Cairo is a vibrant explosion to the senses, a constant bustle of honking cars driving maniacally around oblivious to each other, as mosques periodically sound out their lone and ethereal call-to-prayer over the city. On the metro system, Cairenes compete with Londoners in rudeness - they don't wait for a single person to get off, but simply cram themselves on as soon as the doors open, causing a mad scramble as passengers inside try to push themselves out! Against this though, locals dwell out their daily lives, in the offices, homes, ahwas (coffeehouses) and on the streets, with a seemingly complete lack of urgency.

ABOVE A statue of Ramses stares serenely out over Ramses Square, as traffic bustles chaotically around him. In the background stands the tall minaret of Al-Fath mosque

LEFT Me standing under a flyover at Ramses Square. Behind me, several passengers are clambering on and off the minibuses that never seem to slow to a halt, and hanging precariously to the side

Stefan and I spent our first few days just exploring the city, getting a feel for the vibe and our sense of direction. Coming out of the hotel, we discovered our first hurdle was making sure we weren't run over by the traffic.

We decided to simply follow a local who was nearly run over himself! (We later discover the trick is to walk calmly, and slowly across the traffic, as nervewracking as that might sound.) The next problem was getting to any of our intended destinations, as every time we approached Tala'at Harb Square, we were accosted by men wanting to invite us to their shops for drinks, and to sell us trips!

But learning quickly and moving off the main tourist throughfares, we found the locals warm, unassuming and generous, telling us "welcome" in English with a smile and small wave of their hands as we walked past. At Ramses Station, as we tried to make sense out of some Arabic signs while walking down a tunnel that suddenly split into two directions, a businessman approached us from behind, quickly explained what the signs meant, and as quickly disappeared again before we had a chance to thank him!

Some were more curious, wanting to attempt a conversation. While wandering around Islamic Cairo, one schoolgirl boldly left her group of giggling friends to approach me, held out her hand to shake my hand while saying "hello". Unfortunately we couldn't manage a conversation with them beyond the basic "what's your name" and "where are you from", and we hadn't learned any Arabic to say anything back!

However, not all encounters were so positive. Enjoying the view of the Nile from near the Ramses Hilton, a small barefoot girl approached us begging for money, an indication that like any other city, there is a significant disparity between the rich and poor. And we would see different manifestations of this later in our holiday.

ABOVE Hussein Square, Islamic Cairo

RIGHT Stefan standing outside Sayyida Al-Hussein mosque

ABOVE View of Al-Azhar mosque from Hussein Square, Islamic Cairo

RIGHT Al-Azhar mosque

Once, it wasn't until we'd reached Ghamra metro station, did we realise how far we'd wandered off course!

Still, we enjoyed what we saw of the people there during those ambles - working, on their way to school, pulling out their small mats to pray on in the train station, the streets and inside shops, drinking shay (tea), smoking sheesha and playing backgammon in the ahwas, or simply sitting back lazedly away from the sun, idly chatting!

Around Ramses Square we appeared to be less of a novelty, and were free to wander around uninterrupted to appreciate the cacophony of sights and sounds... the usual loud, blaring traffic rushing around, and on the pavements, wares varying from lighters to underwear to fresh bread being sold, as an onrush of people streamed through the area and chatted noisily to each other.

On exploring Cairo further, we discovered that between the maps we were using in our copies of Lonely Planet and Let's Go, it was incredibly easy to get lost! Quite often, the spellings of street names were slightly different from both our maps, and we had to guess whether or not we were on the right one.