Organized Chaos

10PM, Aug 23: So it’s been just a few hours since we got off the plane and inhaled the wondrous scents of Egypt that boldly assaulted our nostrils. I can’t really believe that we’re here. I guess it’s because I’ve been wearing the same clothes since Sunday morning and haven’t slept in a real bed since then.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBi0-iybnQE

After checking into the hostel, we went on a tour of downtown Cairo with one of the hostel workers, Mustafa, an upbeat man who spoke very little English and very much 3amiya (Egyptian Arabic). I understand some of it from the standard Arabic words interspersed, but it’s very frustrating to not know any of the Egyptian dialect. Might be a good thing to learn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNX-wQzDFLQ





Everything is cheap here, from the falafel pitas (LE 1.50 each, equivalent to roughly 30 cents) and 3.50 for gelato (about 70 cents). So far there haven’t been any unsettling consequences. Even better, you can order food online and have it delivered right to your door. Yes, even cookies.

10 AM, Aug 25: We spent the day yesterday in Old Cairo, which includes many old Coptic churches and is a few short Metro stops (LE 1 to go anywhere) from the city center. Ben Ezra synagogue, currently in disuse owing to Egypt’s current population of 201 Jews, is tucked away in the walled portion of the city and was built on the site of a church that had previously replaced an older synagogue. (This type of incident is a time-honored tradition in the Middle East.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIwY3jwiy1Y





Yesterday night we walked from the hostel to Tahrir Square, which is basically the largest superhighway east of the Nile packed into the smallest amount of space possible. 8 lanes of traffic plus a traffic circle that puts roundabouts in Britain to shame. Navigating it without a car just takes boldness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BafmRaQCbNY

My friend Amr took me on a tour of southern downtown, near the old AUC campus and the US embassy. The hotels here are ridiculous even by American standards, one with a mall selling socks for 2000 pounds (divide by 5 to get dollars). And in a glass case in the mall sat a revolving, gleaming Porsche…cell phone.
Yeah, I didn’t know either.

Stunned by this new revelation, we were in need of some spirits so we went to a small restaurant by Tahrir where I had the best mango juice in history. Nearby was a restaurant where a few months ago one of my unsuspecting American friends had apparently bought a falafel for 77 LE.

I bought the same thing at Gad for 1 LE. Forget exploitation of foreigners, that’s a crime against humanity.