Hurghada - Lunch in Sheraton Street

El Nasr Street - Dust Pavement

It was a day of headaches. Kathryn, Jac(queline) and I were supposed to be having a trip downtown; Jac wanted to buy an oven and a hob and then we would just explore. On the day, it turned out that Kathryn had a headache, so she had to back out. I ordered a taxi from Esmat.

Esmat arrived at the allotted time; he too had a headache, so I invited him in and offered him some paracetamol. I introduced Jac to Esmat and off we went towards Sheraton Street. As we got near, Jac pointed to a motorbike zooming along with a family of five sitting on it, oldest to youngest. Jac waved from the taxi and received five waves in return. This was shortly followed by a motorbike with two women on it; again they waved back at us.

We were supposed to meet Jac’s friend, Nadia, for lunch, but because we’d arrived early, we decided to wander down from Sheraton Street on a dusty road towards the Marina. As we went down the side road, Jac showed me this old guy’s shop. This is Egypt, so a shop here is a bit different from what you might imagine. From the outside it looked a bit like a garage with one of those corrugated doors that you roll up. An old guy, thin with white hair and gaps between his teeth, sat outside on his chair. We entered and inside a whole hotchpotch of items was piled high in no particular order and covered with dust. The first thing that caught my eye was the table in the middle with, amongst many other things, a couple of trays piled up full with old jewellery. Some of it was cheap and tatty, much of it was broken, but there were also some lovely items.

We walked through to the back. On the floor, to our right, was a sea of cutlery, plus the occasional inlaid box thrown on top for good measure. Shelves above held vases and lights, covered with dust. In front of us to our left was a whole table of knick-knacks – pocket mirrors (mostly broken), a Japanese doll, models of pyramids and palm trees. On the ground to the far right as we entered was a pile of empty biscuit tins, old toys, and a raft of other items. The shelves above held various Egyptian statues, again, laden with dust.

Jac asked about one of the lamps on the top shelf; we wondered how he would get to it since the cutlery was lying on the floor and blocking any access, but it turned out to be easy. He just walked on the cutlery to reach up to the vase.

For me, it was very interesting, as I doubt I would have had the courage to go in there on my own, but having seen it now, I can see that it is actually pretty safe. The guy was happy to let us just look around and didn’t hover over us. Jac negotiated on price and, everyone happy, we left. Jac’s phone rang. We were late for our appointment with Nadia.

We met Nadia in a restaurant/café nearby in Sheraton Street. As it turned out, Nadia too had a headache. Three people in one day and I’ve never heard of people complain of headaches here before!

It’s obviously Lent at the moment since Nadia informed us that because it was the run-up to Easter, she wasn’t eating any meat or animal produce. Consequently, we ordered some soup, garlic bread, and some dips. I’ve not really eaten anywhere much outside of Sahl Hasheesh, so it was pleasant to sit in the open air beside the street and to see all of life happening – Sahl Hasheesh is very quiet, so Sheraton Street is always quite a contrast.

We paid up and left and piled into Nadia’s car for a lift to El Nasr Street. The car was new, so it still had its polythene covers on the seats at this point. We drove down one road (which housed all the fabric shops) but then we had to turn round because the street was blocked due to works; the road was chaotic as cars kept on coming down and then having to change direction. Horns hooted impatiently as Nadia did her three-point turn amidst all the traffic.

Finally, we ended up in El Nasr Street, where I hoped to visit the shops I’d missed last time. A bit like Spinney’s – at the moment, each time I shop somewhere, I always see something I didn’t spot before. I’m not sure if this is just me, or if it’s also a function of the quickly-changing environment, with shops going bust and new ones trying their chance all the time.