We'll stay one more day... We'll stay one more day

Trip Start Mar 07, 2006
1
6
21
Trip End Jun 07, 2006


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Flag of Egypt  ,
Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Well life in Siwa claimed us for 9 days in total and we could have easily spent a month there. Our days were kept busy sleeping late, visiting people we'd met, drinking tea, maybe a spot of sight seeing, drinking more tea and eating more food than we though possible. We were constantly being invited for lunch in people's homes. This was fantastic for me as I could get an insight into the local food which is mostly Berber in origin and very different to Egyptian food.

It normally consists of a soup, either clear broth with a small amount of vegetables and maybe some dried mint added, or mouliqqaya made from a dried and crushed up spinach like vegetable and has a texture like warm slime!! Eaten by dipping bread into it it's not too bad surprisingly. Then there will be copious amounts of rice , flat bread and a vegetable stew and salad and sometimes a piece of meat fore each person either boiled or if chicken, fried. Always followed by tea.

Through the week we visited Ali and Saidh's gardens which are small irrigated plots with date palms, olives and various other fruit trees. Vegetables and herbs are also grown.

Most of our days were spent in Saidh's shop chatting, we felt so comfortable in his presence he was a lovely person to spend the week with and we learnt more about Islam as a religion and the Siwan way of life than we thought was possible.

This has become a place which has a special place n our hearts and there's no doubt we will return here in the future. Maybe next time we will be able to stay for longer and hopefully learn some of the language as well. They speak a local language here which is solely a spoken language but everyone also speaks and writes Arabic and English is also spoken.

We met one guy Abdo who was maybe 60, and he spoke Siwi, Arabic, English, Italian as well as some French and German.

We also met a Libyan man here who had come to Siwa to find a wife for one of his sons. It was really interesting to get an insight into this process and how it actually occurs.

This is just a special place and we were really sad to leave it. But leave we must so tomorrow brings the long trip back to Cairo, via Alexandria.
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