One day, one elsewhere n° 21

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December 2009, just between Christmas and New Year, disembark at Cairo airport and reach the city in a black and white taxi like a checkerboard. Forget the European driving conventions, forget the directions you have been given because the driver does not understand what you are saying. Find yourself in the middle of the night, in the middle of a district that is not at all the one you told him. Miraculously managing to reach your destination around 4 o’clock in the morning.

After sleeping for a few hours, lean out the window of the flat, where a friend will welcome you for the few days before the mission, for which you are here in Cairo.

Immediately fall under the spell of the Nile, even if it, modestly, hides under a veil of perpetual pollution.

Looking across the street and understanding that here life springs from everywhere. Feeling both disorientated and at the same time in place.

Step out into the modern city.

To be subjugated by this constant coming and going.

Admire the traffic in which donkey carts, buses and ultra-modern vehicles merge.

Appreciate the dust everywhere since the rain has long since stopped falling on Cairo.

Learn to cross the street with your eyes closed and without taking the time to think.

Arriving at last on the banks of the Nile.

Getting lost in front of the immensity that stretches out before your eyes wide open.

Get caught up in the game and take a felucca ride to immerse yourself completely in the magic of the Nile.

Feeling very small as the trapezoidal sail of the felucca unfolds. So majestic, it seems to be playing with the big hotels that will remain forever on the bank as it sails down the Nile.

Immerse yourself in this bath of light.

To be ecstatic before the waltz of the sails of the feluccas and the dahabieh finally unfurled on the horizon.

Listen to the depth of the silence and forget the hectic life that continues on the shores.

To be appeased while knowing that tomorrow the great adventure begins, but this is another story that will come in its time on this blog…A story to sleep on a pavement surrounded by helmeted and not very friendly Egyptian policemen, for a whole week in front of the French embassy…A story to sleep on a pavement surrounded by helmeted and not very friendly Egyptian policemen…

Par Nathalie

Do not hesitate to leave a comment, to share an emotion, to deliver your impressions…and if you want to discover the previous post of this series « One day, one elsewhere » : https://nathjy.travel.blog/2020/11/27/somanathpur-a-fairy-tale-of-sculptures/

Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)