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On the 10th of November my wife Hanaa and I started our trip to Egypt to attend the holidays after Ramadan and her brother's wedding.
The trip began with adventures. The plane to Hurghada was to depart at 11:10, so we went to Cheboksary by car and from there by train. It arrives at 6:49 while the train from Yoshkar-Ola arrives at 9:04. The way from the railway station to the airport Domodedovo takes about one hour, so we had little time.
The "Pyramids" hotel
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The main street in Hurghada.
Mosques are everywhere
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Donkeys are still popular
transportation in Egypt
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A typical house in old Hurghada
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The train arrived more than two hours LATE!
What to do? The taxi was waiting for us but shouldn't we just come back home? We prayed God and headed for the airport. We hoped only for a miracle and the miracle happened! Our plane was delayed for 6 hours! But it's better to loaf around the airport than to miss the flight and lose the cost of the plane tickets.
We arrived in Hurghada late at night and stayed at a very cheap hotel "Pyramids" in the center of Hurghada. The next day we planned to take a bus to Cairo where most of Hanaa's family lives. If we had flown directly to Cairo, it would have cost us $1000 more.
We took a very comfortable bus (Super Jet Company). Five hours in the desert and
you are in Cairo!
I slept most of time
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A typical building in this district
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There are many ugly buildings like this in Cairo
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View from the balcony. Washed clothes, garbage and satellite dishes are on the roof
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Cairo is a huge city. Some people say it has 15 millions, others say 20 or 25 millions. In any case it is very crowded, noisy and polluted. We rented a big apartment in a 14-floor building in the "Masr gadid" ("New Cairo") district.
Children and women bake corn in ashes here and there
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Fish restaurant. We chose 'burri' and 'pulti'
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The first lunch. Salad, sauce and bread are served to every order for free
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A woman looking out of her balcony
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Cairo is the stuff of sequin-spangled tales. As the Roman settlement of Babylon, as Al Qahira -'the victorious', and as Cairo, this city of calm mosques,
chaotic bazaars and colourful streets has been on every traveller's lust list. Whatever your fantasies may have conjured, Cairo won't disappoint. Whether
it's dusty streets in mad markets you've thought up, or slinky skyscrapers by shiny roads - you'll find they all mark space in this city of many faces,
including one that used to ask every wanderer a riddle.
Caroussel
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Children
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Children
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Coffee shop
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'What creature walks on four limbs in the morning, on two in the noon and on three in the evening'. Cairo has much to live up to: the legacy of Byzantium,
the wonder of the pyramids, and the mystery of the Nile, and it acquits itself with grace. By the way, in case the Sphinx asks, the answer is Man. As
toddlers will tell, Man walks on all fours in childhood, on his two legs in his prime, and with the aid of a stick in his old age.
Drums
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Girls
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Horse
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Juice shop
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Cairo can be divided into the old and new parts, with the old part being more than 1,000 years old, and some bits of this dating back to the time of the
Pharaohs. In the 19th century, under the influence of the then ruler Khedive Ismail and the British occupation of Cairo in 1891, Cairo was refashioned as a
European- style city. Today, Cairo is one of the world's most densely populated cities, with major commercial and residential activity in the new city. The
Nile River is the major source of water supply in Cairo.
Me and Children
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Park
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Entertainments
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Shoes
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Cairo feels warm-hot for most of the year, with temperatures ranging from 20 óC to 36 óC. The hottest months are July and August. A hot, dry, sand-laden
wind called the 'khamsin' blows between February and April - dive into a cool caf© when this happens. Being close to the desert, nights in March and April
can get chilly.
Shooting
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Shooting
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Sugar cane
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Sweets
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Hanaa & Maxim
E-mail: taha@yoshkar-ola.com
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