5/6 - 5/9
Tahrir square was busy every night with lots of flag-waving marching groups, locals out taking pictures and earnest political students. The students I spoke to expected the 'silent' (ignorant) majority to elect an army general for president in 6 months time, and seemed pretty depressed about the prospect, considering army rule a major step back for Egypt and potential disaster. Another guy, a very angry man, bemoaned the average Egyptian's political ignorance and all the unthinking cries of 'freedom!' "These people don't even know the value of the Suez canal!" he cried. Most people there were just really happy and full of hope.
While I was having these political discussions Hozumi was being pulled in several directions: First led away by burqa-wearing women who didn't speak a word of English but who seemed to want to introduce Hozumi to everyone in the square, then by young guys who wanted to pose with flags.
One lazy day while we were recovering from horse-riding a mob of white-uniformed police flooded into the streets below our hotel and the bustling street cafes suddenly cleared out. All the chairs and tables disappeared in an instant and the usually-blocked thoroughfare became clear, for a few hours anyway. I really should have taken a few pictures for comparison, but while we were there the streets in every direction were always packed with tables, chairs and people smoking sheesha. The area was even more popular in the evenings and you could barely move for all the people crammed around every TV, watching the football. The hotel manager told us this exuberant atmosphere was unusual, and the cafe owners were taking advantage of the revolution to ignore the rules for a while, hence the occasional crackdown by the police.
One last thing that caught our eye in Cairo was the fateer. These guys had some mad pancake skills.
Tahrir square was busy every night with lots of flag-waving marching groups, locals out taking pictures and earnest political students. The students I spoke to expected the 'silent' (ignorant) majority to elect an army general for president in 6 months time, and seemed pretty depressed about the prospect, considering army rule a major step back for Egypt and potential disaster. Another guy, a very angry man, bemoaned the average Egyptian's political ignorance and all the unthinking cries of 'freedom!' "These people don't even know the value of the Suez canal!" he cried. Most people there were just really happy and full of hope.
While I was having these political discussions Hozumi was being pulled in several directions: First led away by burqa-wearing women who didn't speak a word of English but who seemed to want to introduce Hozumi to everyone in the square, then by young guys who wanted to pose with flags.
One lazy day while we were recovering from horse-riding a mob of white-uniformed police flooded into the streets below our hotel and the bustling street cafes suddenly cleared out. All the chairs and tables disappeared in an instant and the usually-blocked thoroughfare became clear, for a few hours anyway. I really should have taken a few pictures for comparison, but while we were there the streets in every direction were always packed with tables, chairs and people smoking sheesha. The area was even more popular in the evenings and you could barely move for all the people crammed around every TV, watching the football. The hotel manager told us this exuberant atmosphere was unusual, and the cafe owners were taking advantage of the revolution to ignore the rules for a while, hence the occasional crackdown by the police.
One last thing that caught our eye in Cairo was the fateer. These guys had some mad pancake skills.
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