Strolling Through Cairo’s Markets

The city of Cairo Egypt is big, busy and can be extremely exhausting to navigate. However, amidst the absolute chaos of her streets there are numerous gems worth exploring. Lindsay and I found ourselves with a free afternoon one day while staying in Cairo and decided to work our way over to the famous Khan el-Khalili markets. We decided to walk from our hotel to the markets and this alone was an exciting adventure as crossing the street and navigating through the madness of Cairo is a challenge. We eventually made it to the area surrounding Khan el-Khalili although to this day I am not sure if we actually made it into the official market. By the time we made it there we were extremely tired and every time we tried to ask a local for directions they began to hassle us to buy things, tell us the markets were closed, etc (not sure why we had such bad luck with people that day as we meet numerous Egyptians that were wonderful). Despite this Lindsay and I did manage to find ourselves in some beautiful open air markets that were perfect for a simple stroll on a sunny summer late afternoon. The colorful clothing and merchandise being sold was a beautiful contrast to the sand colored buildings and blue sky above. I remember vividly following Lindsay through these markets and having such a travelers high. The sounds of people talking and kids playing mixed with the smells of the local spices and food was intoxicating. The area surrounding these markets was fascinating as well and I remember vividly seeing two beautiful and tall minarets from a local Mosque towering over the narrow alleyways of the market. After about an hour of exploring the markets we stumbled on a beautiful little mosque and received a tour from an anxious tout who was waiting out front (we would have rather toured it on our own but it was impossible to get past him). :) Although our exploration into the markets of Cairo started out stressful (traffic, hassled by the locals, etc) it ended up being a wonderful experience and a great taste of the fascinating city that is Cairo, Egypt.