El Andalous - Returning Again

Back on My Balcony Again!

When I returned to El Andalous a month ago, I was actually longing to be back in Egypt. It’s not that I didn’t want to be in Zurich so much, but I was missing the beach and the sunshine. I feel much more relaxed when I’m in Egypt than when I’m in Europe, despite the stress of things going wrong in Egypt, the crazy traffic, and the hassle of having to barter or to insist multiple times in order to get anything done. Somehow, the warmth just penetrates right into your very bones and before long, it’s impossible for your body not to succumb to a state of relaxation.

This time, just two weeks after I’d left Egypt again, I was much less in the mood to return. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to come back, but I’d only recently breathed in some of my “home” (Egyptian) air and somehow that had been enough to feed my soul for now. Consequently, I would have been quite happy to have stayed in Zurich for another week or two. The weather in Zurich, with temperatures in the high 20s, probably also helped.

I’ll leave another blog to explain all the settling in that I had to do when I came back a month ago; this time, all that admin stuff had been completed, so returning this second time was actually very easy. In addition, in my absence, our management company finally replastered and repainted my bedroom wall after a leak (I think it’s taken about three years to get them to do this) and they’d repaired my balcony wall and ceiling as I’d requested.

I returned with a cold, so I only did some leisurely swimming and snorkeling rather than “serious” swimming for the first week. Surprisingly, for the first few days I was back, I pined a little for Zurich. It may be a bit like when you go on holiday and it takes you a while to switch off. Here, it just seemed that Sahl Hasheesh was very quiet compared with the hectic rush that was my last two weeks in Zurich. I was looking forward to the slower pace, but then when it came, I had itchy feet.

However, the sun is starting to eat its way back into my system, and I can feel my body entering a deep relaxation zone and I’m starting to feel blessed again for this laid-back lifestyle. On thinking about it, I also believe there’s something quite special about Sahl Hasheesh. A bit like the way some houses or flats somehow feel “happy”, Sahl Hasheesh, to me, as a place has a very particular feel about it. Even though it’s totally modern, it’s a tourist resort and not really very Egyptian at all, the air somehow holds a bit of Egyptian mystique to it, something that calls to me, to my very being, and embraces me in its warmth, welcomes me with the sand, the sea, and the mountains, if I only breathe it in and allow it to let me join its cocoon.

Possibly more than with expats going to France or Spain (or maybe not!), most of those who have chosen to buy here in Egypt and have stayed with their investment feel drawn to Egypt in some way, and seem to assume that others feel the same. I’m not sure I was ever drawn to Egypt, but I do feel it has now entered my soul. I feel it is now a part of me.