, I'll give you two snapshots of what I have seen.

It's a little after eight PM in Cairo and I'm flying down a three lane road with cars five and six wide. The sun has just finished setting through the thick smokey sandy haze, and for some reason, none of the drivers on this road have their headlights on. And you can just forget about turn signals. That's what the horn is apparently for. With a grin, the taxi driver pops in a cassette tape. The sound of the American pop star Avril Lavigne merges with the call to prayer that is coming from three or four mosques in the general area.

A public bus that would make the number 7 route in Seattle look good is rolling through a busy intersection. As cars weave around the diesel belching bus, men expertly jump on and off the bus while it's moving. I guess you make your own stop here.

Continued on Friday, August 25

Perhaps it is because I am on a brand new city/travel high, but I already love it here. I and some other people at the hostel went to the Cairo Museum today, I among many things, got to see some King Tut's treasures (which was so very cool!). Anyway, things are a bit crazy because Friday is the Muslim Sabbath, so everything is closed including the school and most Internet cafes. Once everything has settled down, I will be able to blog and send out more personal emails. For sure tonight I will have some pictures posted on my webshots page here- http://community.webshots.com/user/1frmseattle