What started out as a short walk to a travel agency place turned into a major trek across Cairo.  After not finding what we wanted at the travel place, we set off for Garden City, a more urban but beautiful region of Cairo with stunning architecture and lots of shops and vendors.  All that walking and weaving in between cars, mini buses, motorcycles, scooters, and the odd pedestrians emerging from vehicles in the middle of traffic can sure work up an appetite, so we stopped into one of the many koshari restaurants we came across.

For those of you haven’t heard of koshari (and that’s probably everyone, unless, like me, you heard about it from good old Anthony Bourdain), it is probably as close to “real” Egyptian food as you’re going to find.  Let me first say that it is DELICIOUS, even though it looks like a bunch of leftovers all piled in together.  It is made up of rice, lentils, chickpeas, crispy carmelized fried onions, and… macaroni.  Yeah, I know, MACARONI.  With rice.  And lentils and chickpeas.  It sounds strange, but believe me, it is delicious.  The whole heap is topped with a some warm tomato sauce and garlic and chili oil.  What’s not to love!?

After stuffing ourselves, we continued our trek onward toward Zamalek – a region of Cairo that is on an island in the middle of the Nile, or Neel, as we like to call it here 😉  Walking along the Nile, ehem the Neeeeel, there were lots of great things to see: vendors roasting corn and fanning the embers with big bird-feather fans (unfortunately a deal-breaker for me, haha), the sweet potato cart that was calling my name with the delicious aroma of carmelized yumminess, people heckling us for felucca rides, guys walking around with glasses of tea on trays, and lots of couples everywhere.  Unsurprisingly, the corridor along the Nile is a favorite spot for local couples and is pretty much the only place I have seen men and women holding hands or even sitting closely side by side… a little like a G-rated lover’s lane.

Over the bridge was Zamalek.  It was similar to Maadi, but I think I breathed in a year’s worth of car exhaust in just a few hours.  Oh well, right?  I would like to go back in the daylight sometime, so perhaps there will be more on Zamalek later.

Once it got dark, we headed back to home sweet home in Maadi.   Brandon is currently in the kitchen starting on dinner, so I better go join in on the fun.  We have these strange little miniature avocados that we picked up at a fruit stand, so I’m interested in seeing what chef Brandon is coming up with.

Stay tuned for pyramid pictures one of these days…

P.S.  Looks like we are going to an Egyptian Premier League football match (aka soccer game) next Sunday with Brandon’s friend Mustaffa and his wife.  Apparently we aren’t rooting for Zamalek, so goooooooo other team!

so happy together

Greetings from Cairo, everyone!  I will be writing from Brandon’s blog over the next 24 days until I head back to Portland.  Cairo is amazing.  Some may say it’s third world, but I like to think it’s the best of both worlds… a little first, a little third.

The last couple of days have been amazing.  Nothing is quite as I expected it to be.  The traffic is certainly crazy, but really not all that bad.  No close calls yet, although I know I haven’t seen the worst of it.  The people here have been wonderful.  Everyone is so welcoming and friendly, and although I know I am obviously a foreigner, I feel quite comfortable. And I am getting to use a little Arabic.  Brandon’s Arabic is pretty impressive!  I feel pretty good having such a wonderful guide.

Brandon’s neighborhood is really neat.  There are beautiful villas, embassies, big apartment complexes, some great clothing stores, various little markets, and as I discovered today, the banana man.  The above photo was taken on the balcony with the midan (or traffic roundabout) and the mosque behind us.  There are lots of mosques, and we hear the call to prayer five times a day.  So far, I am enjoying it!  It is nice to take a moment every day to pause and appreciate things.

Today we took the metro and walked to the Nile.  It was really impressive and beautiful, but the most impressive part of today’s adventure was the souk we explored.  We were both hungry and looking for lunch, but surprisingly couldn’t find anything, so when we stumbled across the crowded alleyways of a souk we decided to check it out.

The souk was incredible.  As you can see from the picture below, there is amazing produce here!  Those strawberries looked delicious, and I have seen cabbages that are probably more than 2 feet in diameter.  Anyhow, there were tons of chickens, whole cows or goats, fish, lots of rabbits (but Meredith, I am pretty sure they were just selling them as pets), clothing, housewares, and yes, fresh made falafel.  Knowing I have had all my shots, we decided to eat some right there!  Anthony Bourdain take that!  It was so good.

I almost forgot, we had some incredibly fresh juice too.  The best… sucre.  It’s a drink made from sugar cane that tastes deliciously sweet and kind of surprisingly planty and green.  Not surprising I guess when you consider how it’s made: the juice vendor take several stalks of sugar cane and feeds it into a big machine and voila, cane juice!  Amazing.

Tonight we are going to plan the rest of my trip.  So far, I feel like I have had a good taste of day-to-day Cairo life without much touristy stuff, but I have to see the pyramids, the museum, and of course ride a camel, so stay tuned!  There will be much much more!