I just want to put a huge disclaimer out there. I hate everything about travel blogs. They have steered us wrong on the Northern Lights, and now here they go again. Perhaps some of these travel bloggers experienced some unfortunate events that were outliers, but my personal opinion is that is not the norm.
Adi and I can say from our experience today that Egypt is safe (honestly I’ve felt more uncomfortable in several places in the US than here). The culture is definitely filled with haggling and negotiation, but nothing that I would say crosses the line of “harassment” as many bloggers accused Egyptians of doing. In fact these blogs scared us so much, that we only booked two days here so we can see the pyramids and get out. And gosh how we hate ourselves for doing that now.
I honestly think you could spend a week in Cairo alone. The city IS HUGE. In the metropolitan area there are 20 million inhabitants. The streets are covered with people and cars anywhere you look. There are ancient buildings that look like a more rundown version of Chicago.
We started off the day by being awoken by the 4:56 am prayer that runs throughout the speakers all throughout the city. Who needs alarm clocks when religion has you covered?
Today we visited the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. There are three museums dedicated to ancient Egyptian history. This one holds the famous King Tut mask and has two mummies. The rest of the mummies are held at the Ancient Museum of Civilization. As a side note, there is a new museum that is being built where many of the artifacts will be moved. This museum, although “open”, has not yet opened up all their exhibits and much of it is still bare according to what we’ve heard from others. Nevertheless, the sort of history you see in these museums is really unparalleled. In the United States, it feels like all artifacts are behind 5 layers of security. In this museum, artifacts of quite literally thousands of years are mm away from you.
And oh my gosh the food.. today we had the famous “fast food” dish of Koshary which is essentially lentils with pasta and a spicy ( or non-spicy) tomato sauce. You should eat this at Koshary Abou Tarek ( a 5 story building that literally only serves this dish). This teaser of a food then had us go try Shawarma and a rice pudding cake at B.Laban. Every single dish “slapped” as the young folks say.
ALRIGHT GOOD NIGHT FOLKS!!!
Daia
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