Khān al Khalīlī

Okay, I will attempt to describe what we did this morning but whatever I write you have to multiply that your thoughts about what I have said by 100. Does that make sense?

First of all, Cairo has a population of 21,750,000 people. It is very big. People are noisy and so is the traffic with cars ‘talking’ (using their horns) to each other constantly. Calls to prayer add to the noise.

We had the day to walk around our neighbourhood and the historic part of the city, and experience a little of daily life in busy Cairo. We have mastered the art of walking across the street and dealing with hagglers since we arrived here so we were feeling pretty confident that we could tackle the Khan El- Khalil Bazaar. We had been to it once before with a guide for about half an hour so we knew what we were in for. It was about a 2 km walk away on a very busy and seemingly chaotic market street. We didn’t see any other tourists walking there!

Originally built on the site of an old mausoleum, local and foreign merchants have been trading at Khan el-Khalili souk since the 14th century. It is Egypt's most famous market and what a sensory place it is!

While walking through the market in narrow alleyways and stairs, we found that we were wowed by the sheer amount and variety of merchandise on display – from sparkling silverware, gold artefacts and antiques, to stained-glass lamps, incense and handmade accessories, even carpets and fabrics. There are huge dedicated blocks of shops with everything including gold, copper and spices. Who would buy all the things that we saw? It is a truly a labyrinth of stuff.

The market is also home to many old cafes. We had heard about El-Fishawi Cafe, one of the oldest cafes in Cairo (established in 1797) and one of Naguib Mahfouz’s favorite places to write. He is an Egyptian who won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature.

We happened to stumble upon this famous cafe so decided to sit down, have some tea and take a little break from the masses. It is in a great place to people-watch while drinking mint and ginger tea.

Wouldn’t you know, we met our first Canadians since we started the trip! Fatima and Hamid from Ottawa and Alani from Toronto. They all spoke Arabic and understood the culture so we ended up having a great discussion, while fending off a persistent and hungry cat, about all sorts of things, Canadian and Egyptian. They kindly treated us to a delicious Egyptian food called ta’tameya.

Ta’tameyas, or falafels as we call it in Canada, is an all-time favorite breakfast street food. In most parts of the Middle East and Canada, falafels are made with ground chickpeas. However, in Egypt, it is made with dried fava (broad) beans. The ones we ate were served in pita bread with Egyptian pickles on the side. So good!

A funny thing happened while we were eating. The only shoes that we brought were our fantastic ON shoes. They are fabric running shoes. A shoeshine guy came up to Chris and said that his shoes were dirty. They were but they didn't need shoeshining. Finally, Chris caved and the man ran off with his one shoe. We laughed. He came back a few minutes later with a very clean shoe. We laughed harder as now his other shoe looked bad. The nan ran off again with his other shoe. We laughed again and hoped that the guy would cone back with the shoe. He did. Two very clean shoes. Lots of laughs. He said that Chris could give him whatever. It had been pretty entertaining.
He was happy with $2,50 cdn.

We said our goodbyes and Chris and I walked though a nice smelling part of the market - the spice market where you can buy fresh spices of any variety. Then the perfume market that has countless mixing scents of essential oils. Further on, was a section with burning incense.

The call for prayer came on, loud and clear, and dedicated areas for praying were full of men touching their foreheads to the ground while it sounded like a sermon was being broadcast from the nearby famous Al-Hussein mosque.

Our senses were assaulted with all the new sounds, smells and sights and we decided to head back to the hostel after a couple of hours for a bit of quiet time. In Fergus, we sure live a different life than the people in Cairo!

Tomorrow, we will go on our last trip in Egypt - to Alexandria, once among the greatest cities of the Mediterranean world.Read more