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.
In truth, the Nile is highly polluted and if you drink from it, you'll get very sick. Nonetheless, potential travelers to Egypt should not be put off by the advisory not to drink the water (though drink the water they definitely should not).
The Egypt trip was one of those truly last-minute adventures. A friend called on Thursday afternoon, claiming to want to travel before starting a new job in a week and a half. Essentially, that meant that from the first talk of the trip to the time that we got on the bus from our city to Cairo, only about three days passed. We were on the bus by 10 AM on Sunday. It's a $15 trip, 14 hours across some of the most boring strip of desert that you can imagine. South-central Sinai isn't so interesting, it turns out and you pass none of the interesting landmarks such as St. Catherine's Monastery.
Nonetheless, apart from the dull trips back and forth, Egypt itself is an experience that I recommend to anyone with a healthy interest in history. Whether it's a visit to the Pyramids or the Egyptian Museum (or, ideally, both) or a slow evening smoking shisha (which is just flavored tobacco, nothing more) out on the Nile, Egypt is an incredibly fun place to visit.
On top of that, Cairo is one of the most modern, urban, and international cities that I have ever had the pleasure of visiting. Almost every American brand I remember from childhood is there - McDonalds, KFC, Gold's Gym, T.G.I Friday's, Chili's...if you can name it, it's probably there. This makes Cairo a very interesting cross between what one might call "traditional" and "modern." These, of course, are imperfect terms, but I use them for lack of more appropriate ones.
