wikālat al-Ghawrī

Today our tour starts at 4pm with a tour meeting, so we had the day to have a look around Cairo.

We had breakfast at the hotel which was interesting… I’m still not convinced a chicken laid the egg for my omelette, Katie went with a stale roll!

So we ventured out into Cairo and walked across the bridge to Zamalek area, which is an island on the Nile River. We walked to Holm Cafe which I had read served nice flat whites.
It was a nice flat white, just more priced as a westerners haven than Egyptian locals but it was a lovely cafe.

We walked into Downtown Cairo, well I took us a bit to far North but a nice sun bathed walk along the waterfront of the Nile got us into Downtown Cairo.

We had to cross a major intersection which is a mission in itself, we walked past the Egyptian Museum and had to cross yet another major intersection so we could find some lunch. The expectation is that pedestrians will cross the street because they have too, and cars will stop for them because they have too… we just wait for a gap!

We had lunch at Oldish Cafe serving non tradition & traditional food. I had an amazing Watermelon juice with the traditional Hawawshi, which is a pita stuffed with minced meat and spiced with onions, pepper, parsley & chilies. Katie had a pizza - Margarita for those so curious about it.

We walked back to the hotel to freshen up before our tour meeting.
At 4pm we met our guide who said the meeting will be after our visit too Khan al-Khalili bazaar. Our guide Mohamed gave us an option to see some of the very first buildings in Cairo ever built while still being able to wonder the bazaar later.
We arrived at Bab al-Futuh which is the cities main medieval gate built in 1087. The moat that surrounded the walls wasn’t filled with water, rather flammable liquid so they can burn their enemies when defending the city.

We saw the Al-Hakim Mosque which is from the 10th century and worked our way down Al Moez Ldin Allah Al Fatmi street marvelling at the mosques and buildings built out of Alabaster Marble and how they have been carved.
Once we reached the end of the street we went to the Bazaar to see the cheap stuff as Mohamed put it. It was fun walking around, vendors trying to grab your attention, one asking if we wanted to spend all our money at his store, another remembering Katie as we did a loop around some of the main parts.
It is crazy the smells from different scents of foods and the noise of the Bazaar. Mohamed made sure we stayed close as e said the Bazaar was made on purpose to be a maze so there is no doubt in his mind we’d get lost!

We got back on the mini bus to our Accomadation, traffic had picked up so took us some time to get back to the hotel. Mohamed did the tour meeting making sure we were well informed about Egypt and the tour we are about to embark on.

Once the meeting was over, Mohamed led us to grab some food quick and easy around the corner from the hotel. Last night I had seen this resturant and wanted to come back to try a Shawarma, (souvlaki but their style!) it was delicious and so cheap compared to home!

We finished the night after this as we have a busy day tomorrow!Read more