Grey Wool Knickers They breathe

In general, things in Cairo are pretty flashy. I’ve described the cabs elsewhere, but clothes are similar, at least wherever Egyptians are conspicuously out on the town. The Corniche, the road that flanks the Nile, and some of the bridges crossing it, is packed most evenings with hip beglittered young people, men and women both.   It is most packed on weekend nights, as one would expect, and was particularly packed last weekend, during Eid Al-Fitr, the feast at the end of Ramadan. During times like these, people will simply drive up and park on the wide sidewalks along the Nile, then put their hoods up as if to suggest that they are having mechanical problems. This weekend we saw groups of four, five or more vehicles, all with mechanical problems at the same spot. The vehicle’s occupants will then naturally spend their time waiting for help to arrive through gridlocked traffic by hanging out with friends on the Corniche.

You’ll see all kinds here. The young hipsters with their glittery shirts, sheer veils and tight pants openly holding hands, or at least walking arm-in-arm; and the families of eight with the woman wearing a full niqab. Then there are the sad (or angry) flower vendors selling sad-looking red roses and the invariably sad-looking old women selling small packets of tissues for spare change. And then there are the hucksters and scammers praying upon the errant tourist out on the Corniche from the nearby Four Seasons Hotel or Grand Hyatt or Nile Hilton for a falucca ride on the Nile. The faluccas are the pinnacle of flashy from what i’ve seen so far. They’re little covered boats that go up and down the Nile, carrying pairs of lovers or subdued clumps of tourists or brimming with raucous groups of reveling Egyptians, a third of whom appear to be on the verge of falling overboard (the busses are like that, too, often with two or more people hanging out the doors and with heads and limbs sticking out of windows). The faluccas tend to befit the occupants. The lovers will be on a quiet sail boat. The tourists will be on a more practical motorboat, and the loud party will be on the most garish thing you’ve ever seen on the water, covered in moving flashing lights that seem more at home in Vegas than on the Nile…actually, it’s more of the caliber of Reno.