We arrived at Cairo’s train station at 4am.Technically we had achieved our goal of doing Istanbul to Cairo by land. It was pretty rewarding that we were finally in Cairo after all of our travels. At this hour the city was asleep and we got to drive through its quiet streets on the way to our hotel.
It looked so much like Buenos Aires that at times I really had to wonder if we weren’t there. Cairo had a very European-style look because architects from Belgium, France and Italy designed buildings there. The exception to this is the amazing Old Islamic Quarter, with its narrow streets, which we walked up and down getting lost in the labyrinths that smelled like coriander and cumin.
Cairo is a huge city with approximately 17 million inhabitants. It is crowded, traffic is chaotic and the air is polluted like nothing we had seen before. Yet it is a fantastic city and we really enjoyed exploring all of the areas of it. There is so much to see in Cairo that we had to organize ourselves and visit one area at a time.
We stayed in a hotel right in the downtown area. It was very well located, overlooking one of the major plazas and only a couple of blocks away from the Nile River. We were also a few blocks away from the Egyptian Museum which we visited and which was an amazing experience. Every corner of the museum is filled up with amazing pieces of history from mummies to sarcophagus, from jewelry to statues. Going through the museum and its several galleries on both floors can be a bit overwhelming and we felt first hand what they call the ¨Pharaonic Phatigue¨. The ¨Ancient Egyptian Jewelry¨ room was pretty amazing, where you can find from Tutankhamen’s necklaces to the gold fingers and toes that other pharaohs used. We especially liked the treasures taken from King Tut`s tomb.
Although Islamic Cairo was a reminder of what the rest of the country looked like, the newer part of town was crowded with Parisian style patisseries and boulangeries that filled the air with fresh home made bread aromas.
We were hesitant about visiting Cairo, we had heard so many things about scams and hassles, but we didn’t have any problems with that and we liked our stay there very much.
It looked so much like Buenos Aires that at times I really had to wonder if we weren’t there. Cairo had a very European-style look because architects from Belgium, France and Italy designed buildings there. The exception to this is the amazing Old Islamic Quarter, with its narrow streets, which we walked up and down getting lost in the labyrinths that smelled like coriander and cumin.
Cairo is a huge city with approximately 17 million inhabitants. It is crowded, traffic is chaotic and the air is polluted like nothing we had seen before. Yet it is a fantastic city and we really enjoyed exploring all of the areas of it. There is so much to see in Cairo that we had to organize ourselves and visit one area at a time.
We stayed in a hotel right in the downtown area. It was very well located, overlooking one of the major plazas and only a couple of blocks away from the Nile River. We were also a few blocks away from the Egyptian Museum which we visited and which was an amazing experience. Every corner of the museum is filled up with amazing pieces of history from mummies to sarcophagus, from jewelry to statues. Going through the museum and its several galleries on both floors can be a bit overwhelming and we felt first hand what they call the ¨Pharaonic Phatigue¨. The ¨Ancient Egyptian Jewelry¨ room was pretty amazing, where you can find from Tutankhamen’s necklaces to the gold fingers and toes that other pharaohs used. We especially liked the treasures taken from King Tut`s tomb.
Although Islamic Cairo was a reminder of what the rest of the country looked like, the newer part of town was crowded with Parisian style patisseries and boulangeries that filled the air with fresh home made bread aromas.
We were hesitant about visiting Cairo, we had heard so many things about scams and hassles, but we didn’t have any problems with that and we liked our stay there very much.
Gaby
No comments:
Post a Comment