Ch Ch Ch Changes

Well, I decided to change the colors around a bit here.
Not sure if I'm happy with it or not. Please feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you think.


We went to Carrefour yesterday afternoon. It was about a half hour drive to get there, and that was with very light traffic. I imagine if traffic was heavy it could be 45 minutes to an hour. This particular branch was located in the area called Maadi. This was the first time I had been in this area of Cairo. I really couldn't see much except for the housing along the freeway, though we did pass over the nile and had a view of downtown, which I'll post a picture of.

The store itself, if I remember correctly, is 50k square meters. I'm not sure how many feet that is, but it was pretty HUGE. Maybe something like the size of a Costco (though I'm thinking bigger even?). Definitely bigger than the average Safeway or Raley's.
Also, it was totally packed!
Not only was it packed, but it had that kind of frenzy you get when grocery shopping on a day like the day before Thanksgiving.
I'm not sure why it was like that, but the other large grocery we went to was the same.
Perhaps adding to the whole thing was that it seemed to be a destination for whole families, so there were many many kids around as well.

We made a pass through almost half of the store before heading to the food court that was outside of the grocery, but inside the mall where the grocery was at.
The food court had McDonalds, KFC, Hardee's (like Carls Jr), Pizza Hut, some place with Chinese food and another that had some other kind of Middle Eastern food.
We ordered from Pizza Hut and took a seat to wait while the food was prepared.

The food court was pretty large, and there was hardly an empty seat to be found.
Perfect for people watching, which I love to do.
And full of kids, which is fun, because kids don't think about people watching what they're doing, they just do whatever they think of.

There was a pretty wide range of people there actually. Some women not wearing any head covering, some wearing complete head covering (including face and eyes), girls wearing tight jeans, some wearing loose robe like coverings, a few very small babies, not so many dads, lots of teenagers, almost all of whom wore tight jeans and tight t-shirts (the girls and the boys). I saw a pregnant lady wearing overalls. That was kinda cute.

After getting our food and eating, we headed back to the grocery and made the complete circuit. It took something less than an hour, maybe 45 minutes or a bit longer by the time we got out.

Carrots here are shaped kinda funny. I mean they have the general carrot shape, but I'm used to carrots that are longer and more uniform in diameter, and the carrots here are rather short and stumpy, and VERY large at the top compared to how thin they are at the end.
In general, the fruits and veggies aren't as nice looking as the stuff you get at Raley's or Safeway, and I assume it's because it's coming straight off the farm, no processing or washing or culling or whatever. I could be wrong, I'm just guessing.

We also made a stop in the mall at the Body Shop, which is a store selling scented lotions, soaps, etc.
We actually went in there before we got to the grocery.
I ended up getting two soaps for a ridiculous sum of money. I'm sure it's cheaper at the stores in the States, and that it's probably just more expensive here because of importing.
But, once I said I liked the soaps, hubby insisted on buying them for me.
I found a spray that I liked as well, but it was 100 pounds (roughly 20 bucks) and I just couldn't see spending the money on it (at least not Egyptian pounds), though it really was quite nice.
If we go back, maybe I'll charge it or something.

I was a little frustrated at trying to take pictures. Of course, it's not so easy to do from a moving car to begin with, and I take a lot of shots to end up with a few that I think are decent, but somehow, the driver yesterday was stopping either just short of or just after the shots I was wanting to get and I missed so many that I wanted.
But, insha'Allah, I'll have plenty of opportunities for picture taking.

First picture up was taken on our way back. We had stopped the cab because hubby was trying to get an empty bag from a little street market.
This guy was just totally zoned out on his chair. Apparently, not a care in the world.



Also on the way back, there was an old woman who was hunched over and slowly making her way to whatever her destination was. No clue as to her age, but old.



I got this shot on our way there.
There are many street vendors who have carts loaded with something like pumpkin seeds. The seeds are called leb asmar in Arabic. There is also leb abiad which are like the same except black in color.



I took this one very close to the mall/grocery. There is a lot of construction going on in the area. This actually turned out much nicer than I had been planning. Many of the shots I take are hasty and I'm never sure what's going to get in the frame since the car is usually moving.
This picture actually makes me feel kind of depressed, but I'm not sure why. There's just something that seems sad about it.



Last is a view of Maadi from the bridge on the Nile.
I wish the railing wasn't there but you know what they say about wishing. lol
It's a nice view of the city skyline though.



As a reminder, if you click on any image, you will be taken to a larger version.

Midnight and time for dinner.
Wishing you all well.
=)