Egypt-mania
Sorry for the long post! I arrived here alive and in one piece, and 2 days later I’m still alive and in one piece! My senses are overloaded. After a month in Australia’s lonely west, the grittiness, crowds, noises and overwhelming reality of Cairo is mind-blowing. The culture shock has me reeling and I love it. Australia was tame, laid back, and everybody spoke English. Cairo is in your face crazy. I had a 9 hour layover in Heathrow so instead of staring at the airport wall and revisiting the same news agency 20 times I decided to brave the public transportation of London to visit my old homes- Sunningdale and Bagshot. My family and I lived there for 18 months about 6 years ago and ever since we moved back to the states I’ve wanted so badly to return, and finally I got my chance! In Sunningdale I ate at the beloved Pizza Express and went to see my old house, Kenley House, smiling at all the happy memories flooding back. In Bagshot, I was pleasantly suprised when I was able to visit my old house amongst the fields of sheep- it used to be protected by a gate that you had to know the code for, and no visitors were allowed without permission. The gate protected the grounds lying in the middle of Bagshot that included our house, Home Farm, and Prince Edward’s stately mansion, so if you tried to break in you’d most likely be tackled by Edward’s guards. The gate has conveniently been changed to only block off the fork in the drive leading to the mansion, so I was able to walk in inconspicuously and spy on my old home.
When my plane to Cairo landed at 12 am and I reached passport control, I was aghast to find that I needed cash to get a visa (no, I couldn’t use my Visa!) The ATMs were conveniently located on the other side of the desks, so after being redirected from officer to officer I was escorted to withdraw the 85 Egyptian pounds (15 USD) I needed to buy a visa. When that was finished, I walked out into the arrivals terminal. Having only gotten 3 hours of sleep in the past 48 hours, I was a living zombie and therefore not ready to have 40+ Egyptian touts trying to get me to use their taxi services or stay at their hotels. I had no guidebook and was seriously regretting that fact; I almost had a mental breakdown over the fact that I had no idea where to stay. So I took up one of the touts on his taxi offer and told him to drive me to a hostel- he ended up driving me to an hotel that was out of my price range, claiming that “he called other hostels and they were all full”- yeah right. Oldest scam in the book. But I was too exhausted to care, and stayed the night anyways.
The following day I relocated to a cheap hostel right in the heart of downtown Cairo. You can’t stick your arms out from your sides without touching at least 5 people, and crossing the street is honestly a matter of life or death- the locals seem to enjoy playing epic games of chicken to see if the pedestrian or driver will veer out of the way first, often literally missing by inches. No, this is not an exaggeration. I am terrified to cross the street.
Today I visited the mummies and relics of ancient Egypt in the Egyptian Museum. It’s such an old museum with thousands of objects strewn about over 2 dusty floors, some in cases, many not, and the lighting was terrible. But it was awesome.
Walking back from the museum, I was standing at the edge of one particularly busy street, scared to death of crossing. A local man noticed and, without asking, helped me dodge the cars. “No money” he said. “I just like to help.” He then followed me as I was trying to find my hostel, making friendly conversation. I was a bit disoriented, and he assured me that the right way to my hostel was down a certain street we just happened to pass by, and on that street just happened to be his perfume shop. Aha. “You come in and look, perfumes only 2 pounds, no pressure! I’m not trying to sell you anything!!” Right. “I promise, no sales! Just look at my perfumes!” So I promptly left, only to have him ask me for small change. Feeling bad, I gave him the equivalent of 20 cents.
Here’s hoping for a scam-free tomorrow!
Tags: Egypt, Travel
afretheim
October 27th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
That street you have to cross to get to the museum requires a deathwish! Cairo is insane, but you go a little crazy after a while and start to like it. 🙂