So I am still sick.  Black lung, bird flu, common cold, or whatever it may be, I am not letting it ruin the last few days I have in Cairo with Brandon.  Dr. Brandon has been great, and I do think the medicine is helping.  Brandon was kind of sick too, but I think he has developed a robust immune system living here, so he seems to be pretty much better.

At the beginning of the week, we spent a couple of days on the couch doing nothing except coughing, sneezing, and eating take out food, and aside from the persistent cough, I feel a lot better.

On Wednesday, we went to the Khan al-Khalili, Cairo’s biggest souk which dates back to the 14th century!  It was a lot of fun… tons of vendors, people, and LOTS of really cool stuff ranging from beautiful handmade wood furniture to pyramid snow globes.  Perhaps the most memorable moments however, were when… more than once… Brandon was… mistaken for Leonardo di Caprio, hahaha!  One of the times, someone said “Titanic.”  It was pure gold.  After a quick google image search, I’ve decided it has to be the hair and maybe his eyebrows, but otherwise, I’m not convinced.  It was funny.

Thursday was wonderful.  We picked up some fateer from the local fateer place in Maadi and had a picnic on a felucca on the Nile.  Feluccas are big, low sailboats, and apparently, the perfect place for a picnic, and fateer is somewhat like pizza in that it comes in a pizza box.  The dough is flaky, and the toppings are stuffed inside.  We topped things off with dessert… banana fateer which had powdered sugar and creme on top.  It was amazing.  Floating down the Nile was very relaxing, and slowly the noise of honking car horns and traffic (a constant anywhere in the city), faded away into near silence.  It was lovely!

P.S. I also got to experience the great winter storm of ’09 today.  I think I felt two raindrops and Brandon claims to have felt three.  Before it hit, I checked weather.com which said it was 70 degrees and the forecast was “SAND.”  I kid you not.  I never knew sand was a weather phenomenon, but apparently, it counts.  Now it says “widespread dust.”  We went to the store, and it doesn’t feel like a sandstorm… and having lived in Phoenix for nine years, I’ve been in many.  Definitely no haboob today.

Today is a sick day.

We are either experiencing severe allergies, which is totally possible, or we have colds.  With less than six days of my trip left, I may be forced to save some things I had planned to do for someday in the future.  But who knows, maybe we will be well tomorrow.

One of the great things about having a chemist around is that he knows about the different ingredients in medicine.  I’d be lost without the classic packaging and titles like Claritin or Mucinex D.  So Brandon is off to the pharmacy to pick up some medicine with the same ingredients as the ones we use back home.  I wonder if this is when the dried seahorses or bats or hud hud birds would come in handy.  I’ll go with science first.

This just in, I looked around a bit online and discovered this about those seahorses:

“They are being hunted since 342 BC and it is now the hottest recipe for traditional medicines of China, Korea and Thailand as an aphrodisiac, a drug against bronchial asthma and whooping caugh [sic],” Sreepada told AFP.

…”Demand appears to be greater than supply. The trade is rapidly growing and the populations of seahorses are being over-exploited with many places approaching the danger of extinction,” it said in a classified document made available to AFP.

I do have some sort of bronchial woes and a cough… but NEVER would I crunch down some dusty old seahorse.  YUCK.  I’m sure I’d end up sicker.

I think I am suffering from either allergies or smog inhalation.  Ugh.  Anyhow, since today is a Sunday, and Sundays are equivalent to Mondays in the western world, lots of things were closed.  So that meant that we got all ready to go to the Kahn Al-Kahlili, an ancient souk from I think the 14th century, just to learn that a lot of shopkeepers don’t open their shops on Sundays.  So instead we decided to go to Dar El Salaam, which is only a few metro stops away.

If I was feeling more consumer-y, I would have probably had a hay-day at Dar El Salaam.  There were tons of clothes, scarves, shoe stores, and of course… food.  We bought some sweets called bah-laa’wa.  They are basically balls of dough that are deep fried until golden brown and dipped in a syrupy honey/sugar glaze.  So basically a doughnut hole, but the honey glaze seems to soak into them a little more.  Yum!

The biggest turn off to market shopping is the meat.  I honestly have nothing against raw meat… when it is refrigerated.  Big hunks of all kinds of meat, sausages, fish, squid, and eels and no refrigeration equals some pretty rank air.  Mix that with the smog and basically it’s just all around gross.  Makes me appreciate the neighborhood Brandon lives in a little more.  I’d sacrifice the charm and convenience of fresh, local, organic food for more tolerable aromas.  And there is a great produce market close by, so that’s really all I need.

Today we went to the Souk al Gomaa, or the Friday Market.  It was crazy.  There were so many vendors selling anything and everything: junk, old mechanical parts, jeans, shoes, chandeliers, bath tubs, socks, tops of blenders, cell phones, goats, taxedermied animals that looked like toys, seriously questionable food that we decided was homemade cheese, bottoms of blenders, salted fried embryonic chickens, hair gel, doors, you name it.

Perhaps the best part about it all were the vendors’ marketing tactics.  They would sing or yell something about their wares through patched together microphones or telephone receivers hooked up to loudspeakers, even though the alleys where everything was lined up were quite narrow.  It was amazing.

Be warned, one of the below pictures is pretty gorey, so STOP here if you do not want to be disgusted. (more…)

On Sunday, we went to an Egyptian Premier League soccer game with Brandon’s Egyptian friends Mustafa and Aiman. The game was between Alahly and Zamaalek who are apparently huge rivals, and this was the big game of the season.  As we moved through the line toward the ticket-takers and started seeing more and more police in full riot gear, I began wondering if we should perhaps rethink our plans.  Fortunately conservative-and-cautious-little-emily lost to why-not-emily, and after about six friskings for the men, and only two for me, we made it in.  Mustafa is a big Alahly fan, and he had to go through extra security because he had face paint on.  I think they were trying to prevent any over-excitement that might taunt rivals because it sounds like last year’s game was a little wild.  I think people ripped up seats and threw them last year… but with all those riot police around this time, no one was tempted to do anything beyond wave a flag or banner and subsequently be taken away for doing so.  Not sure how you smuggle a huge flag in with six thorough security checks, but I guess we can tell the fans are passionate.  Fortunately, our team won 1 to 0.  And we quietly and peacefully left and returned home.

Today we went to check out some souk action with some friends.  Following our trusty Lonely Planet book’s recommendation was somewhat of a bust, although we found a wonderful junk shop and stumbled across Coptic Cairo (expect more on that in a future post after our inevitable return trip).  We hopped back on the metro and headed for the markets near the Khan Al Kalili (and expect more on that later as well!).  There is just so much to see it is impossible to even begin to describe it all.  You will all just have to come visit to see it for yourselves!

Anyhow, I will say that everything is oddly arranged rather disadvantageously for the vendors but quite conveniently for the shoppers — every store on a block sells pretty much the exact same thing.  We went through a block of curtain rod shops, a whole block of baby shower trinkets, a whole block of party supplies and fake flowers, etc.  Check out the photos below for some oddities from the block of spice shops.

We also purchased and started to eat something that resembled koshari but alas was not (and probably had meat in it).  Then we tried some of the corn I previously mentioned in another post and we were pretty disappointed (we’ll have to find another feather-fan-corn-roaster to try later), and then FINALLY, much like goldilocks, found the street food that was JUST RIGHT.  I forget what it was called, but it was a delicious whole grain, wheat berry type of porridge with milk, coconut, chopped nuts, raisins, shredded wheat, and who knows what other delicious goodness… served very hot, YUMM!

And now, Brandon is making pizza dough again, and since I am apparently trying to eat as much food as humanly possible while I’m here, I am going to go help however I can by eating toppings while the dough rises.

We woke up early and hopped in a cab and headed for Giza today.  Driving through Cairo, the huge office buildings and thirty-story apartment buildings began to fade into smaller (10 – 20 story) red brick and gray concrete towers with patches of bright green Nile delta farmland disappearing in between the buildings.  Almost all of these buildings, while appearing to have already been occupied for a long time, seem to be unfinished, with rooftops ready for additional development with concrete supports and rebar reaching skyward awaiting further growth.

It was a very hazy day (a euphemism I like to use in place of “smoggy”), and the atmosphere was beautiful with the morning sunlight streaming through the dust and haze. Brandon kept saying we should be able to see the pyramids looming over the horizon, but the haze prevented us from seeing anything.

After about 30 minutes in the cab, driving incredibly fast most of the way, we exited the highway and soon slowed to join the traffic of braying mules, clopping camels, and other erratic drivers and pedestrians.  I was shocked to see how close the city creeps up to the pyramids, but it was a beautiful sight nonetheless!

We started our morning at Naser Bresh stables.  There are dozens of stables around the pyramids, but this stable was recommended by our trusty Lonely Planet guidebook and was noted as having healthy, well-fed horses that are treated well.  Naser Bresh got us all set up.  My horse was white and as far as I can tell was named Ahmed Moon, and Brandon had a brown horse whose name I didn’t catch.

Our guide, like pretty much everyone else in Egypt, could not say “Brandon,” so me and “Bred” headed out with him into the desert.  After passing some trash piles, a modern day city of the dead, and lots of peculiar graffiti of many-humped camels, we were trotting along in the desert at last.  It was beautiful.  Brandon’s horse spooked my horse a few times, which sent my horse (and me!) flying through the desert at top speed… it was a little scary to tell the truth, but a lot of fun.

Our guide led us to a little hut atop a dune where we sat on a fallen palm trunk and drank delicious hot tea in the desert wind.  We got scammed by a heckling camel rider who talked us into getting on the camel and made me wear his scarf on my head.  Let’s not talk about it.  It was enough of a challenge to tell him NOT to lead Brandon out into the desert on his camel and leave me behind at the hut.  Lu’h!

Despite the camel scammer, it was a ton of fun.  We galloped at top speed toward the pyramids and then headed back.

There were far fewer tourists at the pyramids than I expected.  I’ll let the pictures tell the story.  The one thing we could not capture was the most amazing moment of sound I may have ever experienced.  Today is a Friday, a holy day for Muslims.  In addition to the call to prayer, there is more beautiful singing and sermons in Arabic projected on loudspeakers on Fridays.  Generally you can only hear it coming from your closest Mosque with a few other Mosques a little more quietly in the background… but today, on top of the Giza plateau, the acoustics and the wind carried the sounds from hundreds of Mosques in Giza and Cairo up to our ears all at once.  The clock struck noon, and slowly, one by one, more beautiful sounds piled in on the cacophony.  It was amazing.  And slowly, as the sermons wound down, the din of the overlapping language and song died out.

It was a beautiful day.  I never knew I’d actually get to experience these things in real life.

Explored even more of Cairo today.  Entire sections of town I did not know existed.  No time to write.  Here are three thousand words.

We are getting up early to go visit the pyramids at Giza tomorrow.  It’s been at least 20 years since I have been on a horse, but that is the plan for catching the full experience of the last remaining wonder of the ancient world.  Camels may also be involved.

flatbread french toast = egyptian toast!

Ever since seeing Brandon’s lovely photo of breakfast on the balcony with Marti, I have been looking forward to trying this make-do-with-what-ya-got version of french toast!  delicious!  The newspaper was full of bad news.

before

after

mmmmmmmm!  I have to say I am quite lucky to have an amazing cook for a boyfriend!  Brandon has been making delicious pizza’s for me since our second date, and they just get better and better.  Not to mention the produce here is incredible!  This pizza had a pesto base with fresh mozzarella, Egyptian feta (which is more like tangy cream cheese), fresh garlic, onion, yellow bell peppers, mystery but super hot chili peppers, diced tomato, and baby basil from Brandon’s balcony garden.  Need I say more?

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!