Organized chaos and other brilliant inventions

With a little sleep but still well-rested, I set off on a self-guided tour of the historic Islamic quarter in Cairo.

I started on El Moez Street and walked along it to the old city gate. There are some nice stops along the way, especially the Qalawun Complex (mosque, madrasa, mausoleum, hospital). It was very exciting to explore this and discover the many beautiful details. In a completely dusty and practically destroyed display case, I discovered old medical drawings. It seems like they were performing caesarean sections much earlier than in Europe...

Another stop at the gigantic Al-Hakim Mosque. The guard couldn't find my shoes until I had the right change. The annoying thing was that I only had large bills and she strangely couldn't give change. :) Lesson learned: ALWAYS have small bills!

After the city gate, I walked back along a parallel street and avoided the bustling Khan el-Khalil market, which was packed with people. Instead, I walked through the less touristy neighboring district: a delicious smell of homemade flatbreads, spices, and all kinds of food wafted through the air there. It was much quieter. Unfortunately, it was very hot and my phone (and therefore my camera) stopped working for a while - so unfortunately no photos of the delicacies.

To escape the heat, I sought refuge in the Museum of Islamic Art - the journey there was quite adventurous, as no Uber or taxi would take me: the traffic jam towards the museum was almost impassable. So I had to walk the 900m like the locals: past honking cars, banana vendors, market stalls, sugarcane juice vendors, buses, carriages (!), and so on. Total chaos - or so it seems, but it works. A complete change of scene awaited me at the museum: the highest arts and knowledge in all imaginable areas, from astronomy to medicine. The Egyptians invented that too.

After taking care of some things, I now go to the hotel where the group tour starts tonight and will last for 22 days. Tomorrow, we will visit the pyramids right away and leave early. So: Goodnight!