Cairo- Day 1

After a nice "American style" breakfast at Rick's Country Kitchen with the McCarthy's, we were off to the airport. We arrived a little late (by conventional travel standards) but we made it just in time for the flight. There was a bit of confusion as to what a monopod was and what it was used for but it also made the flight.
I slept through most of the time in the air (Carrie captured my disgraceful open mouth sleeping on FlipCam... of course). When I did wake up, I had the pleasure of watching Jumaji. What a great film.
A little over 3 hours and we landed in Cairo.
CAIRO!!!!
We got a cab driver who doubled as a tour guide and explained nearly every building we passed (even though we know he was mainly just reading signs and acting like he knew what the significance of each was... still delightful). He also introduced us to Egyptian National Music, which is car horns blaring.
No joke.... INSANE drivers and a lack of traffic laws.
He told us that the first law of driving in Cairo is, there are no laws.
He wasn't kidding. Whole families piled on to motorcycles weaving in between cars. Men on horses riding while texting. People dashing through traffic on foot. I've seen it all.

A 30 minute ride later, we were at our hotel: The Carlton.
In basic terms, it is a mix between the hotel from The Shining and a brothel in the middle of a war zone..... but it's exactly what I had hoped. Real shit.
It cost $200 for the full week. The bed is basically a wood plank with a sheet draped on the top. The bathroom has a Being John Malcovich sized door.
Carrie and I are next door to each other while Lauren is at the end of the hallway in "The Directors Suite". Lush pad for sure with giant windows that open up onto a wrap around balcony.
What can I say, DP's always get the short end of the stick hahaha

After settling in, we headed up to the roof garden for some wine and beer. The night air was beautiful. The temperature was around 70 degrees and the wind was blowing lightly. (well lightly enough to blow over a glass of wine haha)
Then we headed downstairs to the "restaurant" for a complimentary fried fish dinner with 2 gay old German men. One chatted us up about the areas he has visited and different suggestions on the metro system. He looked like a cross between Truman Capote and Don Rickles.

After dinner we took a cab to Khan El Khalili.
Lauren described it as "20 times as big as Souk Waqif, 50 times as crowded, and 100 times as real". Although it was quite a hilarious math equation.... she was right.
Every vendor let me know how lucky I was to have 2 wives/girlfriends and tried to bargain with me to trade them for camels. Pretty tempting but I don't think they had enough camels to take my little princesses from me.
It didn't take long to realize that everyone in Cairo is a hustler. They are all peddling their useless shit and want to make sure you get a good look at it.
We sat down for some sheesha and we were approached by about 100 people trying to sell watches, wallets, henna tattoos, visors with sunglasses that flipped down, child toys, dresses, and rugs.
Of course I couldn't resist buying a rug made of 65 rabbit skins/furs. A fucking bargain.... 200 Egyptian Pounds = $36.66 USD.
What do I need a rabbit skin rug for??? Who knows. But how can you turn that down??
You can't. Glad we see eye to eye on this one.
Then I got really lucky and had a guy accidentally spit right in my face. I hear that is good luck. (I actually made that up to feel better about having a lugie on my cheek. hahahahah)

We strolled around for a bit longer before heading back to The Carlton.
It was a really great night. My eyes are wide and I am really excited to be here.
Everything is so familiar but so different at the same time.
The constant noise on the streets, people everywhere, horns blaring, police sirens, garbage littering the streets.... it all reminds me of Brooklyn.
But a Brooklyn that was ancient. A Brooklyn that never really existed.

Cairo.... I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

(Photos to come)