As we sat down with Dustin, a 24 year old American tourist who’s currently globetrotting, and had a random conversation about his two-week trip to Egypt. The young man went to Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor and Aswan, and definitely made unforgettable memories in each of these wonderful cities. We quoted a few things from our conversation and got you eight highlights. Here’s what he had to say.
“My Uber driver was just a bit weird; he kept on switching lanes.”
Your driver’s perfectly fine. That’s just Egyptian driving; other than that, you’d probably have an accident! Welcome to Egypt!
“Californian drivers actually drive faster!”
That one’s a fun fact. Upon having a conversation on Egyptian driving, we found out that Californians compete with us. We thought we were just competing with Italians and getting beat by Indians.
“The streets in downtown Alexandria, they remind me of Rome.”
So we weren’t lying when we said that Alexandria had Greek and Italian vibes. The diaspora has definitely done wonders.
“Egypt is very affordable, it’s the second cheapest after Thailand out of all the places I’ve visited.”
PLEASE TELL THEM! Life here has become extremely cheap; for non-Egyptians of course not for us, especially after the currency devaluation. If only tourists would know. The guy had hawawshi, zarda tea, anise tea AND a hookah for only $8!
“Luxor at 3 am, I took a photo of an alley as I haggled the price of an ice-cream sandwich. That’s my favorite kinds of moments. I like the energy of the city.”
Those are our favorite moments as well, when there’s still life after midnight and you’re not scared to walk alone at night. No matter how unsafe it is, it doesn’t feel any safer anywhere else in the world.
“I noticed a lot of Asian traits like sitting with their knees to their chest.”
No no, they probably copied us. *coughs*
“I really liked the Egyptian style pizza, I just don’t like putting stuff on it like ketchup or mayonnaise.”
Seems like we have ‘Egyptian style’ pizza! To many Egyptians’ surprise, the pizza’s you’ve been eating your whole life is nothing like proper pizza. Try ordering pizza with chicken topping in Italy and get ready to hear endless Italian cuss words. That’s just like disrespecting the waiter and his ancestors.
“I felt a community vibe when I went to local coffeeshops, like overall happiness that I haven’t felt anywhere. Rome was dead, Japan is dull and Americans are angry. You guys seem happy, even in unlikely situations.”
Hearing such a comment from a tourist was incredibly touching; as in someone actually looked closely and noticed such a minor detail about us. Despite all of what we’re going through, we surely know how to smile. That’s one thing we need to always remember because this makes us incredibly unique.
