I went with my language buddy to see Heliopolis, which is still called "New Egypt" although it is already 100 years old. And it appears a bit odd to see next to gross tower blocks typical for modern architecture these beautiful buildings that where meant to create an atmosphere of relaxed richness and a new way of life. I'll show only the old ones ;)

We almost got trouble when I took this picture from the other side of the street because we were standing in front of the presidential palace that is used to host foreign VIP such as presidents and monarchs and the military guard did not like us to stand in front of the wall for more then two minutes...

The Baron Palace is under construction at the moment so we could not enter, but the mix of architectural styles was impressive even from the distance. If I ever will have the possibility I would love to see it from the inside too!

Heliopolis is located about 20 minutes from Downtown and I could tell just by walking around that it is the area of the upper middle class - even the cats look cleaner... Another thing that stood out was the number of unveiled women. Still I saw mainly women with hijab but obviously many Christian Egyptians live there. So here are some churches - again, we almost got trouble, because one of the guards did not wanted me to take a pic...

Today I made it to Khan Khalili, the famous suq in the old islamic quarter. Last time I strolled only through the streets of the residential area and visited the mosques. This time we went there for shopping, but I spare you the details of our bargain experiments. Let's say, we got some reduction... Besides we strolled around a little and of course ended up in a mosque again - it was quiet, cool and just wonderful.

 The oldest coffeeshop of the khan, Fishawi, may be famous, but it does not really break with the hustle and bustle of the suq. It is cramped with tourists taking pictures (just like me...), cats slinking around, a few locals watching the scene with ironic looks and every minute another hawker passes your table, offering everything, books, carpets, toys, necklaces, everything! And all-around there is the noise. Still, it's fun and worth to see.

and finally: a cup of coffee, tea and water.

So after all the wonderful pictures from Downtown Cairo don't let yourself be mislead, because not all of the buildings of the Belle Epoque are renovated like the first one.

And actually modern Egypt looks completely different. Some pictures I took on my way to school.

A freshly painted school.

Everywhere you walk by you will find water reservoirs the locals use to drink from. You do not have to pay for it. I did not try because I did not want to run the risk of getting sick, but a egyptian friend assured me that this water is cold and very refreshing because the vessels are made of clay.

My school. The first time I came here I almost missed it because I did not expect it to be in a normal dwelling.

...daily business got me already...

Since I found out that I just have to ask the hotel crew for turkish coffee if I do not want the watery Nescafé the Arabs love imcomprehensively my mornings start better. I know my way to school including where to cross the street without to much struggle and where to shout to make the microbus stop. I know some people I meet frequently for chatting (indeed mainly Arabic although it is still very tiring), tea and other action. I met some people from the media scene, journalists and academics, copied some arabic books concerning my topic and even did some touristic stuff like visiting the incredible Egyptian Museum. I get along with the locals very well although I have days, in fact only situations where I really would like to hit someone - usually a young male tout staring at me or telling me in English or French that he wants to welcome me...

It's only one more week to go and I just decided to slow down a bit. Reason number one: Temperature reached almost 40 degrees Celsius yesterday and today and is expected to be as high as this until Thursday, maybe even Sunday. Reason number two: during the last couple of days I saw serveral women seemingly close to a collapse and feel that the city is really draining my nerves. I have had some trouble before I headed for Cairo and I will have lots of work when I come home, so I prefer to spend my remaining time focussing on the language, meeting people for private fun only and experiencing the beautiful sides of the city. In mind I have a Sufi dance event, definitely a shopping tour through Khan Khalili and I haven't visited the Citadel yet although I can see it from my hotel room.

It's late already, I'm tired and I need to get up early in the morning because I'll go to school like I did today and will do for the rest of the week. Besides I'll watch some movies at the Goethe Institut at Midan Tahrir and hopefully will meet some more people from the media scene.

And I'll sweat like I haven't done since a long time while Germany bogs deep in the snow. Poor dears!

So only some more urban scenes:

 

  

  

Believed that the last one was for real? Got ya!

There was a shooting for a film and the staff had a real hard time to keep the passers-by and the curious crowd out of the way. There was a lot of screaming and shouting and waving and the director, or whatever he may call himself, was almost hit by a car. But he seemed to be a real Egyptian because he didn't care but kept standing in the middle of the street. Amazing! Ridiculous! 

Already Wednesday? Time flies!

Monday I visited a leftist daily and they were really nice and invited me to come back to spent some more time and gather information for my work. I'll see but I found it very interesting to talk to them and see their workconditions. After this I went to the university because it was close by but did not enter because it was very crowded and I did not really had something to do there. Besides I few hours later a had a meeting with a professor of the American University so I sat in a cafe and prepared for this.

Yesterday I was strolling around again after school and a meeting with a journalist of a business paper, had lunch in a small restaurant where I was surrounded by locals and ate Koshary, the Egyptian fast food consisting of noodles, rice, lentils, chickpeas, roasted onions and tomatoe sauce. Really tasty!
This artistic boy was too fast for my little mobile to focus - usually the wooden boxes are filled with bread. I really admire these guys because they manage to cycle in this crazy traffic even single-handed.

Sitting at a small square and having a cigarette I saw something I had read about only. Several merchants were selling clothes, shoes or ties, but obviously without having a permission to do so. All of a sudden, all of them started running because a small truck with police men stopped nearby. The police arrested them and took all their goods. One of the tie traders dropped as many ties as possible while they brought him to the car. His acquaintances, bread marketeers who were not bothered by the police, followed and collected the ties so not all goods were lost. After only five minutes the drama was over and people returned to their daily business.

 

   

Today I spent the afternoon and evening with the German girl I met a few days ago. We cooked and sat and talked and in the evening went to a concert with traditional arabic and nubian music. It was really impressive - mainly elder men and women played percussion instruments, sang and filled the beautiful room of Makan with an amazing atmosphere, very slow and quiet in the beginning and almost defeaning in the end. It gave me chills several times.