Tuesday, June 21 2011 13:46
Visit Cairo's 'warren' of coffee shops
People planning an adventure holiday to Egypt may want to explore the "warren" of backstreets around the city's stock market.
This area, called the Bursa, is an interesting place to grab some coffee, chat with locals, or just relax and soak up the authentic atmosphere.
That is according to Ahdaf Soueif, an Egypt-based journalist, who put forward this opinion in the Guardian newspaper.
One of the activities the writer suggests people on solo holidays could do is "smoke a shisha in the Bursa, Cairo's downtown warren of pavement coffee shops".
"This labyrinthine cluster of pedestrianised back alleys around the city's stock exchange has long been a meeting [place] … you'll find it empty in the day but heaving late into the night," she noted.
As well as being a journalist Ms Soueif has written many books, including her 1999 novel The Map of Love - which was shortlisted for a Booker Prize - and the collection of essays Mezzaterra: Fragments from the Common Ground.