3 became 4 today, and our group took full shape, when Auggie flew to Cairo from Athens to meet Chris, Phil and me in Cairo when our flight arrived from Istanbul. Turkey treated us very well, much better than backpackers deserve. Our stay in Istanbul could not even really be considered backpacking, but you'll hear no complaints from us (More photos from our time in Istanbul here and here).
My friend Theo, who graduated from Middlebury last May and has worked in Cairo for the past 9 months as a freelance journalist, met us at the airport and escorted us into the city to find a hostel. We are staying in the heart of downtown, just a short walk from the Egyptian museum in a very cool neighborhood. Everything here is dirt cheap and the people so far have been great to us. While looking for a hostel, a man named Aladdin (no joke) approached us and offered to help us find a place. He walked with us down several blocks until we located one (called the Bedouin Hostel). Theo was sure he was after a tip, but when he offered him several Egyptian Pounds (about 5.5 to the U.S. Dollar) Aladdin surprisingly turned him down. Theo said that in all his time in Cairo, nobody had ever refused a tip like that.
We hung out most of the night at a local bar that Theo recommended, drinking Egyptian brandy and the local beer (called Stella). Waking up early to go see the Pyramids.
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2 comments:
Send Theo my love!
Hope you guys were no where near the blast at a "Cairo tourist destination" a few hours ago... I'm sure I'm not the only blog-follower hoping for a "we're fine, we were not even there" post on the blog in the near future.
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