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After tour of the world's most ancient tourists' trap, we decided it might be a bit cheaper for us to find an apartment for the month.  After checking in at ILI (Day 3) we were directed to a house boat near Kit Kat Square  and the 15 May Bridge.    There we were graciously ushered into a very homey houseboat by a British teacher named Alice.  While the water was not drinkable, and was certainly not something to be depended on, the price was right ($125 for the two of us for the month!) and it was quite spacey.  Plus it was on the Nile, and though we only had one fan between us, the breeze off the river kept us cool.  Our home in Cairo was absolutely a god-send, and one of the highlights of our trip.

Our house boat is the middle one in this picture.  Benny,  Alice, and myself all occupied the second floor --- our Sudanese landlord occupied the first floor.  On the right side of the boat there was a marvelously large veranda, where we usually spent the night chatting or reading.  To the left of that was Alice's bedroom (and the only half-way reliable shower) a living room and kitchen, Benny and my room, and the laundry room. 

Interestingly enough, it appears that our boat, or one very near its appearance, was featured on the cover the acclaimed Nobel Prize (literature) winner Naguib Mahfouz's novel Adrift on the Nile.  What keyed it for us and our fellow students who pointed the similarity out to us was the appearance of the Kit Kat mosque in the background (on the book) which is just to the right of the area covered in the photo.