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Even under the baking July sun and amid a crushing recession, people were out working."That's the difference between here and Algeria," Nina said as we drove, "If Egyptians want to eat, they need to work."Over a few days wandering Cairo's streets, I began to notice faded, peeling ads painted onto the sides of buildings. In comparison after comparison, Algiers would seem more and more like the sleepy backwater it is compared to Cairo, long the economic and cultural fulcrum of the entire Arab world.***Like Algiers, Cairo is home to a mix of modern structures and decaying colonial-era buildings, some of which even have the Art Deco flourishes found all over Algiers—though they are a bit less spectacular in Cairo's mouse-brown than Algiers' spectacular white. I lost track of time in the Egyptian Museum, and stopped to gaze across Tahrir Square and the Qasr Al-Nil bridge, reimagining the crowds of January 2011.Another aspect I loved was Cairo's vibrant arts scene (something that still lags back in Algiers, despite recent signs of life). During my first visit, I was overjoyed to discover that Cairo is even big enough to sustain at least one great film lab, The Darkroom , not least because I had grossly underestimated how many photos I would want to take on the trip.

If Nina had told me, when I first met Amr Ghoneim, that he was Omar Sharif's little brother, I probably would have believed her. The area was an outlying village during Amr's childhood in the 1960s, and he and his neighbors still call it "the village", though in reality Nazlet El-Semman has long since been subsumed by Cairo's rapacious spread. Wisely, Nina had suggested that we spend three days in Amr's care before heading into central Cairo, where she would attend a conference while I explored. Incidentally, when I first heard Amr speak, he instantly reminded me of Carla, who had learned not just Arabic but also English during those early years among the stable hands in Egypt.

Though German by birth, Nina spent her whole childhood in Cairo, attending elementary school in the downtown neighborhood of Dokki, learning to swim at the Sakkara Country Club pool, touring the Christmas decorations at Cairo's shopping malls, and spending her weekends riding horses around the pyramids. *It's hard to express by just how far Egypt surpassed my expectations (which, to be fair, had remained rock-bottom, in defiance of Nina's romanticism). As soon as we returned to Algiers from our July trip, I began plotting a second visit, and that Christmas we brought both our families—Nina's parents and my mother and sister—to Egypt for a second tour. On those two trips I asked Nina to marry me , saw some of mankind's greatest creations, racked up countless peculiar and unpredictable interactions with Egyptians, and generally enjoyed the hell out of the place.

• ETNIZ offers the calendars for delivery across Algeria: The New Year is just around the corner, and if my latest article didn't already inspire you to buy Algeria-themed gifts for everyone you know , now is your chance! For the fourth consecutive year, I have selected 12 of my favorite film photos representing different regions, themes, and perspectives from across Algeria, and published them as a wall calendar. Printed on high-quality semi-gloss paper,are now for sale: