The Day of Departure, Friday 11/02/2011

    Well. WE DID IT!!!!!!  Today President Hosni Mubarak stepped down as the head of state! Barely 24 hours after he had vowed to stay in office until presidential elections in September the Vice-President Omar Suliman announced that the President had 'in light of current circumstances' handed over the running of the country to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.

    The response was immediate and electrifying.

    Except maybe in my house. After hours spent watching Al-Jazeera Arabic my dad switched to the International channel then left the room. My brother got bored at the lack of developments and also walked away. So when history was made it was just my mum and I there. And we were only there because we were going to drink our tea!

   I admit, what Suliman said didn't register straight away. It took a couple of seconds for my brain to process what I had just heard. Mum and I were looking at each other making sure we'd each come to the same conclusion, then she leapt up to get my brother. By the time he'd come back out, my friend had rang and we'd agreed to go back down to Tahrir Square to celebrate.

   Like yesterday we took the Metro down to Tahrir. Oh but what a difference 24 hours can make! People were congratulating each other left, right and centre and everyone seemed to be smiling.

   It took us a lot longer to even get to the entry to Tahrir tonight because of the crowds. The sheer number of people in the streets and on the bridges shouting, cheering, waving flags and singing was amazing, and that was before we even reached the hub of the revolution.

Crowds on the bridge overlooking Ramses St.

Tanks along Ramses St.

The Lawyers Syndicate

Crowds outside the Lawyers Syndicate

   Unlike yesterday we did not have to show our IDs or be searched before we passed the barricades told us 'there's too many people and we're free now!'. The sounds in Tahrir were incredible, it hit you the closer you got to the centre (unfortunately we weren't able to get right there tonight, too many people) and it didn't once let up.

   After Tahrir we headed back to the Metro to go to the Presidential Palace in Heliopolis. One of the Metro stations is called Mubarak Station (2 others are Sadat and Nasser) and last night people had crossed off his name and replace it with 'shuhad'aa' or Martyrs.

The newly renamed station.

More impromptu renaming 

    The Presidential Palace is only 10 minutes away from my house and the surrounding neighbourhood is as familiar to me as the back of my hand. I've never seen it look like it did tonight and I doubt I ever will again.

  The noise, the sights and just the waves of sheer joy, relief and victory rolling off the people was indescribable. They say a picture speaks a thousand words, so instead of trying to describe it, here are some pictures of last night.

February 11th 2011 Egypt Reborn 

A new 'do'!

   Yesterday I was feeling down. No other word for it, at one point I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and couldn't help but grimace. I didn't look like me at all! In a fit of despair I called my hairdresser for an appointment today -fingers, toes and eyes crossed that they weren't closed for Eid. My luck was in! When asked if I wanted an Egyptian or Lebanese stylist, I very clearly told the receptionist that I couldn't care less where they came from so long as they were creative!

  My appointment was at 12, I arrived about 10 minutes early and  I walked out at 12:30 feeling like a whole new woman. No wait, scratch that. I felt like ME again!!

Look out world; I'm back!

Korba Festival!

   The first Korba Festival was held to celebrate the centenary of Heliopolis in 2005. Heliopolis was established in 1905 by Belgium Baron Empain, Édouard Louis Joseph an amateur Egyptologist. When building on the new suburb began it was a stretch of desert 10 km away from the centre of Cairo (now known as Old Cairo or Masr El- Kadima), nowadays it is slap-bang in the centre of the city. 


  Since 2005 one street (Baghdad St.) in the Korba area of Heliopolis has been closed to traffic on a Friday to become a place where people can enjoy a stroll around through the street with shops and coffee shops spreading out onto the pavement to display their wares and entice you to spend. There's the chance to leave your mark by drawing on the roads and pavements in chalk and for several days afterwards it makes driving down that street a little bit more colourful. 


   This year the theme of the festival was Music the Language of Peace and featured various artists from around the world (don't ask who, I arrived late and missed the line-up!) the star attraction of the evening though was Egyptian jazz musician Yehia Khalil. The atmosphere was loud (this is Egypt after all) and electric with plenty to see and do and other music styles available further down the street if the music at the main street wasn't to your taste. 


  So if you're ever in Cairo and the Korba festival is on, I highly recommend you hop in a taxi and go have fun at the Heliopolis street party.


Myself.