It really is a shame. This country has some really good people, struggling to get by in their tanking economy so dependent on tourism. The hostel workers that let us store bags and spend an afternoon at the hostel even though weren’t staying there, or the genuinely fantastic people enthusiastically serving us plate after plate of free dinner at the hotel alongside the pyramids. But the constant threat of scams and hustling that’s so engrained in the system that even the museums play the game forces you to keep your guard up, and always assume someone’s trying something — because 95% of the time they are.
Surprisingly, I have warmed up to Cairo, I’ve even grown to appreciate the adrenaline that comes with every street crossing — I only nearly got hit twice today, one time narrowly avoiding getting squished thanks to a friends quick tug on my shirt collar. The food is good and cheap, and the city as whole unlike anything I’ve seen yet, and having the pyramids basically to ourselves was incredible. But I still can’t recommend this place to people that just have that postcard picture of the pyramids in their mind.