Eqyptian Charms

written by Nathan

Cairo, Egypt land of ancient civilizations. We are feeling quite at home here. It is not just the cosmopolitan character of Cairo, the port city air of Alexandria, but the feeling of an Arabic Melting pot which has been so welcome to us. It is a megalopolis stretching from Cairo to the sea - diverse and developed, proud and confident.

Life is a tangle of friendliness. The charms of the streets are found in the morning and evening. In the neighborhoods at various hours of prayer, competing mosque sirens wail from every corner.

As usual, children and old folks are very interested and engaging. People can be approached easily (and will try to help- but outside the tourist center English is not prevalent)

Egypt, (Cairo and Alexandria) are places we immediately fell for. The combination of mixes of mostly early 20th century architecture - wide boulevards with tiny ancient streets branching off; easy transportation systems; and varied delicious Arabic cuisines - make the cities totally approachable.

Contrary to our normal approach to travel. Egypt is just too rich with history to miss some of the biggest tourist sites. We have visited both the pyramids and the Egyptian Museum and been delighted by both in spite of tours buses and tour massive groups. In both places, we used our knowledge of tour group behaviors to steer around the crowds. We were at the Pyramids at opening (8:30) and rushed past the Great Pyramid to get away from the onrush. Once away from the crowds it is easy to find places where the tour groups are not. The Pyramid ’campus’ is an enormous space and totally open for exploration. We particularly enjoyed being ‘explorers’ getting into the recently uncovered and under reconstruction support tombs of engineers, architects, captains of the army, and those whose small tombs are littered like a tomb city surrounding the pyramids.

**** While it is always advisable to learn some of any language before visiting a new country, Arabic is very inviting to us. For one thing, there are so many words that were incorporated into Spanish that we know our knowledge of Spanish will help. More importantly, Arabic is such a large language. I have now added it to the ‘world’s important languages’ list which I espouse too often to those interested in learning languages or how we travel without them. My previous list, to which Arabic is now added, was Spanish, Mandarin, and French [English, of course, is native to me, but would be top on the list for people from non-English speaking countries].