Cairo apartment search
We’ve been putting off a new blog entry for a while because there aren’t a lot of pictures of Cairo yet. And because internet cafes are hard to come by. We’ve had to take our laptop to regular cafes with WiFi and the battery poops out before we get our necessary stuff done.
Okay, now with the excuses behind us…
Cairo is a big-ass city. Our plan was to spend some time getting to know neighborhoods before we commited to an apartment, and everthing is going according to plan. We haven’t commited to an apartment yet. In fact, we have seen only one. It was big, with two bedrooms, a giant living room and a dining room. It was within easy walking distance of a McDonald’s, a KFC, a Radio Shack, a Little Ceasar’s, a Hardee’s, and best of all, a Chili’s. It was on a quiet leafy street. All in all it was as far from feeling like Cairo as we could imagine. But we didn’t ditch all our crap, get dysentary medication and move thousands of miles to live in Takoma Park.
Well, that isn’t exactly true. The hotel we are staying at while we search for an apartment is in Zamalek, a leafy high-end neighborhood on an island in the middle of the city. Imagine a really dusty and loud Upper West Side where you can get falafel for 50 cents. But it feels like the city. You can walk down the street and get a paper, buy vegetables from a guy on the sidewalk, or pick through mountains of pita bread so fresh they are puffed up like a pillow. The bread is laid out on wooden slats on top of milk cartons and customers just dig through until they find pieces to their liking. I really want to do that at Whole Foods in Tenleytown.
The neighborhood we have decided on, Doqqi, is a little more rough and tumble, but only from our white-picket fence perspective. There are a few trees and some embassies and foreigners, but also a great, stinky market street where you can haggle for fruit or half a skinned goat. There are also lots of traditional coffee shops filled with houka smoking men and a main street with honking taxis and muffler-free diesel buses. Something for everyone.
-Thrashin Badger
Tags: Travel, Tag Index
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August 15th, 2006 at 7:23 am
Good for you, choosing the tuff and rumble over the quiet and leafy. May your perspective remain as fresh and puffed up as a pillow!
August 15th, 2006 at 3:01 pm
So how much does half a skinned goat go for these days?
As a Takoma Parker, I agree you have chosen wisely.
Where’s the heart attack story????
August 16th, 2006 at 12:26 pm
Turbo duo: neighborhood sounds great. gonna visit sometime
August 16th, 2006 at 1:24 pm
Hey! You’re stayin’ in my old hood – Zamalek!! Nice, isn’t it? I really loved living there and your descriptions are reminding me of what it was like to live there. I’m so glad you guys are getting a chance to see it. It sounds like you’re really getting into the city. Get a chance to go to the Cairo Tower yet? I think it’s in Zamalek. I heard a rumor that there is a spa/golf club behind it, probably left over from the days when Zamalek was all rich expat’s villas (I’m imagining the gentlemen’s club from Out Of Africa – I can just see Turbo smoking a cigar and wearing a pith helmet – well, maybe not). And the Marriott is a good place if you want a nice, peaceful garden-like atmosphere to lunch in. Miss you as always. – ABomb