Quick note now that I've settled here in Cairo for a bit...
The day I left Istanbul, I realized that if the Aegean coast felt a bit like California, then Istanbul felt like the San Francisco of the mideast. You've got hills and density and a history as a trading post and a whole bunch of other similarities. (Although since Istanbul has been around in various forms roughly ten times longer, perhaps I should reverse the phrasing.)
With that in mind, Cairo feels a lot more like New York, in almost every way I can think of. That'll have to do as a shorthand description for the moment.
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