The 2nd World of Egypt

Various of Spices in the Market

          Hey guys!  Karl here to update on my one week trip in Egypt!  In my previous post, I may have been a downer, but that doesn't mean that the experience is all in the void.  Anyways today, I went to the shopping market.  For the past few days, I stayed at the hotel for the majority of the time.  Today however, I decided to vary out my experience by going shopping.  I went to Khan AL-Khalili, a shopping market in Cairo.  Just like back in the U.S., the mall's sound was very noisy and the mall's primary goods were clothes and jewelry.  However, these products were way to pricy for my taste, so I pretty much decided to window-shop for today.  The clothes were softer than what I had previously speculated and the perfume had a strong fragrance to it. From what I experienced, from a past vacationing trip with my parents, the key to shopping in these kinds of countries is bargaining.  I'm not a good bargainer or even a good haggler, but I am a keen observer.

Egyptian Clothing

Egyptian Perfume

          Not only were there brass instruments, clothes, and jewelry, but there was also food.  As I walked through the market, I noticed that there was a lot of spices for sale.  I decided to try a sample of Egypt's special curry.  I made a bad decision because I'm not very fond of spicy food.  I don't really know what I was thinking then, but I will say that it had a very strong scent to it.  At the end of the day, I will say that Egypt's market is just as lively as the U.S.' supermarket malls.  I was genuinely surprised that the market was not a shabby area as I thought it would be.  I guess that's what happens when stereotypes block one's paradigm of reality.

Note: When I saw the perfume,  it reminded me of the Nintendo Wii game: Wii Party.  One of the games required the players to navigate around the world in search for souvenirs.  One of them is Egypt's perfume.  This is just something i wanted to rub off my back, but I digress.