Today, we went out to catch a cup of tea, both to kill some time and to heat up. When the sun sets, Cairo is actually freezing this time of year. (And it's on the border to chilly while the sun is up as well.) As we'd been sitting still for what seemed like hours - on concrete - the situation called for a nice cup of chai. So we headed into the streets, not sure where to go, but never doubting that the journey would end up with tea. And it did. It just took four hours of adventuring to get there.
What happened? Well, we were wandering about in the streets of downtown Cairo when we started talking to an old man. Born and raised a skeptic, I wasn't quite sure about why he wanted to tag along with us, and even less why he wanted to buy us tea. But hey, prejudice never served anyone good, and we went with the flow. A flow of tea cups and cake, sweet drinks and markets. And, my very first visit inside the majestic halls of a mosque! We got to see the charm of the old streets of Cairo, the bustling life of the souq (local market). We stared in awe at the citadel, and laughed at the enthusiastic old man, greeting people to the left and making jokes to the right. To sum it up - we went to buy a quick cup of tea, and ended up with an adventure for hours. And I'm loving every second of it. (I would, however, just about do anything for a good woolen sweater now.)
