More Egyptian artiffacts
So I spent part of one afternoon wandering around Zamalek, which is the upper class neighborhood on the island of Gezira. I stumbled across the Botanical Gardens and Aquarium, and paid the $.20 entrance fee when the guy wouldn't accept my press ID. The park looked like something out of a Twilight Zone episode when mankind is wiped out and you see a park that had been abandoned for 20 years. There was trash all over the place, and the same layer of filth that coats the whole city. I also felt very much out of place walking around since around every bend there was a young couple holding hands and snuggling in violation of any number of religious and civil codes. The aquarium was closed, and I'm sure there was never much to begin with, but all I could think was that maybe they should charge a higher admission fee and use the money to spruce the place up.
From there I walked to the Cairo Tower to get the famous panoramic view of the city. There was just one problem--it was closed for renovations. So much for the famous panoramic view of the city...
I did make it to Khan al Khalili to wander the streets of shops and stalls with the typical drone of "Hello my friend", "take a look, it is free to look", "I give you good price", "my friend, I have what you are looking for." It's fun for a while, but you feel like you can't stop to look because you'll be dragged into a shop and harassed to death. It's all in good fun, and it is a sport, but I wasn't really in the mood to play. So, I wandered, and ended up walking through the surrounding streets into some of the most run-down and depressed neighborhoods I've ever seen in person. Feral animals wandered the streets and half the buildings looked like they were ready to collapse at any moment. It was real.
