Seeing the City, One Step at a Time

 I sat on the ledge of the Citadel's platform, overlooking the city. Cairo flowed out in every direction below us like a rippling of buildings, roads, and parks, until it faded into the hazy horizon. The Citadel is a huge, medieval fortress at one of the highest points in the city. It is now a huge, tourist attraction, complete with museums and the Muhammad Ali mosque, and an absolutely amazing view of the city.

“Is it clear enough to see the pyramids today?” someone asked.

“Yeah, look, there they are.”

At the very edge of the haze hanging over the city, the shape of the pyramids could just barely be made out.

“Hey look, Tarek,” I joked with my flatmate, “there's home. Wanna walk?”

He laughed. Just because we were still in Cairo did not mean that we were anywhere near to home. Going back would take an hour and a half. The city is just that big.

We had made big plans for Friday, my friend Reda and I, to check some things off of my ever-growing “Cairo To-Do List.” We were going to see the Citadel, Islamic Cairo, Coptic Cairo, and even grab breakfast before we started. We did two of those things, and obviously breakfast was one of them.

We ended up just moving our way through the Citadel very slowly and spending our time there, enjoying the quietness of the mosque, the pictures in the museum, and the view from outside. There were seven of us spending the day together, a good chunk of it spent people watching at the Citadel.

Coming from Giza was myself; Rene, the curly-haired Dutch intern; and Tarek, the tech support Egyptian from Alexandria. From downtown we had Reda, the most obscenely nice guy I have ever met, Egyptian or otherwise; Norm, a fellow American evacuee from last summer's program who is just hanging out in Cairo; Mahmoud, Reda and Norm's good friend from the language buddy part of the program last summer; and Nouthayla, Mahmoud's best friend of four years. Four Egyptians. Three foreigners. Not a bad ratio.

I decided this laid back approach was a very nice way to enjoy Cairo. Sometimes I am jealous of the tourists who come and see more of the city in a few days then I have in over a month. But then at moments like that, sitting on a bench watching children play on the lion statues of an empty fountain, I realize that it is much more pleasant to actually enjoy the sites that I am seeing. It's better than just rushing to cross them off my list.

Cairo can be an overwhelming city, and getting from one place to another is not very time efficient because of traffic and overcrowding. It can be stressful if you are on a tight schedule, so I think we made the right decision to postpone some sightseeing for another day, rather than trying to fight the traffic to fit them all in.

I really liked visiting the mosque, it was very spacious, with a beautiful chandelier and hanging lights. We sat on the rugs on the floor, with our shoes in our laps so they wouldn't touch the floor, looking up at the lights and the designs on the walls and the ceiling.

We finally left because we decided we wanted something sweet, and to catch a falooka for the sunset. We got “sobia,” I think it was called. It was amazing! It was like coconut pudding, with coconut pieces in it, with cinnamon on top. I was in heaven! Immediately after that, we walked to the Nile to ride one of the traditional sailing boats, a falooka, for an hour and watch the sunset. To say the least, it was beautiful.