A Bit Of Ingenuity

A pair of young men have opened a portable business under a bridge with a handful of mobile telephones. For 50 piastres or a pound you can use one to make a phone call. Why wait for a phone booth? And since most Egyptians carry mobile phones, calling from one makes more sense, since the phone booths can only call land lines.

Pink

The acacia trees are in bloom filling gardens with lush pink branches and a lovely fragrance.

Chillin' On A Summer Day

A Friday afternoon in late June can be pretty uncomfortable when the temperatures are hitting the high 30's. We decided that there was grocery shopping to be done and headed for Carrefour in Maadi. Once there, we decided we might as well enjoy a nice lunch and some ice tea which gave time to shoot some of the other shoppers who were passing by. This young man was pulling his little sister along on the slick marble floor.

Green

A cattle egret hunts frogs in a field of garawa sukaraya...also known as African Love Grass. It's planted as a summer forage for the animals that are still so necessary to move the produce from the fields to the markets.

Bread On The Move

Everything doesn't just travel in tidy trucks in Cairo. You see people carrying items all over the city, and the bread men who carry loaves of pita bread all over the city on baskets are a familiar sight. Sometimes on foot, sometimes on bicycles, they move the food.

Come In Out Of The Light

Shade takes on new meaning in an Egyptian summer. Standing in the shade can reduce the heat by at least five degrees and if you can catch a bit of a breeze, even more. Gazing out of the darkness of a Khan el Khalili alley into the glare can make you appreciate the darkness of these medieval twists all the more.

Let There Be Light

There is an antique store in Khan el Khalili with the most marvelous painted ceilings and walls and some incredible chandeliers. They say that they are from old mosques. I don't know but they sure are something to see. They'd never fit in in my house.

One Last Cat...for now

Fishawy's Cafe in Khan el Khalili is famous for its coffee, tea, waterpipes and interesting clientele. You can sit there 24 hours a day watching people come and go, fending off sellers of bogus Rolexes, bogus designer sunglasses, real bead necklaces, and Sudanese women who will do intricate henna tatoos on hands or legs as you sit. A visit to Khan el Khalili without a cup of tea at Fishawy's is simply incomplete. As we were enjoying a glass of lemon tea, a young man came in, sat at a nearby table and ordered lunch. Within seconds of a plate of kofta, bread and salad being served, a tabby cat presented herself before him and fixed him with a green eye in hopes of a handout.

More Old Cairo Cats

A warm day in the Khan seems to bring out the felines. This lovely black cat with green eyes seemed to know that it contrasted beautifully with a blue door.









A pair of ginger kittens play in a plastic bag on a gallery of an old caravansarai..








And a white cat, with just a hint of ginger sleeps so soundly that a photographer doesn't even rate a flicker.

Random Cat

Sitting in Fishawy's coffee shop in the Khan with friends, I suddenly had a small cat jump up on the chair next to me curl up between my leg and my bag and go to sleep. Such trust in the good nature of a stranger.

Textures of Glass

Muski glass is famous in Egypt. It is glass made from recycled glass that is blown by hand into drinking glasses, vases, plates and so on, or molded into beads and sheets. It is named for Muski Street, one of the main roads near Khan el Khalili. I don't know whether they favour blue because it is an easy colour to create or whether because the blue of the glass is supposed to bring good luck. Either way, it's lovely

The Top Cart

Nothing like walking Manhattan's relatively pristine streets to make you miss Cairo's slightly off kilter lunacy. This bicyle-driven cart belongs to a Robe Vecchia man...a buyer of used items. They drive through the streets calling out "Robe Vecchia" which actually means "old clothes" in Italian, although it is a rare cart that has clothes in it. This particular bicycle cart was newly painted and decorated with its own license plate...a rather boastful number that would probably cause a snicker from one of the drivers of the cars parked to the right.