Getting Back

As I leave Christiane’s house in Berlin at 5:15 am on the additional day of this year I am not cold in my summer jacket, although it’s only a few degrees above zero. After a short walk to the station I am on the subway together with nearly exclusively men wearing security shoes – I’ve never been on public transportation this early, those who regularly have to do this are craftsmen, construction workers, some paramedics and members of security services. After some stops I change to the bus and reach Tegel airport which really is manageably small. Although I only slept for four hours each night the third night in a row I don’t get to sleep much on the plane – the very tasty coffee Austrian Airlines serves is also quite strong, didn’t think of that in my sleepiness.

The plane from Vienna to Cairo is delayed, but the winds seem to be favorable, we arrive perfectly well in time. A mother wearing Niqab and her four children – or that’s what I assume, maybe the other completely veiled woman is not her daughter, who knows – sit next to me, as they hold solely Swedish citizenship we talk about how much the visa costs, it’s probably still 15 Dollars.

And then we’re back.

Still up: Ads quoting international politicianspraising the revolution. 

It’s wet and not at all hot, so Cairo looks a bit different from what it was when I left five months ago. Apart from that it feels very familiar, even the Thursday afternoon traffic (equivalent to Friday rush hour in Western countries) seems just normal. Reem and her brother pick me up at the airport and at once we are in the middle of crazy hospital stories, some of them apparently universal, and discussions of career perspectives and culture shock.

No shock for me here this time, the bridge is familiar, the Nile is familiar, Zamalek is familiar. Although we get into some chaos in the streets behind the Marriot, taking a way to the church guest house previously unknown to me.

The guest house is the same, so good to see Helbees again! As some people’s flight has been cancelled and they will only leave on the next day I spend the first night in a small room next to the one I stayed in last year. So I also have the balcony, the view – and the sound exactly as I expected it. I didn’t really think much of how it would feel to be back and am somewhat surprised how much it feels like the very natural continuation. Probably it’s really only the weather that stops me from saying, it’s like I hadn’t been gone.

View from the back of the guest house towards 15th of May Bridge

Details confirming that view keep on popping up everywhere: The water from the tap tastes the same! And then the muezzin starts singing… AND, of course I have to mention this, guess what, IT’S GETTING D A R K! And FAST.

I really am back.

Although I am really tired I decide to see the “Umm Kulthoum is Back on Stage” string puppet show

at El Sawy Culturewheel. Because it’s close by, I visit Ahmed at his new office before and he spontaneously decides to join. We are a bit late, but no one cares, people keep on coming in for a while still. Umm Kolthoum and her orchestra are already in the middle of their performance. After the Beatles show we saw last year I am once more stunned how well the mouth and instrument movements match the sound and how original Umm Kolthoum’s gestures are. In some songs the whole audience joins in and even the little boy sitting next to me knows the words.