So the plan was always to come back to Cairo for a few days on my way back to Thailand and I've had such a wicked time! Right now Muslims are celebrating Ramadan where they fast from sunrise to sunset. No food, no beverages, nothing. And in 35 degree weather, it is seriously a feat! What that means is life in Cairo during Ramadan basically begins when the sun goes down. At around 6pm we have "breakfast" which is a huge feast of Egyptian food! On my first day, I wanted to keep it pretty chill and Sara wanted to show me the City Stars Mall, so off we went. The city looks so cool at night and during Ramadan mosques are covered in bright lights, which lead to this exchange more than once:
Me: Is that the mall?!
Sara: No, that's a mosque
I thought it was a little odd that we were heading to the mall at 8pm, but apparently here in Cairo the stores don't close till like 2am! Crazy! They also don't even open until noon (with the exception of huge 24 supermarkets like Carrefour) which I think is a far superior system.
Over the next few days we checked out a few sites, like the Egyptian Museum where I proceeded to take a few photos on the sly. Unfortunately the most interesting room (King Tut) was always crowded with people and it made it next to impossible to sneak a photo. We also went and checked out the Coptic area of Cairo and took a peek inside the hanging church which isn't really hanging at all. That night Sara and a few of her friends took me out to Hussien, a busy night market area with cafes which just gets packed with people during Ramadan. We sat down in a famous cafe called El Fishawy which used to be crowed with artists and bohemians, and sampled some of the Shisha there. It was a really fun night and I learned how to say, "No Thanks" in Arabic to all the people trying to sell me junk since I was a tourist!
I also did my part to bring a little bit of my interests to Cairo and took the gang to Starbucks for the first time. I ordered Sara my favourite drink and recommended the boys get something similar. For some reason, they decided not to listen to the person who has been drinking Starbucks for years and ordered some terrible drink. Ramy described it best when he said, "I feel....nausea". I laughed so hard that I sprayed Salama with my drink and we laughed even harder when Sara tried some and instinctively spit it out on the floor. Needless to say, I don't think the boys are going back to Starbucks any time soon!
On my last day in Cairo, me, Sara, Ramy and Salama decided to sneak out of Cairo and head to El Marina on the north coast. It's about a 3 hour drive and we left early so we could sit on the beach for a few hours before heading back to Cairo for me to catch my flight. It was beautiful and made even better by the fact that Marina was a ghost town due to Ramadan. We were literally the only ones on the beach!
It was a great way to end my trip to Cairo and as we raced back to the city, we realized it was 6:30pm (breakfast time!) and we were in the middle of the desert. Everyone was so hungry and thirsty and when they saw a car parked on the side of the road with people eating and drinking, they stopped. Although I couldn't understand what they were saying to each other, I could grasp what was happening. The strangers handed over a huge bottle of water, Fanta and Coke to us, epitomizing the kindness and understanding that Ramadan was about. Because I wasn't fasting, I can't imagine how hungry and thirsty everyone in the car was, but it was amazing to see such kindness from strangers.
Did I mention that I missed my flight? Yup, even with all the speeding and leaving Marina extra early, we somehow managed to get stuck in the worst traffic. I have never missed a flight in my life and I couldn't believe I was about to. On the bright side, I was able to get a seat on the next flight (about 24 hours later) and thanks to the begging on my behalf by my Egyptian friends, I didn't have to pay. Tonight I am going to leave ridiculously early so I don't have a repeat of last night's events, but one more day in Cairo isn't so bad. At least I got to catch up on some much needed sleep!
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