Cairo First Impressions

We left home at 1 p.m. on a snowy, cold Sunday but Red Car got us to the airport in plenty of time. We went through the usual glitches in the YYZ airport but in general, things went well. With the snow, our plane was delayed, runways cleared and de-icing so we left 1 1/2 hours late. Seven hours later we arrived at a snow covered Heathrow airport, waited for 1 hour and then caught our 5 hour flight to Cairo.

Arriving at the Cairo airport was quite easy. It isn’t very big and the process was straight forward. A couple of weeks ago, we bought our Visas for one month, online, a couple of weeks ago but realized we could have bought them easily at the airport.

We took out money from an ATM machine and bought Vodofone phone chips for $15 for 20 gigs. Should do us for the month. Pretty cheap.

We went outside to meet our driver, Omar, and were transported into another world! Drivers here are absolutely crazy and with no fear. Omar told us ‘horn blowing’ is the music of Cairo and he opened the car window so we could hear it better. Haha. Cairo is chaotic, noisy, big city that is home to some of the world’s most magnificent treasures.

With more than 25 million people living in the metropolitan area of Cairo it is not only the largest city in Egypt but also in Africa and the Arab world. Actually it is the 6th largest city in the world. It was founded in 969 AD, set on the Nile River, it is considered the center of the region’s political and cultural life.

The hostel we are staying in is right downtown. An interesting place to say the least. But more about that later. Antonio, the manager, got us settled in our clean room and told us where we could go for a great shawarma. Once again kind strangers helped us out and at $1.50 each for a chicken shawarma, we were not disappointed Wow!

People are friendly and kind. Many strangers who we met spoke English and went out of their way to help us without us asking. We only got good vibes and lots of helpful tips.

We had a hot shower and are ready for a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow after an early breakfast, we are off to see the pyramids. It looks like it will be a busy day!Read more