Cairo is a city that never sleeps with traffic that is overflowing, horns honking incessantly, and Egyptians out in the streets all day and night.
Although donkey carts were banned from the city centre, they can be seen on the outskirts of the downtown core and women still balance sacks on their heads. Despite over 2 million cars and high rise buildings, you have a sense when you enter the gates of Islamic Cairo or walk around Coptic Cairo that you have stepped back in time. Check out our forum posts on our tours of Coptic Cairo and Islamic Cairo!
Our last day in Cairo and Egypt was spent taking it easy walking around some of the modern districts of Cairo. We did a bit of souvenir shopping and walking around the Garden District, Midan Tahrir and Zamelek district getting a feel of modern Cairo.
After browsing in some of Zamelek's antique stores, we walked around the Marriott Hotel and had a bite to eat in the Marriott Garden Cafe, a pricey outdoor terrace off the gardens - it's a lovely, relaxing refuge from hectic Cairo.
When we returned to the Garden City district, we walked to the Midan Tahrir. The traffic at Midan Tahrir is unbelievable - it felt like we were in a vortex of cars with no means of escape. Fortunately, we spotted a metro station which provided an underground pass to the other side of the square. From there, we decided to walk to the Egyptian Museum and visit the museum for a couple of hours before heading back to the hotel along the banks of the Nile.
Check out our TA hotel review of the Four Seasons Cairo at Nile Plaza.
Cairo Airport Experience
Our our guide's driver, Hassan, picked us up at the hotel at 2am to get us to Cairo Airport for our 5am flight. Driving to the airport in the middle of the night means traffic is relatively light, so it only takes about one half hour. Despite light traffic, it was a bit of a harrowing experience since drivers at that time of night drive even faster than during the day since there are fewer cards to get in the way! So we just held on and kept our fingers crossed!
It was a fitting end to our Egyptian experience when we arrived at Cairo Airport and found ourselves once again at the mercy of airport staff. After generously tipping the porter who carted our bags to the security gate for Lufthansa passengers, he reappeared within minutes with an older Egyptian who waved us over. Reluctantly, we left the long line that wasn't moving and followed our bags as they were being carted to a deserted security gate. It was there we were asked for more money to expedite our clearance through security. It was almost 2am and we were dazed so we were happy not to stand in a line that just wasn't moving. We offered 20 more Egyptian pounds; however, it was only after handing over another 50 Egyptian pounds, which was flashed at the security official on the other side of the security barrier, were we promptly cleared through security and escorted to the Lufthansa check-in. Once again, generous tips greased the way. While bribing security officials was not our intent, we safely escaped the situation and never looked back! When in Egypt, American Express Cards don't get you to the front of the line, but Egyptian Pounds do!
Unfortunately, we were hoping our flight would be departing from the new International Terminal, which was supposed to be in operation; instead, we were stuck in the old International Departures Terminal at Cairo Airport for a couple of hours. Fortunately, there was free wireless Internet to our surprise.
We boarded our flight and sadly had to say goodbye to Egypt. When we landed in Vancouver we realized what we had missed - one of the coldest winters on record with record snowfalls! Travelling Canucks could not have picked a better time to escape to Egypt! If only we could have stayed longer!!
Photos of Coptic Cairo, Islamic Cairo and Modern Cairo can be viewed on our blog titled: 3 Canucks in 3 Cairos in 3 Days!
