EGYPT: As Cairo emptied of foreign vacationers, one sightseer headed to the revolution

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

While foreign tourists were flying out of Cairo in the masses amid the mass demonstrations against the government of President Hosni Mubarak, lining up at Cairo International Airport to get on the first flight out, 37-year old Belgian consultant Floris Van Cauwelaert was trying to get on a flight into Cairo to get a first-hand glimpse of the dramatic events unfolding in the Egyptian capital.

He was the regular guy who’d grown tired of watching history on TV instead of experiencing it in real life.

‘I was lying in bed saying to myself: ‘I should be in Egypt now’,’ he told Babylon & Beyond. ‘I was so enthusiastic about what was going on there. So I bought the ticket the next day not really thinking about how I was going to do this. When I was on the plane I thought to myself: ‘What am I doing?’’

Van Cauwelaert arrived in Cairo on the night of Jan. 26, a day after demonstrations against Mubarak’s dictatorial regime began. It was during the nightly curfew, and he ended up spending the night in the lobby of a hotel near the airport before continuing to central Cairo the next day.

There, he found himself being one of the very few foreign tourists walking the streets of the Egyptian capital. The Belgian sightseer joined some of the foreign journalists and the international human rights activists roaming around Cairo.

‘For me, it was like the Berlin Wall falling,’ he said. ‘I wanted to see it in real life. I thought not so much about the dangers but the happiness involved and the people feeling freedom.’

In central Cairo, Van Cauwelaert immediately took to the streets near Tahrir Square where he snapped pictures of burnt armored vehicles, smashed shops and graffiti of President Mubarak, as smoke billowed into the sky from buildings set on fire the previous night.

But it was the experiences at Tahrir Square itself, where a carnival mood prevailed among anti-government protesters at the time, that forever will be ingrained in his memory.

‘At one point, a man came up to me and started talking about his hopes for a different regime with tears in his eyes,’ he said. ‘It was very touching and a very good example of what was going on at the square. People walked up to me and wanted to talk and share their views and hopes. I felt very welcomed there.’

Soon enough, however, Van Cauwelaert would find out that not everyone was welcoming and given a reminder of the precarious situation he was in. As he sat chatting to demonstrators on the sidewalks of Tahrir Square, Egyptian fighter jets suddenly appeared in the sky and started to fly extremely low over the crowds in an apparent attempt to intimidate the demonstrators.

‘All of a sudden there was this show of military force,’ he said. ‘I was very intimidated. But then people around me started cheering and laughing and singing even louder. So I stopped worrying.’

Van Cauwelaert left Cairo a few days later right before violence engulfed Tahrir Square after pro-regime militiamen armed with sticks and clubs charged at demonstrators, some on horses and at least one camel. Around the same time, foreign journalists and human rights activists started being harassed, beaten and detained around town by plainclothes government enforcers as well as self-appointed vigilante squads armed with machetes and clubs.

Although he has no regrets that he made the trip, the adventure-seeking Belgian vacationer, now safely at home, says he is happy he left before things got too ugly.

‘I consider myself quite lucky,’ he said. ‘I was there in the calm moment. Maybe next time I won’t be that lucky. All in all it was a very good experience and I loved doing it. It gave me a rush walking there in Tahrir Square.’

-- Alexandra Sandels in Cairo

RELATED:

Egypt’s new Cabinet meets as protests continue

White House sees signs of progress in Egypt

Around Cairo, some semblance of normality returns

Full coverage of Egypt uprising: News, photos, videos and more