Day 8 - The Egyptian Museum

I slept last night, woohoo! A whole 8 hours and I only woke up twice. I guess going to be early and getting a decent pillow helped.

I went to the Egyptian Museum today. I was not exactly sure how to get there so I just wandered a bit and eventually found my way there. It was definitely closer to Midan Tahrir (main center) than I thought. The way I took was definitely the long way around. I got a tour guide because I thought it was actually cheaper than it was. Oh well it was interesting to have him tell me everything and he most definitely knew his information. There was a lot to see in the museum, tonnes of artifacts and statues. This museum is Egypt's first national museum of Pharaonic antiquities. It was not extremely busy so that was good. Egyptian history is so interesting and it is incredible the great condition some of the pieces are in. I am sure you could spend a day in there if you went around and read every litle write-up about each piece but that would get a bit boring possibly. Afterthought: I went to the animal mummy section. So cool. There were seriously full sized, huge crocodiles that had been mummified. So awesome. They also mummified a cow and horse but they did not preserve as well. They really were not intact anymore.

It was really funny to people watch outside the museum. There was a dude and his shorts were definitely getting close to the length of Daisy Dukes. That is so wrong. Men should never wear shorts that short. And there was this other chick that had her butt hanging out of her shorts. Goodness gracious put on some clothes when you leave the house. She obviously had not been out on the streets because I was wearing capri's and felt like I was showing too much.

I wandered around Tahrir after the museum and ended up meeting some perfume shop owner. He was like "No worries I am not a taxi driver or trying to harass you. I am nice." He invited me in to his shop and gave me a drink (this is a normal thing apparently). He went on talking about his family, how he had been to Canada and how he has friends there. It was rather entertaining.

When I got home I sat at my desk and proceeded to dump the full glass of water I had just poured absolutely everywhere, including on my computer. A few things got wet but nothing was damaged thank goodness.

There are these birds that fly around that sound like bats. If it was dark out I would totally think that is what they are. Eww. I also killed a spider today. Only the second one I have seen since I got here but I do not hope to see many more. Eww. Eww.

The floors were cleaned today in the building. I came down just in time to walk through all of the water on the floor. The floors basically get flooded with water and then it is squeegeed out the door. Very interesting way of washing floors.

Another fun fact. Diana told me that worn out money is hard to get rid of, so it is kind of like playing Old Maid when you pay for things. It is your goal to get rid of the old, ratty and torn money or your big bills first. People actually refuse to take them or they ask for a smaller bill. Quite interesting and I really like Diana's analogy for it. Very fitting.

*This is the Nile and the tower in the distance is the Cairo Tower
**The Egyptian Museum
***The picture my guide took for me