Our trip back to Addis Ababa took us through Cairo, Egypt. We’d made a conversational list before our year abroad began of all the places we’d hoped to visit. Some for longer trips, some for just as much as we could afford. Egypt had a variable position on that list, but we opted for the shortest of all approaches when the opportunity arose. An otherwise overlong 20-hour layover would have to do for touring Cairo. Thanks to a great recommendation from friends in Addis, we tailored a request through the company named “Walk Like An Egyptian” Tours. Our tour guide, Asmaa, met us at the airport. We hopped into a tour van tagged “Harry Potter Travel” The minimal sleep we had in the tank after our red-eye Royal Air Maroc flight from Casablanca would have to suffice, as we plunged into the madness of Cairo’s traffic.
Along the way, I asked our tour guiding crew if they had ever heard Steve Martin’s “King Tut” (they hadn’t). Or the Bangles hit, “Walk Like an Egyptian” (again, no). After serving things up on YouTube, they were enlightened. Maybe not entertained. I don’t know that it was my dated pop culture mission to provide these lessons in American culture nor do I care to judge them or past tour takers for never broaching the subject. I do, nonetheless, feel like a cultural ambassador.
After calling an audible based on the traffic’s messiness in our intended direction, our first stop was to fuel up at a place named Zooba. They offer a hip take on authentic, verifiably-clean Egyptian street food. We loved the ful (fava beans made into a hummus-like dish) and falafel (some made with eggplant) and shakshuka (scrambled eggs and other delicious meaty bits) washed down with plenty of tea and their delicious aish balidi (Egypt’s signature pita-like flatbread made in rounds the size of an outstretched hand). Zooba’s been such a hit in Cairo that they’ve recently opened a restaurant of the same name in NYC (in Nolita or “North of Little Italy” in lower Manhattan). Zooba offers exuberant food for anyone’s tastes (vegans rejoice - they’ve got you covered, big time).
After that, our fullest focus of the day was on the Egyptian Museum. The place epitomizes a respectable, iconic repository of broad narratives. We dove in maybe a bit too deeply as the detail overflowed. Asmaa took us down many storied roads that went largely in one ear and out the other. As you’ll see below, the objects are eternally gorgeous. Even after up to 5000 years and countless visitors since the museum opened in the 19th Century, there still new stories to be found in these artifacts. Although the current museum is undergoing a massive shifting of objects to the New Egyptian Museum in Giza (near the pyramids, still within greater Cairo). Each museum will house approximately half of the nation’s grander collection, with a heavy emphasis on King Tut. The other museum still isn’t done, and is nearly a decade overdue. Progress - along with traffic - moves quite slowly in Egypt.
Our next stop was at the oldest Cairo street market (Khan el-Khalili) and its surrounding streets. What I saw there intrigued me most of all things Cairo. We ate lunch at Naguib Mahfouz’s coffeehouse, which drew me into his work and fascinating life story. He was a novelist who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988 after being forced out of public appreciation in Egypt. He’d fallen on the wrong side of political history and stepped away from his prolific output until being rediscovered by the Nobel’s notice. His reclamation no doubt brought new attention to his coffeehouse. I was introduced fully to Turkish-style coffee there. Thick, fragrant, and served from shiny, idiosyncratic copper pots that the fez-wearing waiters poured at the table into slightly under-sized teacups. I made the rookie error of drinking a few millimeters into the dank, fine-grained muck at the bottom of the cup. I doubt that I’ll ever make the same mistake again in my lifetime. I pledge that if I ever see Cairo again, the Khan el-Khalili and Naguib Marfouz Cafe will be my first planned stop.
Beyond that, we did what everyone does in Egypt. We visited the Great Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. We rode camels that saddened us, after having the far-less-skeezy experience of seeing such well cared for animals in Erg Chebbi. We stopped nearby as the sun went down at the Mena House (built in the 19th century as a palace…now branded as the Marriot Mena House). We ate amazing chicken at a place named Andrea in an area under development in the desert landscape simply branded as “New Giza” between the pyramids and the Nile (which separates Cairo from Giza). The overall population of Cairo is somewhere north of 20 million. For a country that has 29 “governates” (the equivalent of States in America), Cairo is two of them. 60% of Cairo’s population are considered below Egypt’s poverty line. We, obviously, didn’t see much of that disparity. Asmaa kept the commentary flowing throughout the day, but we zoned out through the final stages. Our final stop before the airport was a cruise along the Nile River with fashionable hotels lining the banks. In the dark, we really only saw the neon-lit other pleasure boats slowly churning up and down the river. Everywhere we turned in Cairo - from every bathroom stop to the tour boat operator who did nothing for us other than not end up at the bottom of the Nile - people put their hand out expecting a tip. It was very much the off-season, so our lines were short and I’m sure those who depend upon tourism are feeling the pinch. Hence the constant pinch applied to us. Who can blame them? There were other small lamenesses along the way, but I am so glad we said “yes” to a sprinting tour of Cairo. I don’t think we’ll be back. Certainly not during the remaining five months we have in Africa. The images that follow recap some of what washed over me. I respected the policy at Naguib Mahfouz’s place and didn’t take pictures. For that stop, I’ll stick with my visual memories.
We arrived home safely in Addis slightly ahead of schedule, and breezed through immigration, baggage claim, and customs in record time. We recharged for two days, happy to be back in the chaos we now know rather well. And we got back on the road. As I finish up the last trip’s commentary, we’re in Israel. Oh, the stories I’ve got on deck. You’ll want to check back for those and hopefully others. Regardless, thanks so much for checking in now. Happy 2020, if you roll with that calendar. Be well. Say “yes.” Ciao.
