Ascenseur in Free Fall

Expect the unexpected and you'll be prepared for the unpreparable in Egypt. Last night as my friends and I were trying to get back to our hotel room in Cairo, we tried to use the elevator (this is normal) instead of climbing up 8 flights of stairs to the roof. After we got up 3 and 1/2 floors our elevator started slowing down and started reversing direction. We were falling slowly, but much faster than an Egyptian elevator should descend. We were able to open the elevator door and stop the elevator in place, but we were in the middle of two floors, so we had to jump out of the elevator onto the floor below us. This was clearly a crazy experience, but it felt abnormally normal.