After a stressful year full of downs more than ups, I decided to take a short break and what would be better than visiting my aunt/sister Reem in the charming but chaotic Cairo?
Despite the support that Mom had shown to the idea, I knew that she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown for the huge responsibility she’s about to handle for the next ten days: managing Kitzania and Dogzania.
I had to write down instructions of food preparation and meals given while Sham was handed cats’ medication as he handled cats well. My poor vet had the hardest job of all as he listened patiently to every hypothetical cat emergency that my limited mind could come up with and how to tackle it when I’m away.
Now, it was time to travel and seek some change of scenery. My last visit to Cairo was on January of 2012, almost a year after the Arab Spring. Unfortunately, things had changed to the worst.
To begin with I had to pay an entry visa that almost all Arab nations were exempted from for decades. The visa that costed me $25 was paid in the exchange booth before queuing up for immigration — both were stressful experiences with Egyptian arrivals not respecting the line.
Things got better when I saw Reem and her husband the artist waiting to welcome me outside along with the cold weather. Another observation was that the cleanliness of the country had declined visibly; there was more garbage piles on the streets and stray animals living out of them (I don’t remember seeing as many stray dogs but in India and Thailand).
Not to mention the constant smog that covers the city day and night. The biggest shock to me was inflation (one dollar was equal to 50 Egyptian Pounds) which meant that you’d pay hundreds of pounds when eating or shopping.
In Reem’s flat I was surrounded with paintings instead of cats and after lazing around for days, Reem decided that we should travel to Alexandria which I’d visited 30 years back. We took the train and the view of the agriculture lands en route was distorted by the mixture of fog and smoke curtaining the scene, not to mention plastic bags and bottles scattered on the banks of irrigation channels.
Alexandria had changed drastically and became overcrowded with migrants from neighbouring cities and many homeless on its streets. However, it still conserves its multi-cultural history with Greek and Italian names of shops and centuries old architecture (something that Cairo has been demolishing brutally in the form of historical mosques and burial sites).
I stayed in Cicil hotel that was built in 1929 and has a placard with signatures of famous guests such as Agatha Christie and Al Capone. I enjoyed the famous Alexandrian seafood but more than that the Graeco-Roman museum, which was inaugurated by Khedive Abbas II in 1895.
As I’d spend all my twenties reading about Greek and Roman civilisations, it was stunning to see statues of Roman emperors such as Augustus, Commodus, and Marcus Aurelias. The influence that every civilisation had on the following one was evident in art, architecture and religious practices, from ancient Egyptians through Greeks and Romans to early Christian centuries.
All of this was presented impressively in the form of historical artifacts and exhibits.
Nevertheless, it was time to get back to Cairo and fly to Muscat the next day. Though I was happy seeing Reem and the artist, yet I was heartbroken to witness how Egypt had become so unrecognisable to me. I hope it gains back its old glory soon.
RASHA Al RAISI
The writer is author of The World According to Bahja.
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