We opted for a brutalist structure called the Ramses Hilton-built in 1981

one site describes it as the ‘ugliest building in Cairo”

(appropriated and altered stock photo)

It was perfect for our purposes. A well known landmark-  you could see it from a distance . We created a catalog of landmarks from buildings, traffic circles, stores, bridges…

We were downtown near Tahrir

And every time we’re doing this-several times a day and night

we can’t believe we are-

doing this  this sing song, walk, run, try a matador’s twist…

threading through -against the grain -of 10 lanes of African traffic

no stoplights-you had to walk like an Egyptian.

We’d head up Sherrif Street at night like locals- walking in street with men in robes, student types, a few business men in suits,  shop keepers outside having a smoke

 with the few cars finding their way around you on this still- old- Cairo-feeling street.

 Downtown is a Neutral Zone in today’s Cairo.

You saw things like the graffiti below-things we never saw anywhere else in the city.

From a random corner of an alleyway wall.

women without head scarves

hanging out with young men in western clothes-student-looking

at the sheesha place we went to.

 a stranger says  “Salaam” as he passes on the sidewalk

the three places we we alternated with for dinners- where we scored Stella the perfect locally made beer

A Neutral Zone where we felt at home.