CAIRO – Part I

27. August - 30. August 2011

After a great time in Europe it was time to discover a different continent. For three weeks I ­was visiting my good friends Heidi and Ayman with there kids Lamice and Anas. A very long time ago (15 years ago to be exact) I was living with Ayman in a student house in Hamburg. Since then we've been friends. 

My trip to Cairo didn't start very good. I got a cold the day before the trip. After a four hour train ride I arrived at the airport to find out that my flight was delayed almost two hours and I arrived in Cairo quite late at night. Ayman picked my up at the airport. At their house, Heidi and the kids where already waiting for me. We stayed up until 3 am talking and had dinner before going to bed. When I went to bed I could already feel that my stomach was a little upset. I spent the night with regular trips to the bathroom. Not the best way to arrive at a friends' house. My first day in Cairo, I didn't see anything from the city but spent all day inside. Sleeping, hanging around, talking and playing with Lamice and Anas. Since it were the last days of Ramadan – the month of fasting, meaning that it's not allowed to eat between sunrise and sunset, we stayed up until three or four in the morning, had dinner (or breakfast) before going to bed and slept late. Therefore the time until sunrise was fairly short. Originally, my plan was to try fasting as well but since I wasn't feeling that well the first days, I skipped that. So, the kids and me had a little snack in the afternoon. 

On my second day in Cairo I finally set out to explore town. My friends are living in Maadi, a fairly wealthy neighborhood, and in the afternoon I was checking out the area. At night, Ayman, Heidi and me went out to Cairos old town. We walked through small streets with many small stores selling souvenirs and other stuff. The buildings were quite old and there were lots of people - mainly locals - walking around. We drank tea at a nice old cafe in a very narrow street. The atmosphere was very nice and I liked walking around. Back in Maadi, I went to a cafe with Ayman to play Backgammon. But there was a soccer game going on and the cafe was packed with people – men. I think, besides me, there was only one other woman and it was kind of strange to be there, surrounded by 100 men. Especially in a culture were women are not commonly seen in situations like this.

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