2 Weeks in Africa: Al Azhar Park in Cairo with Runner

I have very strict rules about when someone can say they've been to a country.  Just because you had a layover in Amsterdam on your way to France does not mean you can say you've been to the Netherlands.  Here are the rules:

1.  You must leave your mode of transport (i.e., the airport, the train station, the car, etc.).
2.  You must see/do something touristy.
3.  You must eat something.

Those aren't hard or mean rules.  As a society, we need rules to function.  They help keep order.  I like to abide by them.  And so, for travelers, there must be some as well.  If a person, like me, had a layover in Egypt, but had never been there, I would not say that seeing the Pyramids from the plane (as I did), counts as having been to Egypt.

But I've been to Egypt.  I've seen the Pyramids and the Nile River.  But I still wouldn't count this trip as a return to Egypt unless I left the airport, saw something touristy, and ate something.  Those are the rules.

Rules aside, seeing the Pyramids, the Black and White Desert, and the Nile River from the airplane was cool.  Probably one of my favorite fly-ins into a city ever.  I felt giddy, as if I were new to Cairo and had never seen those things before.  

I did leave the airport though.  I'd planned my flight so that I would have a long enough layover to have dinner with my former roommate, Runner, who lives there now.  She picked me up and we headed over to Al Azhar Park, one of my favorite places I went to when I came here in 2008.  Just like with Sidi Bou Said a few days ago, I didn't take too many photos because I knew I already had some stellar ones.  Like this one:

And this one:

and this one:

With good pictures already under my belt, and only a few hours with Runner, I planned on focusing on catching up with her.  We did not plan on being distracted by an impromptu English Christian worship service in the middle of the Muslim park.

We would talk about our lives, sing along a little, and speculate about the group leading the music as we watched them walk around and talk to people who were watching them.

One of the things I love about the park (besides its great views of the city) is the little groups of people here and there and everywhere all around the park.

Like this cute couple just behind us.  (The selfie enables one to easily take stalker photos like this one without anyone suspecting a thing.)

And these friends down below us.

And these friends!

It really is a great place to hang out!

I sure do love that girl!  She makes me laugh so much!

We went and had dinner here.  Oh how blessed my life is!!!

I did not order the flying rat stuffed with freak.  I wasn't even tempted.

I did order shish kebab and hummus and loved every bite of it.

While our food was cooking, I went and took just a few photos.  Obligatory door photo.

Sunset over Cairo.  Dreamy.

Leave mode of transport?  Check.

See or do something touristy?  Check.

Eat something?  Check.

Rules were fulfilled and thus I can now say I've been to Cairo twice.

And just like that, our few hours were up and it was time to take me back to the airport.  I've said since then that I love that I'm blessed with the kind of life that allows me to say that I stopped over for dinner in Cairo with a friend.  It was a good travel day.

(If you'd like to read from long ago about my first trip to Egypt, click HERE.)