Day 4: Aug 28

Woke up early again this morning. Don't know why but I can't go back to sleep. Last night was a blast but I definitely want to avoid buying anything I'm never gonna use from now on... Decided to use this morning to catch up on my previous journal entries. If you couldn't tell already I've been writing them a day behind. Well now I'm all caught up.

Evan woke up at around 9:30 and we both went down to get breakfast. After breakfast we decided it would be a good idea to find the American Embassy and let them know we were in Cairo. We left and headed toward Tahriir Square. We decided to try a new route to see if it was any faster. As always 30 minutes later we were lost somewhere near downtown.

Seeing our predicament a local Egyptian walked over to see if we needed any help. He spoke some English and was able to tell us the direction of downtown. Pulling us to the street we needed he pointed us in the right direction. We thanked him and talked for a few minutes exchanging the normal pleasantries. We thought that we had managed to meet another friendly non-money seeking Arab. Turns out we were wrong because we were quickly ushered into his store and offered drinks (sound familiar). He insisted on us giving him our home addresses so that he could send us Christmas cards... we both lied and gave him fake last names and addresses. Soon he was trying to pawn us oil and essence. This particular store owner was particularly pushy and would not take no for an answer. We eventually had to push our way out and were followed down the street by screams of "BYE BYE MICHAEL! BYE BYE MICHAEL!"

At least he pointed us in the right direction... we found our way back to the city center within 5 minutes and were on our way to the embassy. Of course the embassy was closed on Friday which is the Muslim holy day (shoulda thought of that sooner). Either way we know where it is at least. We explored the near by surrounding and found the massive British Embassy. By the way there are police and military police everywhere and it is not uncommon for them to be carrying AK-47s. Kinda weird.

We decided to walk back toward our hostel after stopping to admire the Nile. We stopped at the same cafe as yesterday hoping that we would get a waiter that wouldn't charge us as much. We got overcharged again and will not be returning there again. Once back at our hostel we continued our search for apartments via the Internet. We found a couple good looking places in both Zamelek and downtown Cairo. We have contacted the owners/brokers and are waiting to hear back. We do have one appointment for tomorrow at 9pm to look at a few places owned by the same guy downtown (keep your fingers crossed). Evan continued to study and I decided to take a nap.

I was awoke by a call from a mutual friend of Evan and mine, Kevin Ward, who was in our Arabic class at UCSD. He is currently living in Cairo and we have been trying to get in touch. We decided to meet up and go out for dinner/fattar. We met near the old AUC campus and followed him south towards his apartment and a few restaurants he liked near there. We ate at a place called Abu Shoka. I tried the Kofta sandwhich. This was very similar to the Shwarma the day before except that it had lettuce and a different spice blend.

Afterwards we went to Kevin's apartment to see what a apartment looks like for 2500 a month. He lives in a 2 bedroom one bath which is well furnished and taken care of. This was good for both Evan and I because now we have a good gauge on what someone else is getting for the same price range we are looking at.

We all left Kevin's place and went towards where we were supposed to eat Aman. We arrived a few minutes late and he was not there. This didn't greatly surprise Evan or myself because all three of it had left it as a maybe which in Arabic culture is often a gracious 'no'. Either way we showed Kevin around Emad Al-Din which he had never seen before and he accurately described as "busy like times square." We decided we were still hungry and got a snack/second dinner at the fool place from two nights ago. We decided to split some fool and try the falafel which the waiter insisted was good. He was right and we all left more stuffed and pleased than before.

After this Evan decided he was going to go back and get some sleep while Kevin and I went to see the Nile at night. I had heard it was gorgeous at night and was not disappointed. It reminded me of the Vega strip. The main Strip of the city brightly lit with neon boats sailing up and down. It was gorgeous but both Kevin and I were getting sleepy. We walked back to Tahriir Square and parted ways, him going south myself north. I arrived back at the hostel and quickly fell asleep.