Egyptian shopping

Now I must admit, Cairo is as modern as any other large city, filled with those marvelous malls, shopping centers and popular restaurants; McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, TGIF...you get the picture. However, we found that we preferred the street shopping, the small lanes, the tiny places. Not that we bought very much but...it was much more interesting walking through. The color, the noise, the constant, insistent sellers...while annoying at times, it was much more inviting. Had a young, insistent boy want to sell me a bookmark...he must have followed us for 15 minutes, demonstrating his wonderful grasp of the English language...well...at least the selling phrases he had learned. Imagine his shocked look when I didn't buy 1, I bought 20 for my kids at school. He was besides himself with glee (wish I had a picture of that). Here are a few shots of some of the colorful shops. Wish we lived there - the herbs and spices outsides the shops were gorgeous to look at and delightful to smell. (click on the picture to get a better view)