Nile Nights

On the last night that we were in Egypt, my traveling companion and I experienced one of the nicest nights of the entire 5-day trip. We were originally concerned about the weather - I had heard from a friend who had been in Cairo not long before that the weather was going to be brutal; it is, after all, June, and we were, after all, further into the Middle Eastern deserts than where we normally live.

However, we got quite lucky. The days were no hotter than we expected, and at night there was a pleasant breeze off of the Nile which made the entire night perfectly comfortable.

And now to the point: on that last night, my friend and I decided to go for dinner at TGI Friday's (yes, they have TGI Friday's and we were extremely careful the entire time about what we ate). TGI Friday's in Cairo is a restaurant on a mock large boat that sits on the edge of the river next to all of the various tour boats and cruise boats that take people out for one-hour or two-hour trips.The restaurant also has a terrace which is outside on a deck-type thing, right on the riverbank.

We got there probably around 8 or maybe 8:30 PM. As I mentioned previously, the nights at the time were quite breezy and comfortable and we elected to sit outside on the terrace. When we got there - after a few minutes' walk along the Nile from our hotel - I noticed that peope were also smoking shisha (again, this is just flavored tobacco, nothing worse). I asked how much a narghila was, and was told a decent price, considering, so I asked for one. And we spent the rest of the night - until 11 PM - enjoying the atmosphere and the river.