Tag: Egypt

  • Time Travelling Postcards: Cairo, in the Mad Summer of 2006

    Time Travelling Postcards: Cairo, in the Mad Summer of 2006

      In the summer of 2006, I decided to take the train from Istanbul to Damascus, leaving from Haydarpasa station on the Asian side of the city and ending up in Aleppo some days later. I was totally going to do it. All my friends were doing it. Syrians were lovely people. Aleppo was lovely.…

  • Best Little Whorehouse in Cairo

    Best Little Whorehouse in Cairo

      In Tahrir Midan, the Picadilly of central Cairo’s circuses, after a long, hot, dusty day spent being shadowed by touts and hissing men, we searched for dinner, for a beer, for a rest. But trouble in Arabic was brewing above a teahouse on the corner and robocops were filling the side alleys. We hadn’t…

  • Berfumery and Hosbitality in Cairo

    Berfumery and Hosbitality in Cairo

      We will start with Mohammed Ali and the perfumists of Cairo. We wandered down the mad and busy streets between the meydans, searching for a cafe, a restaurant, anything for a hint of food. Do Caireans eat?  There are bags and watches and travel agencies and tea houses but we could find no food…