One of our best experiences was walking about 6 miles through the side streets of Cairo from the local market back to our hotel. We had no idea which way to go through the maze of side alleys except for the trusty iPhone compass!

The local streets in Cairo are like stepping back in time to a simpler life. No cell phones, no blaring advertisements, no WalMart. Children were fascinated by the camera, and begged us to take their photo.  Local people shop for fava beans, lamb, car parts, buy dress material, chat with friends all on foot. The occasional car or motorcycle has to contend with donkeys, goats and guys on bicycle. Check out the bread guy who didn’t drop a loaf!
Smoking shisha pipes is a major social activity, the equivalent of Starbucks in the US for getting together to chat with friends, except it was clearly only for men. In fact, we never saw a woman smoking in Egypt, ever.People did know a few words of English:  “What is your name?  Where are you from? Welcome to Egypt!”  Answers were met with big smiles and endless giggles from the children.  Hey, they know way more English than we do Arabic! We truly felt more welcomed here than in any other country we’ve visited.

You have to check out my first YouTube upload ever: a 14 second video that will impress you – all about ironing. We found this man in a small cubbyhole of a shop in Cairo. He heats up these old irons in a wood stove and then puts his foot on them for pressure to do truly impressive ironing. Don’t miss the first step, where he takes a drink of water and spits it on the pants!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogxjGL2kBuA

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