01.03.2010
Cairo and the Giza Pyramids Cairo,Egypt


Arrived in Cairo Friday Night, New Year's Day, and somehow made our way to the hotel after meeting up with an old friend at the airport who is teaching english here. She lives in the Heliopolis neighborhood but our hotel was in Dokki, across town. I couldn't really explain to the driver how to get there even though I had a route picked out on the map. Our taxi driver seemed to be impressed that we would write down the name and english address of the place. Saturday, we took the metro over to Coptic Cairo (old christian sector of town) and walked around and found some falafel sandwiches. In the evening we met up with our intrepid tour group. Dinner was pretty spectacular. Egyptian pancakes (meat, lentils, olive and a dessert one with milk and honey) and a show featuring traditional Egyptian simi dancers at a dance hall near the giant cairo market Khan el-Khalili. Scarves and silk a plenty.. Today, Saturday, we headed out early for the Giza Pyramids and Sphinx. The dimensions were beyond anything I really thought about. Hard to describe.. I'll write more about that later and post some pictures..today for lunch we had this stir fry with macaroni, lentils, fried onions, chili powder, and chickpeas. Food is amazin, that is what I am most focused on it seems. Weather is okay..lots of air pollution but we are heding out the countryside tonight on a sleeper-train to Aswan. Until then...