for the trip from israel to the u.s.
this summer, i flew through cairo, egypt. the flight from tel aviv to cairo was
on air sinai, an airline which officially does not exist! google it – you will
not find a website, only rumors. it operates one flight a day each direction on
the route, using a white, unmarked aircraft. there are no boarding
announcements, and the flights do not even appear on the departure and arrival
boards in the cairo airport. the reason for all this secrecy is that the
egyptians do not want to be known to be operating flights to israel, but thanks
to the israeli-egyptian peace treaty, each country is required to operate a
certain number of flights to the other. air sinai would appear to be operated
by egyptair but offically no one knows. cool right? because there is no website
you can’t book the flights online – the only options are to go to a nondescript
office in tel aviv and pay with cash, or book through a sketchy greek third-party
travel website, which is how i did it.
i had 24 hours in cairo, which was
amazing! luck had it that my classmate jenna and her mother were on the flight,
and her mom was a little anxious about visiting cairo, so i was able to attempt
to allay her fears. grabbed a cab into the city with these ladies before
parting ways. i wandered around the area where we had lived when i studied
abroad in cairo – agouza. i went to the now internationally infamous tahrir
square, and viewed the poignant revolution-inspired grafitti and burned out bohemoth government building called
the muktada where we once squandered an entire day getting our visas extended.
wandered the ancient pathways of khan el khalili market, where i made friends
with an egyptian law student who got me unto the roof of a large mosque for an
unforgettable view of old cairo.
pictures of the new president,
al-sisi, are everywhere. unfortunately, egypt seems to be on a pendulum ride
between democratically-induced islamism and dictatorship, and now we’re back to
the latter. i asked some new acquaintances I met in the mosques how they like
al-sisi – all say that he is a good president, but perhaps the length of the
pause before they answer is more revealing than what they actually say.
i found myself near a huge mosque in
old cairo during friday night prayers, and suddenly the power went out, pitching
the whole area into complete darkness. normally tourists (at least those
wearing shorts) are not allowed inside the mosques during prayers, but thanks
to the confusion i slipped in and sat on the plush carpet in the dark listening
to islamic prayers being sung in arabic, and contemplated the big questions in
life. always a good time in cairo:)
