Last night, I went on a felucca: probably for the last time (at least, for the last time while I'm living in Egypt).
They say once you've drank the waters of the Nile, you will always return to Egypt. Now, I've never scooped a cuppa out of the Nile and had a chug (like I saw the men on a felucca next to us doing) but I know that the water pouring from my tap and on to my toothbrush is l'eau de Nile, so it counts in my book. Also, I've fallen in the Nile trying to board a felucca in Aswan; which in my book is the same thing as 'bathing' in the Nile; which is another thing people say will bring you back to Egypt.
The point is, I will be back someday, if only to visit T and take a felucca.
Back to feluccas...this is my absolute favorite past-time in Egypt. For roughly $10 an hour, you cruise the quiet end of the Nile between Maadi and Helwan (South of downtown Cairo) on a single-sail vessel. If you hang out with us (and really, why wouldn't you?) there is quiet, pleasant conversation, endless carafes of Pimms cup, and T's homemade hummus (and, of course, AndreaDip).
The air on the Nile is somehow cleaner (even when you're just 100 feet from shore) and the breeze is cool and refreshing; keeping the sweat off of you (despite the 99 degrees noted on the thermometer just before you left). The sun sets, everything turns all golds and purples, and everything is right with the world.
The restorative powers of cruising the Nile after a long week of work are akin to magic in my book, and, other than my amazing friends, the thing I shall miss most about Cairo is the feluccaing.
They say once you've drank the waters of the Nile, you will always return to Egypt. Now, I've never scooped a cuppa out of the Nile and had a chug (like I saw the men on a felucca next to us doing) but I know that the water pouring from my tap and on to my toothbrush is l'eau de Nile, so it counts in my book. Also, I've fallen in the Nile trying to board a felucca in Aswan; which in my book is the same thing as 'bathing' in the Nile; which is another thing people say will bring you back to Egypt.
The point is, I will be back someday, if only to visit T and take a felucca.
Back to feluccas...this is my absolute favorite past-time in Egypt. For roughly $10 an hour, you cruise the quiet end of the Nile between Maadi and Helwan (South of downtown Cairo) on a single-sail vessel. If you hang out with us (and really, why wouldn't you?) there is quiet, pleasant conversation, endless carafes of Pimms cup, and T's homemade hummus (and, of course, AndreaDip).
The air on the Nile is somehow cleaner (even when you're just 100 feet from shore) and the breeze is cool and refreshing; keeping the sweat off of you (despite the 99 degrees noted on the thermometer just before you left). The sun sets, everything turns all golds and purples, and everything is right with the world.
The restorative powers of cruising the Nile after a long week of work are akin to magic in my book, and, other than my amazing friends, the thing I shall miss most about Cairo is the feluccaing.
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