Cairo, Egypt

A few days ago I returned from a 4 day long Egypt excursion. Ali and I took the long route to Cairo which entails catching a bus from Amman to Aqaba then a ferry (at 1 in the morning) from Aqaba to Nuweiba (Sinai Peninsula). We decided to go to Dahab (another Sinai beach town) for a night and then traveled on to Cairo by bus.

I was actually really impressed by Aqaba but maybe that's just because I was able to sit by the ocean. The beach was quite lively late into the night, with shabab and families lounging on the sand. The city was warm and breezy and I appreciated the more modern design of the streets and sidewalks. While sitting on the beach, a little boy came up to me holding a very small infant (probably the cutest baby I've seen in my life). He hands it to me and, confused, I shyly accepted the gift. I look around me to see who's abandoning their small child to a foreigner and spot a group of veiled women sitting several feet away from me. They are smiling at me and nodding as if to say "go ahead, get some practice in, you're bound to have one of your own in no time".

Dahab was a nice vacation area but at the same time had the creepy feel of being solely a tourist spot. The town was small and consisted of shore-side restaurants (all complete with a bedouin-style lounges where we ate a ten accompanied by ten or more cats) and souvenir stands. When we walked outside of the town it was soon apparent that it was only uninhabited desert.

Cairo was great, although I know most would disagree with me who have been there. Most say it's too crowded and too smelly. However, the crowded streets didn't bother me at all (they're no worse than Manhattan) and I thought it smelled ten time better in Cairo than in Amman. Amman never cease to smell like pollution and car exhaust whereas Cairo had beautiful, fragrant trees and flowers that overpowered any other smell. The only complaint I would have about Cairo is the heat in the summer, at one point it was 120 degrees farenheit. But other than that, the Egyptians are more welcoming to foreigners practicing their Arabic and I could tell it would be easier to learn the language there than in Amman.

We met up with my friend Ellie from college and her boyfriend/her boyfriend's brother and toured around with them most of the time, doing the standard touristy things like riding camels around the Great Pyramids and visiting Saqqara. We also traveled a lot in Cairo, visiting Islamic Cairo and various neighborhoods where we would sample whatever restaurants our guide book recommended.