Goodbye Cairo!

For our last day in Cairo we started with a stroll through Zamalek to the Aisha Fahmy Palace. The weather this day was amazing, with sunny bright blue skies. Along the way we came across the Zamalek Art Fair, features some craft vendors and what seemed like a battle of marching bands!

The Fahmy palace was recently renovated and reopened in 2017. It provides a window into the life of the aristocracy of Egypt in the early 1900s. It was built for King Farouk's army chief. The palace houses a museum with rotating exhibits and lavish interior design. We weren't able to snap many pics, since we weren't sure if we were even allowed to take photos, so you can visit this link for some good pics of the inside. It's an interesting stop if you're staying in Zamalek, but not worth going out of the way unless you're particularly interested in early 20th century houses. It does have nice (but small) grounds with a great view across the Nile.

There was a coke truck at the art fair!

The leafy streets of Zamalek.

Crafts for sale at the art fair.

View from the palace across the Nile.

Recently restored palace.

The exhibit in the basement was about the last kings of Egypt.

The main hall was impressive, with large stained glass windows.

From here we went to lunch at another restaurant we'd highly recommend called Zooba. This restaurant features upscale interpretations of Egyptian street food. We had some ful, taamiya, shawarma and koshari. Delicious! The space is really small, though, so try to come off hours for a spot to sit. We waited for about 15 minutes for a counter spot.

26th of July, one of the main business streets in Zamalek.

Fresh bread on the street.

Oranges for sale.

Lunch at zooba.

The koshary wasn't our favorite (go to Koshary Tahrir!) but all of the food was really good.

After a pit stop back at the AirBnB, we decided on a downtown walking tour starting from Midan Orabi, where we met Alex, and ending up near Tahrir Square. Paul and David had spent a couple days downtown in the beginning of our time in Egypt, but Thomas and Alex were both interested in seeing what it was like. There are several streets that are now pedestrian only, a welcome addition to downtown. A number of 19th century buildings have also been renovated and cleaned, especially on the main squares. After strolling for a while, we ended up at the Tahrir location of Le Poire, and Egyptian cafe chain. The place was packed and we were luckily able to find a table upstairs. The service here was really bad and due to its location and western appeal it was very overpriced. We'd recommend avoiding.

Dog on a car: downtown edition.

One of the new pedestrian streets, lined with restaurants and cafes.

Giant shawarmas!

Identical buildings, but the one on the left has been cleaned and renovated.

There are a couple of elaborate 19th century buildings in downtown.

If you're tired of dogs on cars, here's cats on scooters!

Beautifully restored Talat Harb square.

After our break at the cafe, we walked across the Kasr Al-Nile bridge towards the Cairo Tower to take in the sunset views of the city. The walk wasn't too bad, and we avoided the panic-inducing Tahrir traffic crossings by taking the metro tunnels under the roads. When we arrived at the tower we purchased tickets and queued up. The wait was much longer than we expected, since restaurant and tower visitors share the same elevator, with preference given to the restaurant patrons. It ended up taking around an hour to get up the elevator and enjoy the view. Luckily, we made it to the top about 10 minutes before sunset and the view was absolutely stunning!

Walking across the bridge to Zamalek.

The Cairo tower, built in 1961, is the tallest structure in Egypt.

The elevator lobby had some nice mosaics.

You can see the pyramids of Giza in the distance!

We arrived just in time for sunset.

The red pyramid and bent pyramid were also visible to the south.

Sunset through the Giza haze was beautiful.

Sunset Nile views.

View towards the citadel and the mosques of Mohammed Ali and Sultan Hassan.

The Ritz Carlton just across the Nile.

Great view of the skyscrapers lining the Nile, and the gardens of Zamalek.

Taking in the views!

Alex, Thomas, and David with the Nile.

Sunset was stunning.

Goodbye, sun!

As a fun side-note, there was a young (11? 12? -year old) Egyptian boy who seemed to be visiting the tower alone. He wasn't too interested in waiting in line and tried to cut people at every possible moment. Unfortunately, he'd met his match in Thomas and Alex, who were having none of his sneakiness and kept sending him to the back of the line. Nearby visitors thought the situation was hilarious and gave us thumbs up and thank yous. The kid looked a bit like Manny from the TV show Modern Family so the hour long wait up, and then the line back down, was mostly filled with conversation about how to thwart Manny.

Thomas and Paul, with Manny behind in a Tommy Hilfiger shirt. Nice try, Manny, no cuts!

From the tower we decided to have dinner in Doqqi, a relatively modern neighborhood just southwest of the Nile river across from Zamalek. A short Uber ride later and we were at Garbi (Greek for barbeque), a self-described Greek restaurant. The restaurant was modern and trendy, with lots of young people smoking shisha and eating. There were some large TVs showing a soccer game and a wall that was covered in ivy that people took pictures in front of throughout the evening. The interior design reminded us of some of the places we'd seen in Bogota more than anything in Cairo. The only odd thing about Garbi is that there was actually no Greek food here. The menu featured a mix of Egyptian and western food, similar to Crave, but better. David managed to find a beef gyro, but wouldn't actually call it a gyro when it arrived. That said, everything here was great and we'd recommend the place if you're in the neighborhood, or looking to visit a non-touristy area.

Oreo milkshake!

David and Alex with dessert.

After dinner we bid adieu to Alex and Ubered back to our AirBnB to pack and rest up before our flight. Our flight departed Cairo at 4:30am the next morning and Thomas's was at 3:45am so we slept just for a bit, and then shared a ride to the airport.

So ends our trip to Egypt. We had a great time. The many little annoyances of travel in Egypt don't outweigh the good things about this country and its people. Without doubt Cairo is the most chaotic place we've visited in our trips and it makes the other developing countries we've visited in Latin America and southern Africa seem much more put together. Paul's love for this place is easy to see, and with patience and understanding it's possible to have an excellent time here.

This also wraps up David's three week goodbye ARC tour. In a couple days he starts his new job with FHWA. Taking the time to make this long trip was valuable and even with the unpaid leave he's happy he made the effort to explore two new (Barcelona & Egypt) and one familiar (Athens) place.