City Stars

Classes have started, meaning the adventures will be on a much smaller scale and a more weekend-based interval.

Last Friday, we went to City Stars Mall. Yes, a mall. I know what you are thinking, “Derek, you are in Cairo, why go to a mall?!?” Well, readers, I shared the same hesitance, at first. Over the few weeks I have been here, however, Cairene after Cairene (the official word for a Cairo-local) has been saying that I have to go to the City Stars Mall. Being one to give in to peer-pressure, I had to go to the City Stars Mall.

Getting to the mall was a journey. The mall is across the city, near Heliopolis and Nasr City. We had originally thought the Metro (the Cairo subway system) had a stop near the mall (someone even said the stop was conveniently labeled ‘City Stars’). This was not the case.

The nearest stop to the dorm is on the other side of the island. I like subways, though, so I did not mind the walk. Once we got to the station, we looked at a map and discovered that there was not a stop called ‘City Stars’. Ugh. The plan then became to take the subway to Nasr Station and from there a quick cab ride to the mall. We bought our tickets (1 pound each, equivalent to about 20 cents US) and went down to the platform.

The train pulled up, it was packed. We began walking down the platform at a brisk pace hoping to find a non-packed car. A few of the cars were women-only, so the girls with us jumped in those cars- we kept speed-walking. Then the train left. We would have to wait for the next one. The next train came and this time we just dove into the crowd.

The station was surprisingly clean and nice. I say surprisingly not just because my [limited] experience with subway stations has led me to believe that all subway stations are unclean places, but also because most of Cairo is quite filthy (the three-, five-, and ten-second rules do not apply in Cairo, once it is down, it is down*).

What we thought would be a quick cab ride turned out to be pretty long. We got to see a lot of the city, though. There was a football (soccer) match that day and people were in the streets on their way to the stadium.

The mall was huge. Unfortunately, I did not take my camera, so I will steal other pictures.

(Stolen from Darren)

(Stolen from Darren)

(taken from Wikipedia)

Here are some fun-facts about the mall:

-6 stories

-269,000 sq. feet

-550 stores

-movie theater

-an amusement park (I did not see this)

Just to compare, Polaris Fashion Place (for the Columbus readers) has about 150 stores and the Mall of America has about 520. That being said, in terms of square-footage, the Mall of America is much bigger (USA! USA!).

I did not buy anything, as the prices were the same as in the US, but it was an interesting cultural experience. My friend Darren pointed out the Johnny Rockets restaurant in the mall- the Egyptian employees wearing the 50’s-style, American fast-food uniforms. There were also a number of women dressed in the niqab (the all-covering veil with an opening for the eyes). As I noticed this, someone said that a lot of wealthy women that wear the niqab have very nice, expensive clothes on underneath. Interesting. There were also prayer rooms in the mall- I noticed these in the London airport, too.

Johnny Rocket's (stolen from Darren)

All of the adventuring and observing created quite the appetite. What would we eat? Our options in the mall included Burger King, Chilis, Cinnabon, Fuddruckers, Johnny Rockets, KFC, Maccaroni Grill, McDonald’s, On the Border, Papa John’s, Pizza Hut, Ruby Tuesday, Sbarro, Starbucks, and T.G.I Friday’s. A number of us, including myself, had been craving Mexican food since we first got to Egypt, so we went to On the Border. It tasted like any Mexican chain-restaurant in the US would, mediocre at best- it felt like home (I mean being in the US, not an insult to my mother’s cooking). The chips and salsa were wonderful, though. The restaurant also had free refills, something hard to come by in Egypt. I made sure to indulge in this. After dinner, we walked around a bit more.

Getting back, we took some sort of bus-thing. I am honestly not sure what it was. It was this minibus full of religious writing. That does not sound too confusing, but I don’t know if it was a part of the public transportation system or if it was some private endeavor. I don’t know, but it got us where we wanted to go. We took a train to another part of the city and walked back through a market, across a bridge, and back through Zamalek. Good times.

*Does not apply for cats