First impressions of Cairo
By Unknown 4:53 p.m. Africa
"In a few minutes we'll be landing in Cairo". I listened carefully to the announcement short before arriving in the egyptian capital. From the seat in the aisle I could barely catch a glimpse of the city: The Nile flowing triumphantly through Africa's most populated city and the dust arising from the desert. These two were the first images I retained from a country that makes the headlines of newspapers for mostly negative information. All these images we get from the media have an important influence on us; I could tell it from the fact that the flight was half empty. Also on the back of my mind, I was thinking about the upcoming elections that the country would face, scheduled to be held only 3 weeks after I returned to Germany.
I always find it interesting to look at people and observe their behaviour: sitting next to me, an american girl who wouldn't let go of her passport, was practically shaking in her seat. A woman seated two rows in front of me, and who looked like a scholar, was reading a copy of Egypt's new Constitution.
"This will be, without a doubt, really interesting", I thought to myself.
It was my first time in Africa and my first time in an Arab country. To be honest, I was a little bit nervous the night before, and had only about 2 or 3 hours of sleep. I couldn't stop thinking about what the city and the people would be like...
After a four and a half hour flight from Frankfurt, all I wanted to do was stand up, stretch my legs and see the city. When we finally landed, it hit me: I was in Africa. As I approached migration, I knew I had to purchase my visa. Not knowing where I had to go, I stood in the line and when it was my turn, I asked where I could buy it. The other passengers of the flight gathered around a guy who was standing in front of a counter. I realized that's where I had to go. There was no line whatsoever, so I hurried to get my sticker, got my passport stamped and moved to baggage claim.
I finally saw the exit. The strikingly warm weather (35 degrees or so) was the first think I perceived. No use for the jacket I had on, I thought. After an initial rush, I stepped aside to wait for Ulises, my host in Egypt. He's a cousin of my mother's who I had never met before (Well, we must have surely met when I was still a little girl, but now I'm 20 years old) and who contacted me last year to greet her. We talked a couple of times on Facebook and he kindly invited me to visit him and his family.
Ten minutes passed and no sign of him. In the meantime, I turned down so many offers of taxi transport that I couldn't believe it. From a not so distant position, a group of men started waving and looking at me, so I placed myself behind a column. Finally, Ulises saluted me and my heart stopped racing.
My first drive through the city included a traffic jam like I had never seen before and a 101 guide to the suburb of Nasr City. Outside the car window, I saw the pyramid-shaped Unknown Soldier Memorial, whose construction was ordered by president Anwar Sadat and which is also the place where he was buried after he was killed during an attack in 1981.Tanks where stationed still at some streets, which gave me an image of the unrest in the country since the 2011 Revolution and 2012 overthrow of President Morsi.
Before we headed home, we stopped at Ulises's office in Zamalek. One of Cairo's best neighbourhoods and home to almost all foreign embassies, Zamalek is a luxury island in the Nile, with nice restaurantes and small supermarkets that even sell alcohol. The contrast to what I had just seen was shocking.
Overlooking the rooftops of Zamalek, I remembered a caption I had read in the news website Egyptian Streets. "This resonates something very beautiful. Even when we complain, we can always find beauty." The picture was a bird's eye view of Zamalek and the Nile. At that moment, I felt those words throbbing deep inside of me. I was about to discover the beauty of one of the world's most fascinating cities.
I always find it interesting to look at people and observe their behaviour: sitting next to me, an american girl who wouldn't let go of her passport, was practically shaking in her seat. A woman seated two rows in front of me, and who looked like a scholar, was reading a copy of Egypt's new Constitution.
"This will be, without a doubt, really interesting", I thought to myself.
It was my first time in Africa and my first time in an Arab country. To be honest, I was a little bit nervous the night before, and had only about 2 or 3 hours of sleep. I couldn't stop thinking about what the city and the people would be like...
After a four and a half hour flight from Frankfurt, all I wanted to do was stand up, stretch my legs and see the city. When we finally landed, it hit me: I was in Africa. As I approached migration, I knew I had to purchase my visa. Not knowing where I had to go, I stood in the line and when it was my turn, I asked where I could buy it. The other passengers of the flight gathered around a guy who was standing in front of a counter. I realized that's where I had to go. There was no line whatsoever, so I hurried to get my sticker, got my passport stamped and moved to baggage claim.
I finally saw the exit. The strikingly warm weather (35 degrees or so) was the first think I perceived. No use for the jacket I had on, I thought. After an initial rush, I stepped aside to wait for Ulises, my host in Egypt. He's a cousin of my mother's who I had never met before (Well, we must have surely met when I was still a little girl, but now I'm 20 years old) and who contacted me last year to greet her. We talked a couple of times on Facebook and he kindly invited me to visit him and his family.
Ten minutes passed and no sign of him. In the meantime, I turned down so many offers of taxi transport that I couldn't believe it. From a not so distant position, a group of men started waving and looking at me, so I placed myself behind a column. Finally, Ulises saluted me and my heart stopped racing.
My first drive through the city included a traffic jam like I had never seen before and a 101 guide to the suburb of Nasr City. Outside the car window, I saw the pyramid-shaped Unknown Soldier Memorial, whose construction was ordered by president Anwar Sadat and which is also the place where he was buried after he was killed during an attack in 1981.Tanks where stationed still at some streets, which gave me an image of the unrest in the country since the 2011 Revolution and 2012 overthrow of President Morsi.
Before we headed home, we stopped at Ulises's office in Zamalek. One of Cairo's best neighbourhoods and home to almost all foreign embassies, Zamalek is a luxury island in the Nile, with nice restaurantes and small supermarkets that even sell alcohol. The contrast to what I had just seen was shocking.
Overlooking the rooftops of Zamalek, I remembered a caption I had read in the news website Egyptian Streets. "This resonates something very beautiful. Even when we complain, we can always find beauty." The picture was a bird's eye view of Zamalek and the Nile. At that moment, I felt those words throbbing deep inside of me. I was about to discover the beauty of one of the world's most fascinating cities.
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| Sunday traffic jam in Nasr City |
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| A first drive through town |
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| The good thing about a traffic jam is, that it allows you to take pictures that otherwise you wouldn't have taken |
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| Museum of Islamic Art in Zamalek |
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| Overlooking the rooftops of Zamalek |
