First Day in Cairo

Breakfast was a wonderful spread in the hotel. We greeted Bernadette, Kahanita's family, Bijarn, Rebecca and Andrew who were already into it. The guys had the brainwave of making rolls to wrap up and take for lunch, much to the embarassment of the rest of us! Though we regretted it later! I took some pita pockets and apricot jam.

We were almost ripped off by the hotel porter by paying a ridiculous amount for hotel found cabs. But all of us were seasoned travellers and we decided to split into groups of four and find local cabs instead. It was very cheap: Twenty to thirty Egyptian pounds each. The cab drivers were even madder and crazier and dodgier than the one from the night before! I just can't get over it. We had all arranged to rendevouzs at a well known 'cafe' in the big markets called Fishawe cafe or something similar. We arrived first through the traffic and it took awhile for the others to catch up. Tea was ordered and a Shisha pipe with apple tobacco was happily smoked by the men. Martin and I with Rebecca and Bernie decided to explore the markets themselves. Lots of beautiful scarves and ornaments and galabayas (spelling) etc that were thrust into our paths. Quite emotionally draining by the end of our exploring. Bernadette proved herself to be the best haggler I'd ever seen. She got some good bargains. Martin and I felt ripped off more than once unfortunately!

After much touting in our faces, and after Nick (Kahanita's brother) bought many pairs of sunglasses and all sorts of other things, we found some more cabs and were dropped off at the Egyptian museum. With the promise of seeing ancient relics etc we were quite looking forward to it. However, the labelling of displays was uninspiring and only occasionally in English. I know, I know, don't be such a tourist-but it is a huge tourist attraction and was so poorly put together. The artefacts we could work out were interesting though, and we were fascinated by Tutenkahman's tomb relics and the old chariots that had been discovered buried beneath the dirt. Our interest waned quickly though and we soon left to walk home along the Nile via the Hilton. Everyone was shattered. We all retired to our rooms and watched movies, (Cocktail and Rushmore) reappearing in time for dinner with the whole group of thirteen in the hotel restuarant. It was a lovely buffet with the best mashed potato and lemon sea bass ever. Oh yeah.