Before we left for Cairo, I got in touch with a former client of mine who works at American University in Cairo.  She offered to have someone meet us at the airport, and especially since we didn’t have any Egypt guidebooks yet, we were excited for the help.

When we got in, though, there were a line of drivers holding signs for people they were waiting for, but none of them were for us.  I walked through the line 3-4 times, but alas, no one.  At a moment of desperation, I saw a sign for “Harvard Business School Alumni” and thought about faking it.

We stood in the insanely long lines through immigration, realizing we had no idea how much it cost to get to the city.  We finally got through and picked up our bags.  As we started slowly heading out the door like deer in headlights, we saw it finally: a sign welcoming us with my name.  Our driver, Nasser, had come through.

As Nasser drove us through the city, we were impressed by being back in a “Western” city again.  The skyscrapers, billboards, and freeways gave us culture shock.

We arrived at the budget hotel we had reserved online (Cleopatra Hotel) and were shocked to discover it was in a 14-story building, complete with a lobby and reception desk.  When we made it up to our room, overlooking the Egyptian museum complete with linens, towels, carpeted floors and a full bath, it finally started dawning on us how much we had grown accustomed to the simpler life in Africa.

We napped for a bit, then headed out planning to take in the views of the Nile.  Our first obstacle was trying to cross the street.  It was 8 lanes wide, and there was no sign of a traffic light.  An Egyptian spotted us and told us safety (and intimidation) came in numbers and had us join him to cross the street, which involved walking slowly in front of oncoming traffic and standing on the white lines as cars sped past you, in front and behind. (Lauren: I thought Vietnam was the most terrifying street crossing experience on earth. Not so. Cairo wins.) Once we got across, he waved goodbye and ran back across the street.  Suddenly we realized he had just helped us to help us — totally going out of his way — and had expected nothing in turn!

We managed to make it across a few more hairy intersections before getting on a bridge that crossed the Nile.  We spotted some boats on the other side that had restaurants and headed that way for dinner.

Despite the cold (coming from Africa, we were ready for cold) we got outside seats and ordered a “mixed grill” and some hummus.  The hummus alone was enough to fill us up, but we ooohhed and ahhed when the mixed grill came out.  Served on a small grill, complete with charcoal that was still cooking the meats, it included lamb, chicken and shish kebabs as well as onions, tomatoes and other vegetables.  We were in heaven. 

We grabbed a cab back to the Nile Hilton, just across from our hotel and where I had stayed the year before when I was working with the American University in Cairo.  We surveyed the drink and shisha (hookah) options and the views from the roof, but we decided it was all too expensive and we were getting too old and would rather have an early night.  So we headed back to the hotel and slept.

The next morning, we were consumed by an errand day (we still hadn’t managed to book our flight out of Egypt yet, although we needed to be in Italy in just over a week), but we didn’t miss the opportunity to eat chicken shwarma and to finally sample an apple flavored shisha. 

Our third morning in Cairo, we checked out of the hotel, hopeful that my former client would be back from a business trip.  She had offered us a spare room in her apartment, and we were excited to save some money and see what ex-pat life in Cairo was like.

We walked to the American University campus, but Nanci wasn’t there, so we headed out for some time on the internet.  We hadn’t gotten very far before we spotted a Pizza Hut.  I slowed down, just wanting to “check the prices” as Lauren and I oogled the stuffed crust pizza.  We looked at each other and finally broke down.  The medium stuffed crust was only US$4, so we both induldged in our first Pizza Hut pizza since college.

We finally met up with Nanci and made plans to head over to her apartment in Zamalek later that day.  In the meantime, we ran more errands, booking our train tickets down to Luxor and Aswan and back to Cairo.  We also spent a few minutes in the Khan e Khalili where we discovered that people loved Americans and hated Canadians because “Americans, they are good shoppers.  Canadians, they buy nothing!”  (Which was true, we bought nothing.)

That night, we basked in the glory of Nanci’s gorgeous apartment.  Coming from New York, any apartment with enough room to turn around in is impressive, but her place had high ceilings, amazing light and the bold-colored walls and white trim made it seem like a palace.  Nanci ordered in Lebanese food that blew away anything else we had eaten thus far in Egypt.  Our Lose-Weight-While-Seeing-The-World Diet was definitely on haitus.  We indulged that evening watching American TV (Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives) before resting up for our sprint across Egypt for the next few days.