A Drive Down El-Arish Street on Friday Night (Video included)

El Arish Street, a quarter mile of chaos between Haram and Faisal Streets in Giza, is the site of Cairo's greatest clothing bargains. Not frequently visited by tourists, this is a great place to capture the essence of Cairo culture.  Shirts and sweaters start at about 2$.

 

 

As shoppers gather in the evening - especially on a Friday evening - you might think no one could drive a car down the street. Unless you are an Egyptian. Cairo's drivers are highly skilled and have no fear; our Uber driver plunged right into the crowd as did numerous others in cars, tuk-tuks and motorcycles. Enjoy the ride! And walkers, beware. Eyes in the back of your head would be useful here.

The drivers of Cairo are masters at multi-tasking; they thread their way through streets crowded with all manner of vehicles, mixed with pedestrians while simultaneously listening to the radio at high volume, talking on their mobile phone and honking the horn with great enthusiasm.  Occasional conversations with passing cars or street vendors may interrupt the other activities. El Arish Street is sensory overload to the max.

Presents for the Children

One of our first visits in the neighborhood every years is to our good friend, Samia, and her children.  We always bring along something special for the youngsters.  This year, Linda found a good treat for them: "Light Up Pop Pipes."

They are a bit like flexible soda straws, but 3/4 of an inch in diameter.  They are each loaded with a large number of tiny LED light bulbs controlled by a push-button switch that turns them on to blink fast, slow or glow steady.  They can easily be stretched and twisted.

Of course, Samia's building has several aunts and uncles on the floors above the main floor which means plenty of cousins too.  And the nearby buildings have plenty of friends.

Starting with just Samia's kids and one friend, we soon had ten children playing with the Pop Pipes.  I lost count after that but it is a good thing that there are 24 in a package - they were a big hit.

  

 

Inauguration Day in Cairo, 2025

We took another pleasant walk up Mariottia/Lebenny toward Pyramids Street this afternoon.

We had discovered a pet food store across the street from the old Siag Hotel on our first long walk through the neighborhood.  Our building cat, named Kitty Kat, is very happy with the Italian canned food that we found there so we returned for a few more cans.  The store's name is Champ Pet Store and it would be easy to miss unless you noticed the dog poster in the window.  

They have quite a selection of cat foods and we picked up four different flavors of the Kippy Pate on our first visit.  Kitty Kat liked them all.

 

Like many shops here, entry requires climbing several steep stairs without the benefit of any railing; we are fortunate there is never any ice on the steps!  

 

We visited a bit with the store owner, Mr. Abdl Rahman who is very friendly and speaks fluent English. 

In addition to the cat food, we picked up a package of dog treats for the neighborhood dogs that we frequently pass on our walks. There is one in particular that is friendly and seems to be a neighborhood favorite but we will give treats to any dog we meet. Treats for the "streets". Street dogs, that is.

Arriving back home about dinner time, we turned on the television to watch the Inauguration of President Trump. Inauguration day occurs a week or two after our arrival in Egypt every four years. We first watched an inauguration from Cairo in 2009, some sixteen years ago and posted an early blog entry about it.

My how the technology has changed! In 2009 we watched a fuzzy picture via a local Cairo over-the-air broadcast channel on a television with an actual picture tube. This year, we watched in high-definition via the Internet on a wide screen LCD television.

Both presidents from the 2009 ceremony have aged a bit. But then again, so have we.

 

For anyone who has read Hillbilly Elegy, it almost brought tears to the eyes to see his mother present at his inauguration as vice-president. His beginning couldn't be more humble.

 

And, I loved Melania's hat. 

 

 

UPDATE - Jan 26, 2025

Bonus Photo:

In 2017, we watched the inauguration ceremony in HDTV as broadcast on the BBC International channel via our satellite dish tuned to either the Arabsat or Eurosat.

Winter in Egypt, 2025 - New Shops in the Neighborhood

Much of our shopping happens within a half-mile or so of our apartment.  Numerous small markets, coffee shops, bakeries, and other shops line Mariottia and Lebeny streets which stretch north in parallel to the elevated section of the Ring Road just outside our building.  Another half mile walk along this route brings us to the brightly lit three-story building that is a branch of Al Tawheed & Al Noor, a well known department store featuring clothing, furniture, housewares and much, much more.

About three months ago, a competitor store, KOKO&S opened just across the street.  We saw it while passing by at night and noted the name in bright lights so decided to stop in the next time we were out for a walk in this direction.

KOKO&S appears to host a number of small retail shops around the outside perimeter in addition to their main display area.  We walked in and headed upstairs to the second floor where there is an extensive display of clothing, linens, towels etc.

You might notice that KOKO&S participates in President El Sisi's "We are all one initiative" to maintain low prices. 

The customer service seems greatly superior to Al Tawheed & Al Noor.

We were quickly approached by a helpful salesman, Aimon, who immediately recognized us as Americans and spoke excellent English. Aimon is from Sudan, Egypt's neighbor to the south.  If you were not aware of it, Sudan has been the site of a major civil war which has displaced about 8 million of its citizens and created 2 million refugees - needless to say, many of the refugees have ended up in Egypt.

Continuing farther up the street we came to a butcher shop (brightly lit in the center of the photo) that we had been told was a good source of fresh meat.  

Checking out the refrigerated case toward the rear of the shop, we found some good looking ground beef and Linda asked for one and a half kilograms - about 3 and 1/4 pounds.  The young butcher portioned it out and wrapped it for us with a pleasant smile as the older butcher at the cash register handled the money.  

  

There are quite a few choices on the meat menu although prices are all about the same, around 400 EGP per kilo, roughly  $4 per pound. The hamburger seemed like a safe choice.  (Sign translation by Google, which makes for some interesting names.)

  

We are looking forward to the beef since Linda describes our usual Egyptian diet as "Chicken, chicken and chicken. Followed by a meal of chicken."

Lunch at Zahrat Lebanon in the City Center Mall, Maadi

Saturday morning, we took an Uber to the City Center Mall in the upscale suburb of Maadi, across the Nile.  I was concerned that the Uber App on my phone might be confused by my acquisition of a new phone number this year and nine months of no use, but it remembered us and soon Solimon was on his way in a roomy white MG to pick us up in front of our building.  The price was forecast at 150 Egyptian pounds ( just over $3) and even with a very generous tip we would only total $5 for the nine mile trip.

Our final destination was the Carrefour hypermarket in the mall but with a planned stop for lunch at the very nice Lebanese restaurant, Zahrat. Unlike when in the U.S., our shopping in Cairo is a full day outing.

Along the Ring Road, en route to the mall, we immediately noticed the many large "Welcome to Giza" signs on the surrounding apartment buildings in several languages promoting the Grand Egyptian Museum. Something grand (perhaps the full opening?) must be happening soon. 

 

Zahrat took over the space previously occupied by Chili's in the mall. It is definitely a five-star location for middle-eastern food and we look forward to dining there every year.

Zahrat Lebnan has an extensive menu including breakfast items, sandwiches and full dinners.

  

Service began with water, lemonade and delicious Lebanese bread.  Linda ordered an appetizer of felafil with tahina.

I chose the mixed grill and Linda enjoyed kofta.

 In January, Carrefour always marks their anniversary in Egypt with a big sale - this year it is their 22nd.  We were surprised that there were not many electronic items on special; most of the anniversary specials were cookware.  We contributed only in a minor way by purchasing a single small Pyrex dish.

 

I did, however, buy a nice new maroon hoodie to replace the ratty gray one that I have worn here for several years.  It does look much better in pictures and Linda declared that I no longer look homeless. With the addition of the letter "M" in gold it could be a U of MN sweatshirt.

Return to Egypt, 2025

For our annual winter stay in Egypt this year, we had a new travel option.  Lufthansa has begun operating flights from Minneapolis via Frankfurt, Germany, in partnership with United Airlines.  This offered us a shorter overall trip with non-stop service to Frankfurt. We had a seven hour layover in Frankfurt versus the agonizing ten hour layover in Paris when making the trip on Delta and their partners.

We checked in at MSP at the newly constructed Lufthansa counters at the North end of the terminal.

 

Lufthansa operates Boeing 787-9 wide-body "Dreamliners" on this route.  Lufthansa/Boeing may have set a new record for minimum space allocated to each passenger.  Fortunately, our seat-mate in the three tiny chairs in row 21 was a quite small Egyptian man, Sham the Buckboard Chef (and Lakeville, MN, politician.) 

The Dreamliner had a good flight information system with detailed maps and it only took about fifteen minutes to get the thing working.  We took a very northerly route out of town, flying almost directly above I-35 to begin.  Total distance to Frankfurt is 4400 miles and about 8 1/4 hours flying time.

 

A few hours later, with only 900 miles to go, we were approaching Ireland.

Although we had to haul our carry-on bags up and down a couple of stairways, we did not have to go through security a second time - another advantage over the Delta Airlines/Paris route.  During our layover in Frankfurt, I cruised through the Relay shop in the airport (there are over 1100 of these in airports and train stations) and was surprised to see a large display of Jack Link's Jerky offered at special prices.

Our connecting flight to Cairo was about five hours in duration aboard a single-aisle Airbus 321 with a bit more seat space than the previous plane but no flight-information/movie screen at all.  Without a map, I was lost as Linda, with a window seat, observed the Alps through an occasional hole in the clouds, noted the lovely sunset and an attractive city that might have been in either Italy or Croatia as we approached the Mediterranean. We tried asking the flight attendant where we were but she could only speculate that we might be over Italy.

 

 

We had a tasty evening meal along the way although just what it consisted of is a bit of a mystery.

As usual, we didn't obtain our Egyptian visas in advance, since they can be purchased at a bank counter in the arrival hall at the Cairo airport.  This gave us a bit of a problem at the start of the trip in Minneapolis since Lufthansa ticket agents had a difficult time overriding their computer system which insisted on passengers having a visa before departure.  Passing through customs was an easy process and soon we were preparing to exit the terminal near the beautifully decorated Christmas tree in the lobby.

 

We were met at the airport by our ever-reliable friend, Roshdy, who had arranged for a car and driver to take us across town to our apartment.

Door to door, our total travel time was just about twenty-four hours.

It took another day before our building's cat, Kitty-Kat, found us and asked for food. Once her stomach was satisfied she made her way to her favorite chair.  We understand that she had been checking the door for our return in recent months.

 

Winter in Egypt, 2024 - A Visit to Minya, Part 7 - Return to Cairo

After another restful night at the Holy Family Hotel near Minya, we embarked on the three-hour return trip to Cairo.  This time, we took the modern highway that follows the west bank of the Nile (dark blue line.)

 

Once again, this is a modern freeway with three lanes in each direction and two more for truck traffic running parallel to it.

 

As we left the hotel turning northward, we passed by the large quarry area that produces the brilliant white limestone blocks that are seen in many rural area homes.  These are the modern versions of the talatat blocks that were quarried three thousand years ago from the same area to build Akhenaten's new capital city of Amarna.

 

  

 

Larger limestone blocks are finding their way to the "New Administrative Capital" under construction, thirty miles east of Cairo.

 

After crossing the Nile to the west side, we passed large stretches of agricultural land, including a nice looking vineyard.

  

 

 

Tomatoes were being shipped in trucks both large and small.

  

 

Garlic is usually only found moving by small truck. (Almost every Egyptian dinner meal includes a sauce with garlic and tomatoes)

 

And people also move by truck.

 

There are numerous houses of worship along the route, both churches and mosques.

 

 

 

For drivers on the road at prayer time, even small rest stops such as this one usually have a small mosque or a prayer area such as the one just to the left of the WC.

  

 

We soon passed the picturesque pyramid at Maidum which we had visited on a previous trip.

 

Reaching the Cairo administrative area, we paid another toll to finance the road construction.

 

The city continues to build apartments for its growing population and each year the building stretches further out.  Seeing the first glimpse of the pyramids on the Giza Plateau is always a welcome reminder that we are almost home.

  

 

Back at the apartment we were greeted by our building's cats who certainly missed us during the previous few days.  After quickly eating dinner, they joined me by the computer as I began loading the 1500 or so pictures from the trip.