4. Cairo: Museums and Driving. 12/19/22

Happy Monday and Happy Hanukah–

Yet another busy day. Decided to just have breakfasts here at Le Riad de Charme. This way we don’t lose a lot of time trying to find breakfast joints and the Riad breakfasts are quite good. Tried the “continental” today: scrambled eggs, Egyptian version of croissants, fruit platter, jams, yogurt, some kind of spreadable cheese with cranberries, and juice— so we were good. Then again, the hotel needed to deal with our charge card and again they had to go outside to get good reception to use their charge machine. Second world interacting with first world.

By now we are quite expert at getting outside the Gamaleya to find taxis, so off we went. Got into a pretty beat up one today and once we were in the taxi, we realized the windshield was pretty cracked. But we were only going about two miles, so figured it was fine. The 2 miles took about 30 minutes due to traffic; would have walked if we had realized this. Figured we’d get there faster in taxi but that was probably not correct. Still, it’s amazing to be a passenger as the cars move around like bumper cars in an amusement park. We headed first to Tahrir Square, also known as “Martyr Square,” which has been the location and focus for political demonstrations in the city for decades. The 2011 Revolution as well as the resignation of President Mubarak took place at the Square, which is really more like a traffic circle. 

As I noted in yesterday’s piece, today was to be our “museum day,” so we strolled (in the terribly polluted air) from Tahrir Square to the Egyptian Museum (often called the Cairo Museum). It’s the oldest and largest archaeological museum in the Middle East and has the largest collection of Pharaonic antiquities in the world. The building is about 120 years-old. But come 2023, a new museum called the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) will open in Giza (not too far from the pyramids) and it will be much larger than this museum. We actually saw the new museum yesterday from the taxi, but it won’t open for a few months, and in reality, I think the opening date may be unknown; the project has been going on for years with many different anticipated opening dates (over many years). It does however look fairly close to complete.

From there, we took another taxi (city taxi, this time without a broken or cracked windshield) to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, a new museum situated in the ancient district of Al Fustat. It’s interesting architecturally and also in terms of exhibit design which is fairly interactive and gives a layman’s overview of Egyptian history and civilization. It also now houses the “royal mummies” that were previously exhibited at the Egyptian Museum we had just visited. The NMEC is bright with soaring spaces and many fun ways to understand the history of this complex country. 

Mike and I had arranged to meet at the gift shop so that we could go our separate ways inside the museum. I got there first and was sitting on a bench when two women in full burkas sat on the bench with me. They had a young child. I surmised that either one of the women was the sister or was a nanny for the 18-month-old who was being a bit fussy. I smiled at the little girl who was hiding behind her mother’s deep black burka. The kid responded and then the women talked with me. A first for me to talk to someone in a full burka. Turns out they (and the husband who joined them soon after) are from Yemen. Their English was not very good, but we could communicate in simple sentences. I then took pictures of the kid and they took pictures of me! The women did not want to be photographed.

Mike and I left the museum and got into yet another city taxi. This guy should get a medal. As he wove in and out of traffic and between cars with just 6 inches to spare, we noticed that he was driving stick shift, while all the way talking on his phone (which he held in his hand; no one has GPS or Bluetooth for their phones) and also holding Mike’s phone to ensure he was headed in the right direction. Additionally, he talks a lot with his hands. So, I’d say his hands were barely ever on the steering wheel.. We made it alive to the walls of the city and headed to the Riad, exploring yet another way to get to our hotel from outside the walls.

Tonight we caught a cab to have dinner at Taboula, a Lebanese restaurant. Abdul, our taxi driver, was very friendly and chatty. He knew no English, but I think we understood one another. He got us to the little restaurant we wanted to try (Taboula) based on our GPS directions and once we got there was smart enough to ask how long we’d be… so that he can come back to take us “home.”

Food at Taboula was really good and we lingered for dessert. Together we agreed, Abdul should come back to pick us up. He came about 90 minutes later and all was well. More tomorrow.

That’s it for me..

Fer n