Arriving In Cairo
September 26th, 2007 by lmenger
Our landing into Cairo provided images like viewing an IMAX movie. With a bird’s eye view, we circled the city with the Nile River as its center piece. The sight was amazing, with high rise apartments, mosques, football fields, and buildings dotted with satellite dishes, expanding as far as the eye could see. The city is painted in the hues of the desert, all brown, taupe, and sandy, with hardly a spec of green in sight.
Our tour guide, Mr. Alaa, picked us up promptly, and we headed to our hotel. The drive took almost an hour and provided us with a bonus tour of the downtown area. The city was bustling and alive with sounds of horns honking and people conversing. To cross the street, no one stops at a cross walk and waits for a light. People walk right out in the middle of the street. You think this would be hazardous to their health.We did see one accident where a taxi driver hit a woman’s car and they were standing in the middle of the road yelling at each other.
Our driver thought this exchange was pretty funny.We passed a McDonald’s on the way, but that was the only familiar sight we saw.
We arrived at our hote, the Sofitel, which is located directly on the Nile River and the view from our balcony is spectacular!
We immediately opened the doors to the balcony to take in the view and we were greeted by the melodic call to prayer, which was quite enchanting while watching the feluccas sail by on the Nile. Muslims pray five times each day, and each time the call goes out, reminding everyone it is time to pray. It is currently the month of Ramadan and Muslims are required to fast each day until sundown. During Ramadan, praying is even more important. Some of the men that are the most faithful at praying actually have bruises on their foreheads, an visible sign of getting on their knees and touching their foreheads to the ground when praying.
Well we have got to go now and see if we can exchange some U.S. dollars for Egyptian dollars.
3 Responses to “Arriving In Cairo”
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What an awsome view of the nile
We have tried to contact you many times… but no luck.. blog will not go through for some of us…hopefully this time…Questions…. does the Nile look polluted? What is the style of clothing worn?? What is the population of Cairo..what a city?? we sure do hope you catch up with Jose and Omar…we do not want them to become “mysteries of the Nile!!!!”
Mrs. Gatling’s class:
The Nile river in Cairo does not look any different than our St. Johns river in Jacksonville. We will let you know more about the river when we board the cruise on Saturday, since we will be traveling down the Nile for three days from Aswan to Luxor.
Cairo is a BIG city! It has about 16 million people living in and around “Greater Cairo”. Men, boys and girls in the city dress similar than in the United States. Women wear mostly long dresses and a colorful scarf around their hair. In the countryside, people dress more conservative. Man also wear some sort of a long dress coat. We hope to be able to upload some pictures soon,where you can see for yourself.
We are on Jose and Omar’s tail. We are sure we will be able to catch with them.