Cairo during Ramadan

5PM, Cairo, Marriott Business Center

We've arrived. After 20 hours of flying and backpack wrangling, I met Lynn in the Cairo airport. We were immediately hassled by almost every person we passed...and have continued to get hassled by almost every person since then. Luckily Lynn and I are good at giving the cold shoulder...although after just a few hours, it is starting to get really frustrating!! I've even tried to be completely mute-that particular Egyptian hassled us for a block before finally laughing and walking away. I will perfect my 'don't talk to me' look by tomorrow afternoon, I'm certain.

I expected to like Cairo more than I do. It's a big dirty city with no crosswalks and lot of cars. Lynn and I just returned to the hotel after a few hours of exploring...we saw the Nile and the Egyptian Museum. When I say we saw the Egyptian museuam, I mean after getting kicked out twice for trying to smuggle in cameras, we walked around hapzardly wondering what we were looking at. It was probably the least organized museum I've ever seen...no placards telling you what you're looking at, which means I've made up stories for half of the mummies I saw today. I'm wondering how my stories compare to the reality...probably not half as entertaining as I'm going on about 8 hours of sleep in the last few days. That said, it was enough museum for me for likely the whole Egypt portion of the trip. Check that one of the list.

The only other thing of note is that I got in trouble today from a random man on the street. He called me 'not a very nice girl' as I was eating a piece of candy (I think it was candy but my Arabic is a bit rusty...it tasted like orange fruit leather). Anywho, apparently it's bad form to eat in front of a people that are fasting for religious purposes. Duly noted.

I'm headed upstairs to shower off the Cairo grit and head out on the town (no alcohol here so not sure what that means) with friends of friends. First though going to get my first taste of authentic Egyptian food. Excellent. Headed to the pyramids tomorrow (got a sneak preview from the plane - exciting!!) and from there, likely down the Nile to Luxor. Hopefully many more stories to come.

Cheers!
~G