After staying in Luxor for a week, we came back to Cairo to see the Egyptian museum, and to catch our flight to Kenya. This time we had to stay in a hostel, just like back in China, so we could afford the museum. We got lucky because my mom (who is always planning something for the trip) came across a few reviews on Trip Advisor (our friend) for this supposedly great hostel. Well, upon arriving in Cairo once again, the driver for the hostel picked us up at the airport and drove us through the city. We arrived at this tall building with a hole in it, at the base of the structure. I was assuming the hole was supposed to be an entrance but it was just sketchy beyond belief. I reassured myself that this was just the entrance and once inside the hostel would be nicer. After all, people did rave about this place on Trip Advisor.

We walked down this plain concrete hallway for a few meters, then a man told us which floor the hostel was on.

We approached this, how do I describe it, empty closet surrounded by a gate.

We entered the gate, stepped into the “closet” and up we went. Yep, this, was an elevator. All it was, was a closet on a pulley system with a stack of bricks on the other end of the cable. Obviously the safety standards here aren’t as strict as Canada.

Anyway, we arrived at the hostel in one piece. The inside looked a little nicer than the outside, at least the front desk did. We checked into our room and voila! This was going to be a loooooooonnnnnngggg four days in Cairo. Now, it wasn’t that bad; just a little rustic. First off, the windows looked like they hadn’t been cleaned in forever; plus, the shades were broken and every single sound coming from automobiles to people on the street could be heard from our room. To light the room, they hung a lightbulb from a chain, barely screwed to the roof. The bathroom was just plain tiny. You walked in and there was the toilet. Off to the side was a small platform which was where you stood to have a shower, while the water poured all over the toilet! Beside that was the sink, and keep in mind that all of this was crammed into a four foot square box.

Now, the reason this blog is called floorboards, I’m about to tell you. There was a big carpet in the middle of the room (and we all know to be cautious, ‘cause given the state of the building we don’t want to know what it’s covering). Against our wishes, the mystery was revealed. Nothing but floorboards. Floorboards that were broken and falling out and leaving big holes in the floor. Every step we took was followed by cccrrreeeekkkk. I was afraid to go to sleep cause I was worried I’d go to sleep on the fourth floor and wake up on the first, wondering what was going on, while staring up at a big hole in the ceiling. We were beginning to wonder whether people had raved or raged about this place on Trip Advisor! However, we are still alive and I don’t know about everyone else, but I’ve just decided to consider this yet another experience!

One of our favourite restaurants down the street: