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I thought I should do one entry on some of the food we ate here in Egypt.

So lets start with the cheapest. For the whole month that you are staying at the Horus House (now read that name very fast… ;P) you can have the same exact exciting filling breakfast…every…single…morning. At least it’s good! Lets see now…you got your croissants, toasted bread, some weird cheese with a laughing cow on it, some other kind of cheese, hard boiled eggs (not pictured below), cucumbers and tomatoes, butter, hot water for tea or coffee and some ham. Take your pick.

For three pounds (yes, 3 pounds, believe it:P), you can get some filling koshery from Alex Top (nothing exciting about that name) around a few blocks away form our hotel. It actually tastes really good. But from what I heard, there are much better Koshery places farther away from Zamalek.Though you won’t get the wonderfully creepy men smiling at you as they hand you your food in other places. Or maybe you will. This is Egypt,after all.

Koshery, if I were to explain just what it is, is basically cut up macaroni, plus some angel-hair pasta and rice…topped with crunchy lentils? Oh and some tomato sauce. Yep, I think that sums it up.

A word about Cafe Noir. Actually two: It Sucks. Don’t get anything there besides their hazelnut hot chocolate, pictured below with deceiving smiley face…as if its trying to say it is worth the 16 pounds you’re paying for it (it’s not), and their banana smoothies, which are absolutely heavenly.

Then if you can shell out 20-something pounds, get your butt over to Hardee’s. It is close to Horus House (…say that name again to yourself if you didn’t get the joke last time). It is AMAZINGLY GOOD. A thousand times better than McDonalds or any otehr fast-food burger place. Be warned, you will go there a lot. The workers will know you. You will have to cover your afce by the endof the month to pretend you’re someone else…but you will keep coming back. Because Hardee’s is frigging tasty. Remember to try their Combo #4 – the Chicken Fillet, and ask for some American Cheese on it. :] You’re welcome. #4 is pictured below…with a bite because I couldn’t wait to try it.

Back to cheap things, because we are college students after all. Thankfully the next cheap thing is a staple of Egyptian breakfast and is common all around Cairo. The falafel sandwich…I think it is called Tamaniya [?] is so so tasty and cheap. We got the Falafel and fries combo pictured below near Khan il Khalili for 8 pounds, but there were cheaper places near the hotel that would give us five for seven pounds.

If you get the Fool and Tamaniya (yes, fool, its called Fool!), you will get the falafel sandwich and the vegetable dip-thingy that I didn’t really care for. But some people loved it.

Shabrawi’s, a restaurant near our Arabic language school, served pretty good Fool. They also served AMAZING chicken shawerma sandwiches. If you don’t go there for the food…go there just for the menu, it will make you laugh. Zoom in on this picture for all your sandwishes to come true. And order yourself some Brian while you’re at it 😛

Near Zamalek you can find Crumbs, the cupcake store. No, not the NYC Crumbs. This is a bit different. But the cupcakes will blow your mind and your wallet. They go for one per nine pounds I believe. But here is a tip: whenever you feel like you are spending too much on something, convert it to USD and that will instantly erase all traces of guilt.

If you are doing some shisha at Gould (I think that is the spelling of it), located close to the hotel, and you need something to fill their 30 pound per person requirement with…try ordering their crepes, which are delicious as well:

In case you are not satisfied with any of the above…there is always Pizza Hut, which I do not have a picture of. It will be the classiest pizza hut you will ever eat…because you’ll eat it on a ceramic plate, with a knife and fork. Now that’s classy.

We successfully arrived in Egypt last night and thankfully, our baggage wasn’t lost. Some people from our group were not that lucky and about  ten lost their baggage. After stopping by a cafe and getting dinner, me and my roomate Simmi finally crashed and slept like babies. We rolled out of bed the next day and dragged ourselves downstairs for a quick breakfast.

At 8.30 we set off to see the pyramids and I got my first look at the streets of Cairo. For some reason, I kept feeling like I was back in Uzbekistan, even though the trees and sand should have told me I was in Egypt. The exhaust from the cars, the air, everything just screamed, “You’re back in Tashkent!”

But despite trash scattered on the streets and rubble everywhere, Cairo has a certain beauty about it. The green fields contrast with the pale yellow buildings and the dark Nile, creating a serene and exotic look.

Once our van dropped us off next to the camels, it was all uphilll from there. Or downhill, depending on how tightly you held onto the saddle. First of all, I never knew camels can be so cute. Some may call them fugly, (coughsimmicough), but I beg to differ. I can’t say I was all brave and jumping on the camels at first. Actually, I was scared out of my mind. Let’s just say I was holding on to both horns of the saddle (the front and rear one) as the camel stood up. That frightening moment when you are about to make an embarrasing scene as you awkwardly fall off the camel….yep, I could totally picture being in that situation. No, seriously, when that tall, but cute, animal first straightens out its LONg back legs and you lunge forward in that cloth saddle…..let me tell you, you are praying you don’t just roll off its back. Once it decides to straighten out the front legs, then you are back in the safe zone.

But riding through the desert on a camel, and wondering if this mode of transportation would be acceptable on Park Avenue, was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. As Boris, my camel, trudged through the sand with the view of the pyramids and the desert surrounding us, I forgot al about rolling off the back of my camel and just couldn’t believe I was actually here. Well, I was concerned when the guide gave me the rope to lead my own camel, because I was sure I would crash it into some rock, somewhere.

The pyramids. thy Sphynx. We read about them and see pictures of them, but to be there, in the flesh, its almost a bit unbelievable. Especially on the back of a rocking camel.

After we checked out the pyramids and the sphynx, we headed to the Papyrus museum and I managed to get some souvenirs for my parents. And since I know they are reading this, I realize I’m giving away part of the surprise….

Then we were off to finally eat some lunch! God knows I was dehyrdrated and starving. Yes, I was smart enough to not take any water in the DESERT. Thats how I roll. We tried all sorts of things from rice, potatoes, kebabs to hummus and Egyptian bread. I have to say it was so delicious and the hummus was the best I ever tasted. My hummus loving friends: be jealous 🙂

On the way back, we rode with our professor and his old friend, who taught us a catchy song so that we could learn the arabic numbers. Finally we got back Horus Hotel (take the shady elevator in our buidling up to the fourth floor and you’ll find yourself there), and crashed for a few hours. Even though we now felt the jet lag creeping in, my friend Simmi was limping more than usual (she has a foot injury, just so you know), and the camel rides left….painful memories in our legs, we proceeded to go to a concert.

No family dinner, no ball dropping in Times Square. A great oud concert was the way to greet 2011. The music breathtaking. I do not mean to be cheesy, but since I said ‘breathtaking’ already I might as well be cheesy and go on to say that each song was like a story unfolding and revealing itself to my ears with each note. We were lucky enough to sit next to a student of the famous oud player who was on the stage, and he became our first friend here in Egypt. let us say that 2011 already gave us new friends, new memories and I can only imagine what it holds in store. Lesson learned: go with the flow and drive around 😉

Happy New Years to all my friends back home, and all my friends around the globe!

This camel wishes you the best and dares you to get on him: