Hi All,

 

Well, we arrived safe and sound yesterday afternoon and checked into our hotel. Jess was finally hungry but we weren’t sure that local food would be the answer after having been sick. So we went on a quest for a Pizza Hut. However, it was not meant to be. It was a hot afternoon, the road along the Nile teeming with smelly, exhaust producing cars in really bad condition, a skinny sidewalk and bad directions. We walked, looking for the Pizza Hut five minutes away. “Just go to the left”.... Sure. I believe you. And the dozen other people who told us the same thing along our extensive tour on the rive gauche (I think).

 

We stopped and asked tourist police. We asked locals. We got similar directions and so believed that we would eventually find Pizza Hut. We did, but it would be at about midnight with Mahmoud on our way back to the hotel :)  We turned corners. We discovered that one does not necessarily go “around the block” with ease. It is not always the case that to make a left, and another left and another left will bring you back to where you started.

 

So we walked. And finally decided to go back to the hotel and have lunch. We were famished and thirsty. So a steak sandwich had to take the place of a pizza. It was good, but not what we were looking for. Resting and trying to get the grime off of our feet took much of the afternoon, as did updating the blog after being out of internet access for the past few days. We hooked up with Mahmoud, the tour guide we met up with in Hurghada, and determined by text message that he would come to pick us up at the hotel at 7 pm.

 

At 7 pm precisely, Mahmoud and his friend Abdul Fatteh arrived in Mahmoud’s exceptionally well kept 1984 Fiat. It has about the same mileage as my PT-Cruiser! So now we would get a tour of Cairo from a local perspective, rather than the tourist version. We went for a drive around some of the local areas including the area where Mahmoud’s family lives. We saw some of the new subdivisions that are springing up. And we went to the new Carrefour Mall. For those of you who were in Poland with us, you’ll know what this means. Carrefour is a French chain of Hypermarkets. You can get EVERYTHING at very reasonable prices. However, given that it was Thursday night, and that Friday is a day of rest here, the mall was very busy.

 

So we headed off to Cilantro - a Starbuck’s-like coffee shop without the Starbuck’s prices. It was great. I had a Spice Island Frappe with a dollop (yes a dollop according to the menu) of whipped cream. Now I know that’s not on the low-carb diet, but I can’t say that that’s been easy to keep up here anyways. Jess had a vanilla coffee frappe that was also amazing. The fellows had hot chocolate and we discussed the virtues of Reeses Peanutbutter cups, which they had never heard of. In fact, they were very unfamiliar with peanutbutter at all. We’ll have to fix that - just not sure that Reeses Peanutbutter cups would survive the journey. Dry ice perhaps?

 

We decided that we would go for Egyptian food and headed off to Abou El Sids Restaurant, as suggested by Mahmoud. It was fantastic. We sat outside and had cold drinks and then a tray of Mezze, or mixed appetizers - all of which were fantastic. Then we tried meatballs and rice with an okra specialty that I used to find unappealing, but was actually fairly tasty. Much like foul (a bean dish), I have discovered that the Sudanese try their best to make Egyptian specialties, but seem to miss something. I still can’t say I’m thrilled with the texture of the okra dish, but at least the taste made up for it.

 

It got a bit warm outside so we decided to move indoors to the air conditioning. The decor was rather Turkish and quite lovely. Mint tea was served and we continued our conversation. It was a beautiful end to our time in Egypt and I do hope we get to see our new Egyptian friends sometime in the future. It was quite a relief to spend time with intelligent, handsome men with a good sense of humour, who were not about to ask for Jess’s hand in marriage ten minutes after meeting her! We had a great evening.

 

I have to say Egypt has been wonderful this time. It was made all the more so by meeting people like Mahmoud and Abdul Fatteh. We’ve been laughing for days, even despite Jess’s delicate stomach. With wide smiles, we’ll be leaving Egypt hoping one day to return.