Sorry for taking so long to update the blog - I am now in the Sahara Desert at the Bahariya Oasis, where the internet is easier to come by than in Cairo.  With a new era of blogging comes a new format.  I now plan to write my blog “on the hoof” in my moleskine diary and ten just type it up when I get to an internet cafe.  This is partially because with a third world internet connection, I don’t want to hang about, but it is mainly because I aspire to be like the hypothetical love child of Indiana Jones and Howard Carter.  And this hypothetical love child would carry a moleskine.



The drive to the hostel on the roads of Cairo was an experience in itself.  There was a constant sound of horns, the road markings appeared to be strictly decorative, there were no rear seatbelts and there was a variety of people and animals walking around the roads/highways.  However we arrived at our hostel (Hotel Meramees) in one piece and waited around for Tom to turn up before going out for a late night walk to the River Nile - an experience that was quite special, with it being probably the most famous river in the world.  We also had our first Egyptian meal at the grand cost of 57p each for a chicken sandwich.  Our hotel has a balcony over the street, so we sat up until the early hours. 

We left thoroughly impressed and met Tom before getting a taxi to the citadel - the 700 year old castle complex that used to be home to the rulers of Egypt.  The area is built on top of a hill with a wall around it and contains several mosques and museums along with epic views of the city.  There were however loads of touts and sellers and we received our first offer for Danni’s hand in marriage - in the form of 50 million camels.  So you won’t be hearing anything else of her, but we now have a lot of free transport which is nice.  The people of Cairo are very talkative - they always say hello and welcome to Cairo and only a small proportion actually then proceed to try and sell you stuff.  They seem genuinely warm and interested.  Next to the citadel is Al-Azhar Park, which used to be a landfill site, but was turned into the city’s only park (and green space).  It was very well laid out, with rivers, streams and gardens along with a well priced restaurant where apparently Cairo’s elite hang out.  We ate there - me and Tom were adventurous and tried the Lebanese chicken, only to find it was very…youghurty.  Having finalised our plans for the rest of the trip, the three of us (we didn’t actually trade Danni) went to the train and bus stations to get tickets for the rest of the trip.