Flying into Cairo we flew over miles of buildings clustered around the Nile. Each time I saw such a cluster I assumed we were now coming over Cairo proper, only to have the buildings be replaced by cropland for a few hundred yards, then return. Apparently there is no such thing as undeveloped riverfront. Finally we flew over the pyramids at Giza (which are not quite as isolated as I thought they were - Cairo is growing around them, and there is a wall of buildings beginning maybe 100 feet from them), and I knew I had arrived. For some reason I failed to take a picture of them flying in (we were descending quite rapidly at the time, so probably I wasn't supposed to be taking pictures anyway), but here's a satellite image to give you some idea of what I'm talking about.
The pyramids are circled if you had any doubts.
The ride from the airport to the dorm was illuminating. Most of the streets in Cairo were originally designed to have five lanes of traffic. Two of these are permanently occupied by parked or broken-down cars, leaving three lanes for active traffic. This doesn't really bother anyone, as they still manage to fit five lanes' worth of traffic in. If Egypt is in other another war it's set: give everyone with a car a gun and set them loose - they are utterly without fear of death. There is a constant shuffle of cars weaving around each other, usually with about 4-6 inches of space between in any direction. I have yet to see an accidental collision, and I'm convinced that their system might actually function more efficiently than ours if cars didn't break down quite so often - at any given time one or two cars are breaking down and being pushed to the side of the road to join others. Traffic, of course, doesn't stop for this. I remember learning a few years ago that Muslims had a specific prayer for boarding a means of conveyance or beginning a journey. Now I understand why.
Upon arriving at the dorm I got a room that's actually significantly better than my room at UNC. There are three of us in a room that's about three times the size of my room in Cobb.
The pyramids are circled if you had any doubts.
The ride from the airport to the dorm was illuminating. Most of the streets in Cairo were originally designed to have five lanes of traffic. Two of these are permanently occupied by parked or broken-down cars, leaving three lanes for active traffic. This doesn't really bother anyone, as they still manage to fit five lanes' worth of traffic in. If Egypt is in other another war it's set: give everyone with a car a gun and set them loose - they are utterly without fear of death. There is a constant shuffle of cars weaving around each other, usually with about 4-6 inches of space between in any direction. I have yet to see an accidental collision, and I'm convinced that their system might actually function more efficiently than ours if cars didn't break down quite so often - at any given time one or two cars are breaking down and being pushed to the side of the road to join others. Traffic, of course, doesn't stop for this. I remember learning a few years ago that Muslims had a specific prayer for boarding a means of conveyance or beginning a journey. Now I understand why.
Upon arriving at the dorm I got a room that's actually significantly better than my room at UNC. There are three of us in a room that's about three times the size of my room in Cobb.
The room is so big my camera couldn't capture it all. This should give you some idea, though.
The dorm had organized a felucca (small sailboat with a lateen sail) ride that evening, for which I had arrived just in time. We got in a van (riding around is even more exciting when the driver's vehicle has more mass than anyone else's and the driver knows it) and headed down to the Nile. Low bridges prevent feluccas from travelling too far up or down the river, but we wandered around for half an hour or so before returning.
2 comments:
I spotted those pyramids instantly. Does look like a sprawling metro area. Surprised to see real skyscrapers in the background of your Nile River cruise.
Is it okayif we tell others about your blog? Like Uncle Michael, Aunt Kathleen, and others within the family?
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