It's the weekend here! I enjoyed a cup of coffee on my balcony overlooking the Nile first thing this morning - nice way to start the day! I'd planned to go to Al Azhar Park for a walk and to take photos of the city views from up there as they're meant to be impressive. However, by the time I'd had a leisurely breakfast and got myself out the hotel it was very hot (certainly mid 30s) and I didn't relish the idea of being exposed to the sun without an easy escape, so decided to give it a miss for today. Instead, I went out for my first real walk around Zamalek this trip, to reaquaint myself. It's a lovely area with beautiful old buildings and villas, many of which are embassies. I found a quaint little street, almost passageway, (Cairo style!) which runs parallel to a section of 26 July Street (for those who know Cairo) and near the restaurants Deals, Maison Thomas and the Abou El Sid. I needed a drink stop sooner rather than later because of the heat and discovered the PS Cafe, which did the job nicely with a little table on the street so that I could people watch, while gulping down my mango juice. Later I bumped into a new teacher in the school who just arrived two weeks ago from Costa Rica, and by that time we were both ready to escape the noise and dust to have a cafe in Deals - another very good find. The walk back to the hotel along the noisy, chaotic, commercial 26 July Street was quite a challenge to the eardrums and nerves! That being enough excitement for the day, I stayed in tonight. I didn't really decide to stay in, but before I realised it it was after 11! Tomorrow's the announcement of the verdict of Mubarak's trial and so let's hope that doesn't bring riots and problems to the streets of Cairo. I took quite a few photos today, but wasn't happy with them. This one at least marks being here during the elections.