In Search of a New Home

This post is after the fact, but I've been going on an apartment-hunting rampage lately. Emailing various listserves, contacting shady ready estate agents (which is almost all of them apparently), talking to random people I meet, trying to find a place where I can finally unpack all 32 kilos of luggage I've been dragging around. While I do like the hostel where I've been staying, it's been over 2 weeks and about time I have a place where I can shower without needing shower slippers, and have the luxury of wandering around buck-naked all the time. Heck, it saves on the A/C bill and laundry.

I visited a pretty wide variety of places, from rather comfortable and fashionable apartments in far-off locations, to downright-scary crackhouses in great locations. I visited probably 12-15 places total, but didn't have my camera on me for all the visits, stupidly enough. Asians everywhere, shake your heads in disappointment. Here are some of the highlights of my potential abodes, in no particular order.

One of the first places I visited, in a great location downtown, very close to my hostel, close to all manner of cheap food, and a 15-20 minute cab ride to work. It was located in the corner of an auto district, where every shop sold some sort of automotive supply or service, primarily bumpers and windows, it seems. After getting used to the chaos of Cairo's traffic, the proliferation of bumper and glass stores made perfect sense to me. This place looked like a den of whores and dealers right when I walked in the front door, into a narrow, lightless stairwell with a super-sketchy elevator (even compared to many others I've seen here). The tenant said the landlord's mother used to live there, until she passed away a year ago. Awesome.

Rockin' paint job and nonfunctional A/C unit from the 50's.

Shower basin, sink, toilet and washing machine, all cuddled together. The washing machine is manually filled, and really is just an agitator with a timer - you pour water and soap in, it jitters for a while, then you open the spout to dump the water into the toilet. Rinse and repeat. Then you take the clothes out, wring them out (no spin cycle), and hang them.....somewhere. Now I can clean my insides, outsides, and clothes simultaneously!

Shockingly, I passed on this jewel of the Nile.

Here's a place that was middle-of-the-road; not too terrible, but alas, not so great either. It didn't have A/C, which was pretty much an instant deal-breaker. But hey, check out the awesome guest room! Now, I just need to find some 4-feet tall guests who don't mind sleeping on the floor...

This next flat was actually pretty nice, with a large bedroom and dining room with table/chairs for 6! Only one bedroom though, which isn't guest-friendly, and more important, it's on the other side of the Nile, which means I'd have to deal with the horrid traffic crossing the bridge to and from work every day. Plus, the neighborhood (Doqqi) isn't as lively as the downtown I'm used to; I like cool shisha/tea bars (called ahwas) every 10 feet and super-cheap food everywhere.

Another big plus was the cool suspended tv-stand, shown here behind the current tenant (not included with the apartment). Crazy tv-hangy-bobber was part 60s, part 70s, and totally awesome. I was sad to have to turn it down for "logistical" and "practical" reasons.

Neighborhoods I looked at included Maadi, downtown, Zamalek, Doqqi, and Mohandeseen.

Downtown is where my hostel is, and 15-20 minutes from where I work. It's smack in the middle of the chaos, with a few nice-ish restaurants and 17 handfuls of cheaper koshary and shawarma joints scattered everywhere. Foreign tourists wandering here and there but not as many expats, a big international college (American University in Cairo, or AUC), and cars and people making noise for a large majority of the day and night. Perpetually smoggy, perpetually raucous and rockin'.

Maadi is south of downtown and an expat hive, with green tree-lined streets, western restaurants, various clubs and community associations, and Germans and Americans walking around in shorts with their kids. If I myself had kids (that I was raising responsibly versus paying for monthly), I would consider living there. But, given that this is not the case, and it would take me close to an hour to get to work from Maadi, I ruled it out after visiting some rather nice flats there.

Zamalek is an island in the middle of the Nile immediately west of downtown, and another expat-heavy area, although not as enclave-feeling as Maadi. Similar to Maadi, it has a large variety of nice bars and restaurants, is quite trendy (i.e. expensive-ish), but very foreigner-friendly.

Doqqi and Mohandeseen are one bridge-span west of Zamalek. Doqqi I didn't really get a strong vibe from one way or another (although it does have some clean western-style coffeeshops and cafes), and Mohandeseen is uber-crowded with people and traffic, and appeared to have a whole lot of high-end shopping, which interested me not-at-all.

While living in one of the 'nicer' areas would give me an easier quality of life, I'm making the decision to focus my apartment-hunting in downtown, where it's more Cairene, lively, Egyptian, and bonus, closer to work too. If I'm only here for 6 months, I'd like to make it as full-tilt as possible, woo!