January 16, 2024
The room has a view over the Nile but in the three days I haven’t been here I didn’t see much. Up at 4:30am to prepare for the day, I was out before sunrise and back after sunset.
I used to come here several times a year between 2005 and 2010; before the Arab Spring. Last time, in 2018, I flew from Beirut in the morning and left at night. Cairo hasn’t changed much, only noise, pollution and entropy levels are up.
I did venture out of the hotel to see the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM). None of the exhibits are open to the public yet, but seeing the building itself was worth it. A massive, modernist, triangular, construction in the Giza plateau overlooking the pyramids. I had assumed some famous architect like the Louvre’s I.M. Pei would be behind its design but no, a big contractor instead, the Irish architectural firm Heneghan Peng. For now, the main attraction is an 11-metre-high statue of King Ramses II (see pic).
From the museum I went to the Mena House for lunch and put my diet on hold. Last time I was there was also for work. Instead of one of the hotels in the city, a colleague – an Egyptologist in his spare time –, insisted we stay there. Ok, for a couple of days but untenable for a week or more.
The other pictures are from the last visit to Paris. Dining at the Procope, having a healthy breakfast (0% cheese with red fruits), and visiting the Picasso Museum with Sofia. Contrary to the other museums where you have to buy tickets in advance or stand in impossibly long lines, it was reasonably empty. The problem with Paris at this time of the year is the number of visitors; it will continue to grow deep into the summer.
I am flying back there today. Friday morning, Sofia and I will go to the retrospective about Mark Rothko at the Louis Vuitton Foundation. I take a plane to Bogota in the afternoon, the beginning of the journey to be reunited with BEHEMOTH.
Sailing to the Pacific 