As an aside, there's an awesome thunder/lightning storm going on now. It's not exactly right where we are but we can hear the thunder and see the lightning lighting up the sky. MashAllah!
I love to watch them.
So tonight we went for a walk. I thought we were just going to walk down to the Nile and Ahmed said that it was just 5 minutes from our apartment.
Well, he was right, the Nile is just 5 minutes away. But we didn't stop when we got there.
We were walking across the first half of the bridge (there's an island in the middle of the bridge where we were crossing), and it actually started sprinkling. I don't know why but I found it so funny that it would rain while I was here. I know it doesn't rain here all that often.
Anyways, after we crossed the first half of the bridge we walked around the Opera House and then on to cross the other side of the bridge to get to the other side of the Nile.
The bridge is sooo crowded full of people walking. We stopped for just a minute to look out at the water. It was pretty windy out and the water was rippling quite a bit.
After crossing the whole bridge, I was pretty tired because we had been walking pretty fast ever since we had left our apartment. We ended up at Tahrir square and found a small cafe in a mall nearby. The mall used to be just clothes and shoes but I guess there are many stores there now for computer accessories. The cafe we went to was called something like... Cafe de Paris or Cafe de Rose or something like that. We just sat for about 10 minutes and I rested.
After we left the cafe we were basically downtown so we just walked around downtown for a while and I tried my best to visually take in all that I could. There's just so much to see. Part of me wanted to window shop and part of me wanted to watch the people and in addition to all that, wherever you happen to be walking, you need to keep at least half an eye on the ground because the pavement isn't even and there are often holes or other things that could trip you up.
I was really surprised by the number of clothing stores, but I guess in a city with so many millions of people, you need more than just a few stores.
Eeek, the storm is getting closer. I can't see the lightning in this room but the thunder is getting louder every time it booms.
So, anyways, we were on talaat Harb (I think that's how it's spelled) and walked around on some other streets that I had heard the names of before.
It's so strange to have read about a place for so long and then finally be there.
It almost doesn't seem real. Or maybe I feel I've known about it so long that it's just anti-climatic to be here walking around.
But not really right?
I mean... this is Cairo!
:D
After walking around a bit downtown we ended up catching a taxi back to our apartment.
I will soon make a post about driving and taxi's in Cairo. It's a big subject and I won't be able to cover it all and I don't know everything there is to know, but it's a subject that interesting, at least coming from outside the area.
I guess that's it. Insha'Allah we'll head to the pyramids in the morning unless it's too windy, and then perhaps we'll go to the khan instead? Not sure. Tomorrow will tell.
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