Oh hey, look over there, Pyramids!

Cairo.

Might as well just call it the center of the world.

I mean, really, what other city has captured the world's imagination and sense of adventure for the past, oh say, THOUSANDS of years. I'm talking from the very oldest of the old- humanity has been in awe of Egypt and it's great cities, Memphis, Giza, Alexandria, Luxor, etc. Cairo is arguably the center of the modern Arab World in terms of stability, government, finances, and modernity. In class you learn that Arabic word for Egypt is Misr and the Arabic word for Cairo is al-Qahira, but in reality everyone in Egypt calls Cairo by Misr. Literally Cairo is Egypt. It's ancient history is what we all dream about when we thing of Egypt, pyramids, King Tut (always as Steve Martin), Cleopatra, hieroglyphics... It's modern history begins in 1798 when Napoleon invaded Egypt and took control of Cairo. Since then the country has been through rounds of revolutions and reforms, British occupation and colonization, and a fight for national independence. A lot of the history has to do with control of the Suez Canal (I flew over the Suez!), re-iterating Egypt's roll as a passageway between worlds.

Team Cairo.

Well, our program gave us a four-day holiday right before the home stretch of exams. Naturally I decided to go someplace awesome. Although, I couldn't quite figure out what I wanted to do. I had two sets of friends going to Cairo and I wanted to visit Egypt with both of them! One group was going to spend the whole time in Cairo soaking up the Arab culture and the other was on an ambitious tour de Egypt consisting of running up to Alexandria, going down to Giza, then Luxor, and then back up the Nile (actually down) to Cairo. So the plan was to Barney Rubble it (be two places at once). I was going to spend the first day with Team Cairo and meet up with Team Crazy in Giza and then go down to Luxor with them and then meet back up with Team Cairo for the last days. Team Cairo was my roommate Hanna and our friends Johnathan and Curtis, a good team despite the fact that Curtis and Hanna go to UNC (don't hate them Dad!). Team Crazy included my travel buddies from Beirut: Meilakh, Austin, and Robin. Well, Team Crazy failed big time. Their connecting flight to Alexandria was delayed 3 hours and once they finally got there at 3 am they couldn't find their hotel, and then after coming back down to Cairo and huge communication blunder there were no train tickets to Luxor. So, Meilakh and Austin left Egypt the second day for Israel (morons...) and Robin wandered around the city until he found Team Cairo at our hostel (smart move). Needless to say, I didn't go to Luxor, oh and, best laid plans of mice and men... The superiority of Team Cairo now confirmed, our trip was a blast!!

A Glimpse.

The necessary things to know about Cairo is that it is monstrous. Huge. Giant. It is a city filled to the brim with people, and everything is all kind of stacked and stuffed. It's not like New York or Paris, it's really only just like Cairo. It is also a very hot place, getting up to 120 sometimes in the streets because of all the people and smog and cars. Speaking of cars, they drive crazy, as in really crazy, as in Johnathan was white-knuckling the chair in front of him every time he was in a taxi kind of crazy. Oh yeah, and crossing the street is exactly like Frogger- people just jump through high speed traffic like a Sunday afternoon stroll. Oh and the whole buses should stop to let people on them, that doesn't happen either- instead, people run off and on the buses as they slow down a bit at the street corners.

Cairo is a very Arab city filled with Arab cultural aspects that I've seen in places like Irbid and Amman, but it also has this hint of Egypt-ness that is really unique. Our hostel was on a little alleyway that will filled with cars during the day, but at night would explode with people from the cafes that lined the street. The tables were filled with men and women drinking tea and smoking shisha and playing Backgammon. The streets were lively well into the night with families out shopping in the cooler evening hours, people eating street food or getting sweets, bars and cafes, and a lot of socializing. Street food included foul (think re-fried beans), roasted corn, hummus, tabouleh, pita, and shawarma. Egypt is also a Muslim city, with large, gorgeous mosques dotting the city with the green lights of the minarets. You can measure the hours of the day by the call to prayer, and see the marks on foreheads of men from bowing on their prayer rugs. Women could be seen in average western looking clothing or in progressive stages of the hijab and the veil. In general, people are friendly- hospitality is a huge value in Arab culture and it is very insulting to either not offer or to not accept hospitality. We just had to be careful about hospitality being a front for a con, but we didn't run into any.