April 4 - Cairo 10:28AM

Slept for an award-winning 14 hours last night. Upon returning to the hotel after an afternoon excursion to the Egyptian museum and over the nile, I settled in to read, shirtless, window open to the street below, and fan on high. After Kavalier and Clay failed the saboteur's nefarious anti-semitic scheme, Clay discovered his budding homosexuality and Thomas Kavalier became stuck in a Portuguese Convent on account of the measles, I reclined and closed my eyes around 4 pm for a well deserved nap before dinner. I awoke this morning at 6:30, refreshed and, surprisingly enough after sleeping through dinner - not incredibly hungry.
I have spent the morning wandering the slender cobblestone streets of the muslim old quarter, observing the sights and smells of a local market not designed for the tourists dollar. My greatest surprise was not the huge flanks of beef hanging for inspection, or the clans of stray cats who wait outside the poultry shops, hoping to dine on an unlucky hen's discarded head, for these scenes can be found in any large market. No, my surprised smile came from the warmth and friendliness of those I met on the street. From the returned smiles and kind greetings of those I passed, to the gentleman who showed me around the market, implicitly stating that he owned no shop and wanted to baksheesh, but simply wanted to practice his english and show me where to go for the best experiences. I was touched as normally I am ignored as a clueless foreigner, or (as it more often is the case) hassled as a clueless foreigner, and hardly wecomed as a world citizen. it seems I only need to dig a little beneath the surface, to venture to the local's part of a city, to experience the middle-eastern hospitality I hear oft-lauded, but until this point has been elusive.
My foray into the museum yesterday was a necessary occurrence, but on that, for me, was completely superfluous. The sheer number of artifacts is overwhelming, with most being displayed with no special protection, susceptible to countless aspiring street artists and kinaesthetically excited tourists. I was feeling less that perfect yesterday, bringing a Dahabian bug with me in tow from Sinai, but the $30 US entry fee to see the mummies after a $10 entrance fee to the museum, was enough for me to say 'bugger it all, Im going to read' which I did on the steps of the main atrium of the ground floor of the museum. This, as it turns out, was the most satisfying part of my historical interlude.
As a side-note, I have discovered that the cost of street food here can be drastically reduced by employing a raised eyebrow and an incredulous tone -

MT: Mumtaz - shukran. Bikam?
Vendor: Ten pounds, sir.
MT (incredulously): Ten pounds?
Vendor: Eight pounds, sir.
MT (very incredulously, with look of shock): EIGHT pounds?
Vendor: Your sandwich, sir - eight pounds.
MT (utter disbelief): EIGHT POUNDS?
Vendor (defeated): Six pounds, sir.

Once the same price is repeated three or four times, I feel I have received a sufficient discount that comes from the substantial mark up that everything I consume instantly receives.

Well, off to see the pyramids.