Yesterday I returned to Cairo. Almost after a year from the end of the Cross Egypt
Challenge adventure, I decided to come back here to close this first year of
adventure travel."Alexandria Cairo: a year of adventures."Could be the title of a book about everything that happened over 12 months. So I came back.The trip, provided by Agência Paraíso, had Barcelona on the route, following then to the Egyptian capital.As it was a dwelling on the past, yesterday, waiting for me at the airport, were Drew and Michele. Kisses, hugs, tell the news and a bit of Portuguese history, the way to Lori and Joe home to stay in the coming days.This morning I woke up in hot and noisy Cairo; so much that looked like it had started a revolution at my bedroom window; only then I realized it was a high school and kids were playing.First day, first destination: downtown.Metro,
for one Egyptian pound, quickly come to Coptic Cairo to see something
wonderful: the same place, separated by a few meters, an Orthodox church
in honor of St. George, a synagogue, a Catholic cemetery and the Arabs
around, between the Babylon Fortress.The ecumenical dialogue understanding of centuries, present there in front of me, the sight of whom want to see.The church of St. George dates back to the X century and are
no buildings upon buildings, showing various features, since Roman times
the Masonic rites, telling the help of the Greek Patriarchate to
maintain its beauty.At the cemetery, as in our gardens, malls or cinemas, many dating couples. One way to hide the love, the passion, less complacent looks.Underneath all this, the bazaar of Cairo, with all kinds of
imaginable antiques, from camel bone pieces in silver, through artifacts in wood
and old photos.Across
the street, normal in these parts: people selling and buying everything
from chickens to vegetables, going through clothes, utensils, DVDs. Strange faces, smiling faces, distrustful guys; what they would do three Westerners there?!Under a scorching heat, we walked until beeing invited to enter an antique by the sympathetic George. George speaks 12 languages, he inherited his father's business and was happy for the birth of his daughter. So we drink tea with him and could buy without his profit (given the joy of the birth!), a cross on pearl. After a long conversation with the new father, we take the Metro and go down to Tahrir Square.There, the ruins of the Sheraton among towering Hilton, Ritz and Intercontinental are the only marks 2011.Speaking about Ritz, with the heat and fatigue to tighten, nothing like a beer and a Angus hamburger in the hotel bar. 42 euros!Left Ritz when the sun was going, like a Working Class Hero, poorer than we had arrived, caught the crowded Metro to home.Sometimes it doesn`t seem, but this is Africa and I love it!
