By the time we arrived in Cairo, we had been on the road for six months. It was time for a vacation from our trip – and so we cashed in some of Marc’s rewards points for a bit of luxury and booked five nights at the J.W. Marriott in suburban Cairo.

We were delighted to discover, upon check-in, that we had been upgraded to a suite. After our creative sleeping arrangements in the Danakil Depression (volcano-side, on the floor, and in string beds), it felt almost absurd to have two spacious, well-appointed rooms just for us – plus a balcony overlooking the golf course!

Don’t worry, we didn’t let the absurdity prevent us from enjoying our new digs to the fullest. Our plan was to rest up from our trip through the Danakil and plan the next stages of our trip – but we mostly just lounged about on our balcony, in our air conditioned room, and by the multiple pools. (One of us got a haircut in the salon as well!)

We had thought that we might pop into downtown Cairo to see some of the sights, but we only managed to tear ourselves away from the hotel for the nightly free shuttle to the nearby mall.

That mall … it was something else. The Cairo Festival City mall was enormous – so large, in fact, that it contained, I kid you not, an IKEA. There was also a Gap, Zara (hello, new pants!), Carrefour, Cold Stone Creamery, and tons upon tons of places to eat. We may, or may not, have dined at Chili’s one night.

Did I mention that there was a huge fountain with a sound and light show on the hour?

We ended up spending one more night at the J.W. Marriott than we had intended because I got food poisoning. Frankly, I thought it was pretty ironic that, after six months in Africa during which we were not nearly as careful about what we ate as we probably should have been, the first time I got food poisoning was from the breakfast at a fancy hotel – and, if I was going to be sick anywhere, at least I was sick somewhere where I had a comfy bed to lounge about in.

Eventually, when it was clear that I would survive, we tore ourselves away from the comfortable cocoon that was the J.W. Marriott and headed for downtown Cairo.

On our first afternoon downtown, we took a fairly aimless wander through the area known as Islamic Cairo. We ambled down the streets, looking at the mosques and pausing to read from our guidebook.

Eventually, we ended up in Khan el-Khalili, a vast bazaar. It’s an interesting place – it has mazes of alleyways and tons of shopping, vending everything from tourist knick-knacks to everyday items for the average Egyptian.

After we left the market, we took the metro to Gezira Island, strolled back over the Qasr al-Nil Bridge, and wandered along the Nile before sitting down to happy hour at the Sherlock Holmes Pub in the Ramses Hilton.

We finished off our night with a dinner of koshary, a traditional Egyptian meal made of rice, macaroni, and lentils, topped with tomato sauce and garnished with chickpeas and fried onions. I had never had the urge to try it the first time that I was in Egypt, and I can’t say that I’ll try it again – but it was a cheap, filling meal.

Now that we had established ourselves in downtown Cairo, we spent the next few days exploring the area.

Where We Stayed:
☆ J.W. Marriott Cairo. Four-and-a-half goats. (Minus half a goat for the food poisoning.) Amazing bed, fantastic breakfasts (again, minus the food poisoning), beautiful pools, and fast internet … it was everything we needed after our trip through the Danakil.
☆ Grand Royal Hotel. Three goats. This inexpensive place is conveniently located in Talaat Harab Square, so it made sight-seeing easy. The staff was friendly and helpful – so helpful that they moved our room and gave us a new mattress after we complained about the bed. The bathroom was a little weird (less of a bathroom and more a cubicle inside the room), but we made it work.

Where We Ate:
☆ Khan el-Khalili Restaurant. We grabbed lunch here on our first day in Cairo. It’s a bit hard to find in the maze that is Khan el-Khalili, and then it’s a little fancy looking inside, but we enjoyed delicious juice and meze.
☆ Abou Tarek. This restaurant that exclusively serves koshary is believed to be one of the country’s best purveyors of this inexpensive Egyptian staple. We found it to be fun and vibrant – even though we didn’t necessarily love koshary itself.