Egypt!!

Hi everyone! I'm here in Cairo. I landed this morning and am absolutely exhausted. I checked in to a hostel across from the Egyptian Museum that was recommended by Lonely Planet and a few other travel companies. Its great, actually. Its not necessarily that nice, but it seems clean enough and everyone is really friendly. It feels safe, which is high on my list, especially here. The guy running the place, Amir, is really helpful. He taught me how to say "No, thanks" in Arabic to deal with hagglers on the street (its "Lla Shukran") He also said that if I take a taxi anywhere, to have him write the destination in Arabic and quote a reasonable price, so the drivers don't misunderstand the location and/or try to rip me off.

I really just wanted to take a nap but instead I showered, changed and headed to the museum. I saw lots of cool Egyptian stuff. I saw a lot of mummies, including Ramses II. Mummies are creepy. I also saw animal mummies, including a huge crocodile, little baboons, dogs, etc. Afterwards I was starving, so I wandered into a restaurant. The food is AWESOME. I had incredible baba ganouj and then this delicious okra baked stew thingy...don't know what it was called exactly but it was really good.

So now I'm back at the hostel. I'm so tired, so I don't think I'll go out again. I don't plan to go out at all after dark, anyway. I bought a book that's supposed to be the quintessential modern Arabic novel, so I'll start on that. So far I really like Egypt...but I think I'll like it a lot more after a good night's sleep. Bye, everyone!!