After not enough hours of sleep, we got up at 4:30 and headed for the airport (my head was still a bit sore after the Schnapps from last night), to catch our flight to Cairo. The flight went OK, with a stopover in Vienna. After the formalities at Cairo airport, we decided to be brave and take the local bus to downtown Cairo. We eventually found the bus stop, and the bus also eventually arrived (identifying it wasn’t easy, as everything was written in Arabic!).
Getting from the bus station in Cairo to our hotel turned out to be a more daunting task, even if it was only about 3 blocks away. The traffic in Cairo is really something (not sure how to describe it exactly, words like “murderous”, “lethal” come to mind) – with cars completely ignoring traffic lights, pedestrian crossings and rules (well, there are some rules, but I don’t think you’ll find them in any law book!). Put it like this, crossing the street was quite a scary experience (strangely enough though, you do get used to even that after a while…).
We eventually reached our hotel, and checked in. The hotel had 2 stars – obviously the Egyptian stars have a somewhat different meaning to Europe (I would expect a reliable hot water supply and a decent shower to be requirements to get 2 stars, at least ;-). But we didn’t complain, the place was clean enough, had its own charm, and was very central.
In the evening we had a walk downtown. Quite fascinating, the city actually seems to come alive in the late evening (more alive – I don’t think Cairo could be considered quiet any time of the day!). We strolled around the street sellers, had a very so-and-so dinner, and of course tried the local beer (called Stella, funnily enough – without the Artois) at the very cosy Windsor hotel bar (Michael Palin, who staid here in 1991 whilst filming “Around the world in 80 days”, apparently said that the place enjoyed an “almost unreal individuality”).
Getting from the bus station in Cairo to our hotel turned out to be a more daunting task, even if it was only about 3 blocks away. The traffic in Cairo is really something (not sure how to describe it exactly, words like “murderous”, “lethal” come to mind) – with cars completely ignoring traffic lights, pedestrian crossings and rules (well, there are some rules, but I don’t think you’ll find them in any law book!). Put it like this, crossing the street was quite a scary experience (strangely enough though, you do get used to even that after a while…).
We eventually reached our hotel, and checked in. The hotel had 2 stars – obviously the Egyptian stars have a somewhat different meaning to Europe (I would expect a reliable hot water supply and a decent shower to be requirements to get 2 stars, at least ;-). But we didn’t complain, the place was clean enough, had its own charm, and was very central.
In the evening we had a walk downtown. Quite fascinating, the city actually seems to come alive in the late evening (more alive – I don’t think Cairo could be considered quiet any time of the day!). We strolled around the street sellers, had a very so-and-so dinner, and of course tried the local beer (called Stella, funnily enough – without the Artois) at the very cosy Windsor hotel bar (Michael Palin, who staid here in 1991 whilst filming “Around the world in 80 days”, apparently said that the place enjoyed an “almost unreal individuality”).
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