Cairo, Egypt

Ahan Wa Sahlan! (Hello and Welcome)

I arrived safely in Cairo yesterday after a really long but friendly flight. I met a great group on their way to Sudan to film/photograph for a documentary and was seated next to a woman from the Bahamas and an Iranian man who ordered fish instead of chicken for the in-flight meal. The flight attendant told him she would give him chicken if their was left overs and when she came back later he told her "don't worry, I do not want it anymore", to which she replied"I worry, I worry very hard for this, I worry for you without chicken." And that was my first introduction to the hospitality of the Egyptian people.

I began my crush on Cairo the moment I stepped off the plane and took in the dusty, dry air. A taxi ride to the hotel showed a city that despite it's Pharaonic opulence was elegantly understated; long, wide, tree-lined streets with old and new buildings standing together with Mosques, palaces and parks sprinkled in. We are staying in an area called Zamalak - and east village type neighborhood on the banks of the Nile that is home to a bunch of impressive, compounded foreign embassies and a super groovy modern candlelit dinner club right on the water where we dined on Arabic food and smoked apple sheesha. Today we are headed for the Egyptian museum and the Grand Bazaar.