Eternal Egypt

Every September, my mother and I travel together for her birthday. I am blessed with a wonderful and loving woman as a mother, and I always look forward to spending time with her. That we discover a new location together once a year is a very special treat.

 

This year, as you already know from the title of this post, we went to Egypt, more specifically to Cairo. Separately, we had both visited the upper part of the country years ago but had missed the capital.

 

As I was pondering on what to write on this post, realising it could easily turn into an essay with all that we experienced and learned, I decided to skip the history part and focus on the vibes and photos. Should you wish to know more about Cairo and more than 4000 years of history and religions in Egypt, Google will be prompt to help as well as Wikipedia.

 

And now, here is my brief narrative, along with lots of pictures – all without filters!

 

One of the joys of this trip was simply to walk around in the old part of town with Mum, hopping in and out the various museums, buildings, mosques and open air museum-streets we came across.

 

I will not lie to you… We did get lost at times. And the local map on the wall was not of any help to us.

 

We did not mind. The immersion enabled us to meet friendly Egyptians who took us to side streets and on mosque’s roofs, giving us a different view of Cairo and confirming the reputation of the population being a welcoming bunch .

 

 

And yes, I know what you are thinking: are we nuts? What about the dangers of Egypt? Two women travelling alone? You are right, though this may apply anywhere in the world. We did try to be cautious, but my mother is fearless (I so hope that the saying is true, ‘like mother, like daughter’!). Still, fearless does not mean we should be careless or clueless: for most of the trip, we did enroll the help of a local guide.

 

Having a local guide by our side was a good call, as he enabled us to visit places we would not have grasped the importance otherwise, or not as much: Saqqarah, Dahshour, the Bent Pyramid… Moreover, we were spared the crowd of tourists that usually swarm around the wonders of the world. It felt like a dream.

 

 

We even had a lunch with a gobsmacking view (below) thanks to his local contacts (sorry it is a bit blurry – as mentioned above, you are getting the pictures as I took them, and I was in awe)

 

As you must have noticed by now, we were in ideal conditions to discover these historical landmarks: it was as if we had a private visit in each location with hardly another tourist in sight. Ideal for us,  but not ideal for the economy of Egypt. After concerns that the flow of tourists was becoming unmanageable around the pyramids before 2011, there isn’t enough now. To anyone hesitating to go, don’t: just book a flight and immerse yourself in the Egyptian world. It is worth it. Nowhere is truly fully safe anymore anyway. They need support. Without it, the dangers will only get more real. And then, we too would suffer from it wherever we are. Nothing is fully truly local anymore. We are a global village, remember?

 

 

Well, if on one side of the pyramids there wasn’t many people, on the other side, Cairo lay beneath in all its immensity. With more than 20 million inhabitants, it was also quite imposing. Not that the camel we met seemed to care (no, we did not ride any, but this one seemed to enjoy my company). As to the Sphinx, he too remained stoic.

 

 

 

Back on the road to Cairo, passing palm trees and mango trees on the way, we stopped and bought fresh mangoes warm from the sun. It was divine!

 

Cairo still reserved many more surprises for us. The fine work and details on stone and woods, both inside and outside the mosques, are worthy of unlimited praises, whether they date from the 13th, the 19th century or anytime in between.

 

 

Such admirable craftsmanship and skills are everywhere you look in the old town. The Coptic churches, a religion also omnipresent in Cairo even though representing a small minority of the population now, display equal man-made beauties.

 

 

We loved Egypt! It was breathtaking to see, mind blowing in history, and rich in encounters.

Once again, this travel fed plenty of thoughts on the knowledge to be gained by observing other cultures and civilisation, and opened many doors on what we could – and should – learn from them.

 

Thank you for reading,

Virginie