Um IL Dunya!

I just came back from spending a few days in Cairo, and what an amazing city it is. I have been there before, with family, bas to go with friends just makes the experience so much richer, or maybe the more correct word is that the experience is just different. We staying in a nice hotel, and went to nice restaurants and bars...it was just great.
Bas what I realised is that there is something about a city that either has water running through it aw is by the sea/ocean. The people are different, and the feel of the city is just smoother. It is as if the people and the rhythm of the city are all flowing with the water. I lived in Arusha-in Tanzania-and it is completely landlocked and it was a nice little city, bas I realised the difference when I went to Dar El-Salam which is on the Indian Ocean...it smelt different, it was just moving...constantly.
If you think about it all the great cities of the world are around water, London, New York, Paris, Beirut, Cairo. I mean look at the difference between Riyadh and Jeddah, one is by the water the other is landlocked...the people of Jeddah are just more relaxed, the people of Riyadh are all uptight and conservative-am I generalising yes of course!
I love Amman, I have my friends here, family, and it is home...bas at the same time I feel as if it is none moving...stale...it changes a lot in the way it looks, bas I feel that it does not have a rhythm...a pace...it just is there...while Cairo you feel as if it is moving with the water of the Nile...people sit on the Kubri (what a great word!) they watch the water, they talk, fall in love, eat, drink and go for a walk, all by the water, it must have some effect on them! Egyptians ride the small boats, which are decorated with fluorescent lights of different colours, pink, blue, yellow...they are kind of tacky, bas great even then...they dance on them, romance each other. We go to Mecca Mall on a friday, they go for walks on the kubri and ride on the boats...I loved watching them on these boats, dancing, singing, just enjoying their river...the brilliant Nile!!!!
It is also no wonder that so many great writers, painters, musicians, artists in general have come from Cairo, I sat one night and wrote in diary for ages, and I was inspired by the Nile...by the sounds of the city...the sound of the car horns mixed in with the sound of the water...looking at the boats floating by...it was GREAT!
No wonder its called Um IL Dunya...it deserves that name completely.