So the time has come. I’m now in Cairo, deep breath…. nothing. There had been much anticipation and intrepidation leading up to my arrival here. Anticipation because I had heard so much about the “souk” or the old market of Cairo and was looking forward to that hustle and bustle and old world feeling. Intrepidation because of the whole revolution thing only a few weeks ago. (speaking of which guess I got out of Syria just in time eh?).

All I can report on both fronts is not a whole lot. Drove over Tahrir Square this morning and even through it this evening and…. nothing; the protesters seem to have gone home. A few tanks around, and a few soldiers. But that was all. Everyone has returned to their daily lives and as far as I can tell, from an outsiders perspective, things are normal (traffic is terrible). And all of the talk about aggressive/persistent vendors? I’m not feeling a ton of that either. The crazy market? Not so crazy.

How safe is it here? Walked all the way through Islamic Cairo today with out incident. Once out of the tourist areas, streets got more narrow,  more crowded, and vendors no longer paid attention to me (which is good). But I’m finding that this “lively” town is just kind of sleepy, relative to other places I have been. Crowded yes, lively? Not so much. People just seem to be living. Will be going through the Christian Quarter in a couple of days. We’ll see what that has to offer.

The only product to buy of the revolution? One sad little stand selling “January 25, 2011″ stickers. I asked for t-shirts and they said they ain’t got it! There were all kinds of 9/11 stuff in Chinatown Manhattan less than 3 days after!

My those are well manicured eyebrows you have there for an Arab man! (someone on the highway who wanted his picture taken)

So glad this was not an American export!