Okay, so just how much can you do in 24 hours? A lot…I mean a hell of a lot.

For starters, we got in around 1:30 AM, Monday, Cairo time…and that was from a long flight that started on Saturday around 5:00 PM, so we’ve been up pretty much a long time…once we got to Mazen’s apt, we slept…probably until 2 in the afternoon….but after that, Mono and I decided to go around town and check some things out. In case you don’t know, Mono my boy who came with me on this trip…

So, we checked out Heliopolis first…went into the heart of the city and looked around…it was pretty nice…everywhere we went, people helped us out…not just because we had American dollars, or that we appeared to have money like normal tourists did, but also because a majority of the people are genuinely nice people…the catch phrase, “Welcome to Cairo”, in a middle eastern accent with some broken English to back it up.

Heliopolis was good…went into a few stores, bought a couple bootleg Gucci shirts, and also bought a Hookah (this is where things get interesting). The store we first went into, would not sell us some hookahs, so instead, they offered to send their nephew with us, in a cab, and take us to a hookah shop about 4 kilometers down the street. The nephew, Ishmael, came with us so we wouldn’t get ripped off from the cabbies and from the vendor (which we would’ve – see what I mean they’re nice? – it still gets better)

We got the hookah for 65 pounds (around 11 US dollars) took a cab back to our apt, and then, our cab driver gets lost…bad mistake…he’s speaking Arabic to us and you know we don’t know how the heck to speak to him, so we keep showing him the address…okay, so after 10 tries at him asking people around, we tell him to just drop us off here, and we’ll find it. What normally would’ve cost us 7 pounds for a cab ride, the dude tried to charge us over 20…I said no, kept my foot down, and only gave him 10…still being nice for giving him a 3 pound tip (mind you that even a pound or half a pound are great tips.)

NOW, we’re lost…it takes us 1 hour and 7 conversations of asking people “how do we get here?”, until we make it back to Mazen’s place…we chill after that…met some local peoples (which I have pictures of) and got to hang out inside the apt. All of us went to dinner next, then came back home…Jahsim, Mazen’s son, was sick, so Elyssa, Mazen’s girlfriend took care of the little guy (only 3 yrs old I think)…he was puking his little guts out…cute, but sad in that “awww” kind of way…

We set up the hookah…BONK…doesn’t even work…GREAT!!!...Mono has a friend in town, Nageeb, we call him up, he picks us up…me Mono and Nageeb go out…Maz stays back for the little guy (Way to go Maz! That’s a great father!!! Three cheers for Maz!!!!!)

SO, we go to this outdoor café which has patio like furniture outside, a small spring, and tons and tons of hookahs. We each get our own individual hookah, and some chai to go with it. For those of you who don’t know what chai is, its regular hot tea with milk and sugar. SO, everything’s great…we’re all chatting, having a good time, checking out the local women who won’t even acknowledge your presence…just fabulous. Actually, it was great…the atmosphere was sweet, the company was stupendous, and the place…couldn’t have been better. The spot was Nageeb’s choice…

Then, we go to this OPEN ALL NIGHT bizarre which is by a famous mosque Islamic Cairo called Al-Emam Alhossein Square…( Don E. Haubeneros – you would’ve totally appreciated the architecture. You’ll like the pics I got to show you when I get back into Chicago.) The Square is great…they’re vendor’s outside selling trinkets and souvenirs, food is still cooking, and families are all out enjoying time on a Monday night…no, make that a Tuesday morning at FREAKIN 3:00 AM!!! YES it was still packed! We were digging it!! Ate some great authentic Egyptian food, smoked on more hookahs (remember, it’s just tobacco – actually, even healthier than the normal cigarette crap I smoke sometimes…it’s pure tobacco, with a bit of natural flavoring, filtered thru a water pipe (hookah))…and this time…even more beautiful Egyptian women (Kulpit – you know you would’ve wanted to be here just to look, Christie – still got ya in the picture)…it was just the best scenes…little kids haggling us for a pound or two…hearing the morning prayer take place…

NEXT, we went into the mosque and prayed…for myself being Orthodox, this is something I’ve never done, let alone even been in a mosque…so the feeling was just enormous! We washed our hands faces and feet, then prayed…I can’t explain what we did exactly, by praying, but I will tell you that as a BIG believer in God and a practicer of my own faith, I felt good…very euphoric and calm…know what I mean? Aw yeah you do…moving on….

Nageeb gets an even better idea…”Wanna see the sunrise at the pyramids?” WHAT!!! Let’s roll! So we hop into his ’81 5-speed Fiat, with a 5th gear that doesn’t work…so he was hitting the rpm’s pretty high while in 4th gear! Very classy…now…on the way there, we stop by a check point (Cairo Police) fearing that they would check out our ID’s…nope…they only told us to turn of our headlights…WHILE ITS STILL DARK!!! They think the street lights have enough light to support the streets and the cars…hmm, safe? I think not…not also to mention that nobody pays attention to the lanes and that there are no stoplights…yes, NO stoplights…it’s a different system of driving that I’ve never noticed before…it’s a non-systematic system of offensive driving…the motto “They’ll see you and slow down” BIG GULP in the throat for that one…I’m serious…this has got to be the craziest driving method ever before. Captain Safety does not approve…at all.

We get to the pyramids (in Giza)…in one piece, still closed for another 3 hours…solution, let’s ride horses around the back way while the sun rises…sweet!!! We got on horses (Nageeb was a natural) and we took them very close to the pyramids, took some pictures, got a sore ass from bouncing up and down…then almost got hussled from some scam artists…but Nageeb, being Egyptian…held everything down like Fort Knox…man, it’s always great to have friends in good places…bad ones too…everything was just great…
…to sum it up…a little over 24 hrs – bought some bootleg Gucci shirts, 1 hookah which doesn’t work, got lost coming home, dinner at a nice restaurant, hookas with Nageeb, at the square checking out the locals, praying in the mosque, fast car ride in 4th gear to the pyramids, horse back ride seeing the sun rise on the way towards the pyramids…and now…writing this, at 9:00 AM Tuesday…it’s time to go to sleep…take care everyone! I love ya’ll! And to answer the question everyone wants to know…yes, the pyramids are worth it. They are truly worth it… .. .PEACE!

mikeys