Cairo First Impressions
Okay, so I realize I'm terribly tardy in all of my reporting. I'd like to think that I'll post something insightful encompassing my entire Egypt experience, but in case that falls short, at the very least let's get up something about the overall itinerary.
Mom and I left Thursday afternoon (the fourth in a row that I had cut out early, to my chagrin) and took the train from Haifa to the airport. Everything went smoothly through our El Al flight and upon our arrival in Cairo. The tour agent met us at the airport with visas in hand, and we picked up our luggage without a hitch. There was some delay finding the driver, and then it took us over an hour to reach our hotel. It was the first of many daunting experiences with Cairo traffic. One might hope for some respite, given that we were traveling at about eleven p.m., but it was not to be. I enjoyed the drive through Heliopolis, and was proud to spot landmarks such as the Baron's Palace.
Mom was already beginning to come down with the cold that would linger persistently through the rest of her visit. In the first stages, she almost completely lost her voice, to her annoyance, as she was unable to take full advantage of our guides by asking questions. However, the silence did leave me some time to meditate on the Egyptian experience. The first thing that I noticed was the perspective about the 1973 war. If you asked an Israeli, you would typically get a semi-gracious reply that Egypt needed the war to recover face from the routings they had received in the previous two wars. You would get the impression that nobody had really won the war, and that Israel had generously withdrawn and returned the Sinai as a gesture of concession (having taken it in the 1967 war anyway).
The Egyptian attitude, in contrast, was one of complete victory. There was a conspicuous War Panorama, displaying the planes used, and housing a museum. Streets and cities were named for the October War, and there were signs for these everywhere. I admit that my sympathies tend toward the Israeli side anyway, and I am not exactly sure who really one, but especially if the Egyptians did, the display seemed almost unpardonably rude and tacky.
My second observation had to do with the (I would later discover specific to Cairo) tendency of "pimpin' my ride". Headlights, even at the hour of eleven p.m., seemed at best optional, and in some cases were replaced entirely by blue LEDs. There were LED displays in rear windshields, around license plates, and in other equally bizarre and distracting locations. I was somewhat dismayed that our driver also completely neglected to use headlights, except when riding the unfortunate in front of us, when he would flash them a bit. Admittedly the city was well equipped with streetlights, but from a Western perspective, headlights really are a must from dusk to dawn.
Our hotel was a masterpiece. It had been built originally as a greeting for a French princess, and had all of the opulent charm one would expect of such. It had also been recently, tastefully refurbished, and was lacking in no comfort, from the extraordinary detail of the wooden lattice and gold leaf in the lobby, to the view of one of the Great Pyramids from outside our balcony. The only shame was that we had little enough time to appreciate the accomodations, we were kept so busy.
Ha! I have gone ahead and included my observations about Cairo anyway, in spite of myself. Oh, well. I suppose I will post this as is and continue, in the hopes that you'll find smaller chunks somewhat more digestible.
Mom and I left Thursday afternoon (the fourth in a row that I had cut out early, to my chagrin) and took the train from Haifa to the airport. Everything went smoothly through our El Al flight and upon our arrival in Cairo. The tour agent met us at the airport with visas in hand, and we picked up our luggage without a hitch. There was some delay finding the driver, and then it took us over an hour to reach our hotel. It was the first of many daunting experiences with Cairo traffic. One might hope for some respite, given that we were traveling at about eleven p.m., but it was not to be. I enjoyed the drive through Heliopolis, and was proud to spot landmarks such as the Baron's Palace.
Mom was already beginning to come down with the cold that would linger persistently through the rest of her visit. In the first stages, she almost completely lost her voice, to her annoyance, as she was unable to take full advantage of our guides by asking questions. However, the silence did leave me some time to meditate on the Egyptian experience. The first thing that I noticed was the perspective about the 1973 war. If you asked an Israeli, you would typically get a semi-gracious reply that Egypt needed the war to recover face from the routings they had received in the previous two wars. You would get the impression that nobody had really won the war, and that Israel had generously withdrawn and returned the Sinai as a gesture of concession (having taken it in the 1967 war anyway).
The Egyptian attitude, in contrast, was one of complete victory. There was a conspicuous War Panorama, displaying the planes used, and housing a museum. Streets and cities were named for the October War, and there were signs for these everywhere. I admit that my sympathies tend toward the Israeli side anyway, and I am not exactly sure who really one, but especially if the Egyptians did, the display seemed almost unpardonably rude and tacky.
My second observation had to do with the (I would later discover specific to Cairo) tendency of "pimpin' my ride". Headlights, even at the hour of eleven p.m., seemed at best optional, and in some cases were replaced entirely by blue LEDs. There were LED displays in rear windshields, around license plates, and in other equally bizarre and distracting locations. I was somewhat dismayed that our driver also completely neglected to use headlights, except when riding the unfortunate in front of us, when he would flash them a bit. Admittedly the city was well equipped with streetlights, but from a Western perspective, headlights really are a must from dusk to dawn.
Our hotel was a masterpiece. It had been built originally as a greeting for a French princess, and had all of the opulent charm one would expect of such. It had also been recently, tastefully refurbished, and was lacking in no comfort, from the extraordinary detail of the wooden lattice and gold leaf in the lobby, to the view of one of the Great Pyramids from outside our balcony. The only shame was that we had little enough time to appreciate the accomodations, we were kept so busy.
Ha! I have gone ahead and included my observations about Cairo anyway, in spite of myself. Oh, well. I suppose I will post this as is and continue, in the hopes that you'll find smaller chunks somewhat more digestible.