Life in Cairo

I woke up the other day to Heidi, the only female hostel tennant who was sitting on the lounge in the reception area. Still half asleep, I sat next to her wiping the sleep from my eyes. She said: "You know what? .. You remind me of Jack from Titanic at the start of the movie when he wins a game of cards to board the ship to another part of the world... You don't have any plans or time limits, you just go out and have fun." Ever since she's just called me Jack.

True to her perception, on Thursday I decided to go to what the locals call "Old Cairo" with a cool Canadian guy (who I thought was twenty but turned out to be fourty) and a Mexican student both of whom I met the day before. This place was special for a couple of different reasons. First of all, the area is divided between Koptic Cairo (the Christian hood) and Islamic Cairo (where all the Muslims hang out). We went to Koptic Cairo first, where we stumbled across massive European style churches and a dominantly Christian crowd. Surprisingly, a large portion of the shop tennants here could speak Spanish. After we had a quick look at the market area, we were heading towards Islamic Cairo when one of the shop assistants asked the Canadian fella: "Hey do I know you?" He replied no, knowing about the local plots to get you in their shop. Then, with a rather witty response he came back with: "What about your mama?!" Luckily, the Canadian bloke had a light sense of humour.

After some time, we'd reached Islamic Cairo where everything from the architecture to the dress code had changed dramatically. Afternoon was approaching, so we had spontaneously decided that an Egyptian tea and some Shisha would go down nicely in a corner cafe overlooking one of the local mosques that was beginning to yellow in the dying light. Here, we somehow managed to strike up a conversation with this old man that was sitting inside enjoying his tea. After about 15 minutes, we had solved the world's problems, one of which included the West's perception of Muslims. I know that I for one learnt alot from this man and that if the whole world had the chance to share this, it would be a better place.

After we had contacted Obama, we headed out to check out the markets of the area. After strolling around a bit, we had noticed that the people out this way were indeed more genuine than the people that work around the touristy areas. Instead of "Hey where you from? You like my shop? Get out of here" it was "Hey where you from, you like my shop? Have a nice day sir". I found this particularly refreshing. The Egyptian people on the whole, are definitely a very friendly and hospitable race. It's just a matter of where you are and sometimes who you are.

During the time we'd spent in the markets, the other two blokes had bargained down some sachets of spices and even little souvenirs. They were looking at some other stuff when I ventured a bit further along to check out another shop. I stopped outside the shop for a quick squiz but when I turned around, I saw this cute little Egyptian kid with his hand approaching my pocket. Once he'd noticed I'd seen him, he quickly snapped his hand away and smiled like a 6 year old who'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

Overall, this was a very enlightening day. If every day on the road can be half similar to this one, god knows what sort of man will come back home.