Wadi Natrun and Cairo Zoo

This weekend  Ann, Lidia and I went to Cairo zoo.  The zoo is a very popular place to be for families during the weekend, because it's cheap and you have a lot of places to sit down in a "nice and clean" atmosphere, which is quite rare in Cairo. The animals suffer a lot from the heat, especially the not afican ones, like ducks or wolves. I think the main attraction are the lions (about 6 of then) and the elephants. If you want to, you can alwayse give some money to the guard and then you are allowed to take pictures with the animals or feed then. My personal highlight of the day have been the pigeons ;-) But I think for most of the Egyptians we (meaning Ann,  Lidia and I)  have been the main attraction. You always see that they stop walking and stare at  us, some even take pictures... I forgot, the first picture is from Khan al Khalili the most famous market place in Cairo, where you can buy any souvenir you can imagine:-) On Saturday Lidia and I went to the Monastery of St. Bishoy near Wadi Natrun, which is about 100 km in the northwest of Cairo. The monks living in this monastery are coptic (which is close to greek orthodox). About 600 a.C. most of the monasteries (about 70 in hole Egypt) have been distroyed. Today only 4 remain..... A lot of Copts from Cairo and Alexandria travel there every week to pray, tourist are rather rare, but the friendly monks give you a free tour around and tell you about the life in the desert. I found it very interessting, especially because the place is not crowded at all.

Cairo 20 Million inhabitants 20 Million cars

Cairo has round about 20 to 25 Million inhabitants,  only two subway linies and feels like as if most of the people in Cairo have their own car. Furthermore Cairo is the centre for nearly everything in Egypt and it is a very important city in MENA (Middle East and North Africa).  It is quite difficult to get from one place to another if you don`t know the rules. There some roads which are blocked very often and once you get into a jam it can take very long to leave it again.

The most common way for transportation (if you don`t have a car) is taxi. They drive around nearly everywhere and then you just hop on and try to explain where you wanna go. Afterwards you have to pay depending on the time you spended in the car and the distance. For example today I took a ride from Midan Ramses to Nasr City which took about 20 minutes and I paied 14 LE which equals 1,75 €. There also exist busses and so called microbusses, which take you nearly everywhere for one or two Pound, but the problem is that the driver just shouts where he is going and then you hop on. So for me as an non arabic speaker it is nearly impossible to get into the right bus. One more thing about the metro, there are extra waggons for the ladies. If you get there by accident they will start to shout at you and kick you out, sometimes you see tourists getting kicked out, very funny. Something like traffic rules don`t exist in Egypt, everybody just honks all the time, and on big crossings you have policeman regulating the traffic. but somehow I am not feeling unsecure and so far I have not seens any accident.

First day at work and Saqqara

I have had my first day at work. The owner of the company I work for took me to an ford garage in the city of 6th of october (a newly build quarter of Cairo). He had something like a meeting with the garage (about 90 employes work there). The manager wants to improve the replacement parts stock. Because of the catastrophic traffic situation in Cairo this trip took the hole day (2 hours to the garage and 2 back).

Today we have been to the pyramids of Saqqara. They are in the south of Cairo and are not as crowed as the Pyramids of Giza. I have been to the Pyramids of Giza last year so I really enjoied the trip to Saqqara. The Pyramid in the picture is actually the oldest in the world, it was build 2600 b.C.. In front of the Pyramid there is Ann on the left and Lidia on the rigth hand side...

There r about 80 Pyramids around Cairo. Here are two more. The one on the left is called leaning Pyramid, the constrution didn`t work out so Cairo as something in common with Pisa.. ;-). The one on the rigth hand side is the Red Pyramid, it is the third largest after the two big ones at Giza.

Bang bang Cairo

So, after a 4 hour delay I arrived at 6 o`clock in the morning at Cairo International Airport. Mostafa (My AIESEC contact person here in Cairo) was very punctual and picked me up. Afterwards we drove Downtown and I recognized some streets and buildings from last year. We tried to get me an SIM card for my  cell phone but unfortunately all the shops were still closed...

In the end we arrived at the appartment of two interns Lidia from Poland and Ann from the US. They had to go to work and I went sleeping ;-)

The appartment is quite big for two girls but unfortunately there r only two bedrooms so I have to sleep in the living room. There is an mysterious doors which used to be unable to open. However the landlady came today which 4 (!!) guys and they broke the door. Lucky for me because behind a lot of useless stuff a bed appeared.

In the evening Malek picked me up and we drove to the University in Heliopolis. There was a student contest (PBOX) which had it's final presentation this evening... after 3 and a half hours of presentation and a small coffee break they handes out certificates to everybody....

Afterwards we decided to celebrate at the rooftop bar of the Nil Hilton. You have an amazing view on the Nil from there. It was ok but somehow I felt like in Europe. In the end I got busted because I forgot about the minimum carge of 100 LE, because I have had only spend 40... shit...

So thats it for today, I am fine and feeling great, tomorrow I will start to work. Unfortunately I don´t have internet in the flat. So I am sitting in a McDonalds and there is a big Ronald McDonald and so kids dancing around me but that is fine as well...

I forgot it's 37 degrees C.

A warm welcome

Hei everybody,

welcome to my blog. I going to work in Cairo Egypt from the 11th of August 'till November. During this time I will update you via this blog about my experiences at work and in my free time. You r always welcome to drop my some lines.

So today I have no big news, I have to start packing my suitcase sometime, but I am not in the mood. Tomorrow I'll catch my plane at 9 pm from Cologne to Cairo.

So I hope to see you guys around here again in a few days. Then live and direct from Egypt.