Leaving Cairo

My second day in Cairo was marked by the heat.

I spent an hour at the post office trying to send a little parcel: a few clothes I could not afford to carry around, clothes that were left by me in January in my trekking backpack which I was now taking with me. It was a frustrating hour but I stayed calm and smiled all the way. When I left the office I had not just survived but the parcel was on its way. And I could go someplace to calm down :-)

After a break in the shade and a cold drink in a quiet corner of the Nile Hilton garden (it's so good to know peaceful corners in busy, crazy places! ) I went over to the Egyptian Museum. I wanted to see again those treasures and save some energy. The museum was within walking distance from my hostel, very close actually. I did not feel like walking across the city in this heat although I would have loved to see the old Islamic part of the city again with its superb mosques.
In the museum it was very crowded as usual and I had to sit down a few times and rest. The heat was unbearable. Unlike the first time I did not even try to look at the things that were not of major significance. I focused on Tutankhamun's treasures and the Old Kingdom, Ashkenathen and the beautifully painted Roman mummy masks which I liked so much the first time.

When I left the museum I felt exhausted and went back to the shady garden for a break. After a coffee and an orange juice and some reading I left for a walk along the Nile. Eventually I crossed over to Zamalek, the high end residential area and wandered on its streets. I found the lovely "Diwan" bookstore and spent some time there. When I left the bookstore I had 2 new books to read: a novel written by a Palestinian writer and a collection of Arabian short stories.

I forgot to mention: it is Ramadan time and so during the day Islamists fast between 4am and 6pm. It is a very interesting time to be here. The prayers are much longer than usual and their chanting fills the air mornings and evenings in a wonderful way. I do enjoy that very much, and I often pause to listen whereever I am and whatever I'm doing. In the evening the side streets are lined up with tables where poor people and actually anybody can eat for free. It is a very interesting sight. When I left the bookstore the prayer was echoing across the city and people were eating at the tables under the bridge and along the Nile. The sun had set and the dusk was taking over. I missed my camera realizing that it was the first time that I did not carry it with me. Both days in Cairo I just left it behind at the hostel. The heat was getting at me.

I strolled back on the bridge across the Nile and stopped again in the quiet garden to read until the darkness took over completely. Because of the heat I had drunk all day a lot but I had not been able to eat anything. Now I thought that maybe an ice-cream was appropriate and so I walked back to town and ate an icecream. I had dreamed about eating all those things I liked in Cairo: fuul at Felfella, tabbouleh at Nagib Machfouz's cafe, ice cream at my favorite parlour, etc. But I did not manage to enjoy any of those. It was simply too hot and the time too short. I was feeling sad and already nostalgic for Cairo.


The following day I got on the bus to St Katherine, the old Christian monastery in Sinai at the feet of Mt. Sinai, a place of pilgrimage and historic significance.

The bus left Cairo at 11 am. As soon as we left behind the last suburbs of Cairo we entered the desert. A flat, dead, ugly desert. It simply had no appeal. And the settlements looked desolate with shabby worn down buildings, no colours and no greenery. I fell asleep soon.

It was only after about 6.5 hours on the bus that the scenery changed. At first we had the sea on the right as we reached and passed Suez but then it all changed dramatically into the unique spectacular landscape Sinai has. The sun was setting just about this time and we had less than 1 hour of enjoying the views of the barren red ridges and mountains: wrinkled, broken and tormented. Layers upon layers of these.

It was close to 8pm when we arrived in St Katherine which had an impressive display of street lights considering the size of the place. In the dark I found my way to the El Malga Camp and was happy about the nice welcome. There did not seem to be anybody else there except for me. I took a much needed shower. It had been hot and sticky in the bus without the air conditioning working.

I had a bed in a dormitory - dormitory which I did not share with anybody throughout my 3 days there - but the air was so pleasant and the sky was so gorgeous with an almost full rising moon that I stayed outside in the bedouin tent. It was very comfortable to lay there on the carpets and cushions to read, eat or sleep. I read a bit and then decided to sleep there in spite of the mosquitos. Oh, yes, the mosquitos. I had completely forgotten about them but now they were simply feeding on me. I decided to ignore them the best I could.

It was too wonderful to fall asleep gazing at the stars to waste my energy on mosquitos.