Cairo and people watching in Cairo

Cairo is old. It is very very old. It has seen everything from the start of civilization to the new Arab Spring. My initial thoughts was that it would reflect all of it's character from ancient Egypt through Ottoman and Arab Empires and the new smell of revolution. Sadly, what you see today is the revolution, or at least what is left after the Arab Spring.

Note the burned out police building on the right. I feel bad for whomever invested in the Ritz-Carlton pre-revolution

The city is a dusty, dirty, grimy, congested, mixing bowl of Arab north Africa. With a booming population of 22 million people, it can barely sustain itself. Every year there are pessimists that claim that this year will be the fall of Cairo and all will be lost. Yet, every year Cairo survives. From the ancient city of Memphis, to the Giza Pyramids, Al-Azhar mosque, Coptic cathedrals, and Tahrir Square, Cairo always survives.

My experience with Cairo was more brief than I had planned it to be. I was supposed to stay for 4 days, but ended up with only 2 and a half. Mainly because I, personally, cannot stand the city. The air quality is pretty awful, traffic is horrendous (I got hit with a side view mirror 2 times), and you fear everyone around the corner is trying to rip you off. I still believe people should go for the experience of it all, especially the pyramids (photos here). There is a certain charm to the city, so says many of my friends, but I wasn't able to appreciate it all that much.

The issue, I found, with Cairo is the post-revolution government. There is none. Morsi runs around the international circuit making peace plans and touting the Muslim Brotherhood, which is all fine and well. But governing is much more than that. Things back home need to be done, and not just consolidating power. Trash needs to be pick up (which it hasn't), Ministry of Tourism needs to regulate the industry (woefully lacking), traffic patterns needs to be restored (driving wrong way on a one way is not that uncommon), and people need jobs (not more sheeshah and coffee shops). The problem with post-revolution Egypt is that the Muslim Brotherhood has no idea how to run a country, especially it's massive bureaucracy. The touts and vendors have free reign in the country.

It was explained to me that the vendors are much more aggressive because the police don't really want to do anything, because they have been seen as the "bad guys" during the revolution. So, now, people will try to push the limits of what they can get away with, especially with tourists, foreign and domestic.


The one thing I did find amazing is people watching. On my last night in Cairo, one of Cairo's most successful football (soccer) teams was playing a Tunisia team for the African champions league title. This is a city wide event on proportion that I have never witnessed, minus the world cup. Mind you this is like a playoff game, not even the championship. I was sitting at the "Pepsi Sport Coffee" shop in Talaat Harb Square.

Nothing on this sign makes sense

And it seems all of downtown Cairo was in this square. Long story short, they ended up winning 2-1, and for every goal someone set off a red flair, like this:

After winning the match, this happened:

This was a win. Imagine what would have happened in a loss. Or when the revolution came. 

The one thing I can say is that Egyptians are extremely proud people. For good or for worse they are passionate. That passion is channeled through everything. That passion was explosively released during the revolution and the city needs to recover from it. I feel Cairo will need at least 10 years before I would recommend any novice traveler going there. Building a nation takes time.