A Trip to Felfela's

For dinner, Mother and I decided to walk to the take-away joint, Felfela's, for falafel and fuul. After a meeting regarding our tour schedule, Grace was fading, so she went back to room to rest. Meanwhile, Muzz and I discovered that two women out walking alone after dark in Cairo is a rather interesting proposition. With the exception of two women and their children (also heading to Felfela's), we were the only women on the street. We had men beg us to enter their stores, take their taxis, buy their goods, whistle at us, catcall, shout and follow us. One offered to take us to "see the Sphinkus" (yes, pronounced just that way) for $2. We were a little unsure about which direction to walk and tried to ask directions, but no one was speaking English, only Arabic. Finally, I asked a policeman and he couldn't speak English either, but about 2-3 blocks further on, we met another policement, who asked, "You are looking for Felfela's?" We were surprised he knew and then he introduced us to his "dispatcher" who was walking with him out of uniform, but with a radio. They took us on as their protectorate and walked us to the takeaway counter, waited for us there and walked us about 1/2-way back to the hotel, until we were in a well-lighted area again. It was an adventure!

Muzz said she was glad she had the experience, but she wouldn't do it again, and I have to admit that I was glad Grace had stayed back at the hotel. All's well that ends well, though, because the falafels and fuul were yummy and the rice pudding worth the walk.