Sun, 13 Feb 2011 4:59p.m.
By Melissa Davies in Cairo
Revolutions are something I studied in history class in school, not something I ever thought I would witness first hand. I had followed the protests in Egypt closely for 17 days and on the 18th day I was as close to the action as you could possibly be.
I'll be honest. I was nervous about what I would find when I arrived. Just hours before I got on the plane the live pictures from Tahrir Square showed an angry mob of Egyptians who'd just had their hopes dashed that Hosni Mubarak would step down as president. Reports predicted a bloodbath and having now experienced the passion of the people, I have no doubt this would have come true if Mubarak had not relented some 24 hours later.
I searched for signs of destruction through the plane window as we came in to land. A fellow passenger must have noticed my eagerness to see what was happening. He said he was a good friend and colleague of Wael Ghonim, a Google marketing executive and protest activist, who has tried several times to organise large rallies against Mubarak in Cairo. The majority had little effect said his friend, but this protest had gathered momentum far more quickly than he could have ever imagined. I recall Ghonim himself saying in an interview that the protest was now a protest of the people and the direction it would eventually take was now out of his hands.
The guards at customs must have been concerned about that direction when we arrived. It was the first day they had decided to start confiscating any professional cameras with little explanation as to why.
So we made our way to the hotel near Tahrir Square without our camera and cautiously negotiating the huge military tanks lined up as far as the eye could see along both sides of the road. When we arrived there the crowd was going crazy. 'Welcome to Egypt they screamed ..look at what we have done ..we have done this!'
I rushed inside to turn on the news and sure enough Mubarak had just announced he had stepped down. The hotel where we are staying was like a ghost town. It has boarded windows and most of the staff have obviously taken to the streets. All that remains were frazzled reporters and camera crews rushing around trying to cover the major development and luckily we were able to secure a camera for our use from them.
The atmosphere outside was amazing. This is a celebration like no other I have ever experienced. As I sit writing this more than 24 hours after the news broke there are still thousands of people in the streets tooting their horns, singing, dancing, lighting fires and hugging the military guards who pose for pictures on top of their tanks.
It's this relationship with the military though that will determine the next 24 hours. The crowds say this is the last night of official celebrations in Tahrir Square and tomorrow they will return to their lives and work. What will happen when the party is over? Will this be the new Egypt they have hoped for... or like the night in Tahrir Square before I left London will this be a celebration of anticipation followed by enormous disappointment?
Their expectations are high and it will be a hard task to meet their expectations of democracy overnight; and the ongoing confiscation of media equipment at the airport does not signal a good start for democracy here.
When the revolution in Cairo makes its way into the history books in schools in the future, I am certain that today will not be the final chapter.