After being in Egypt for 10 days we had not bought all of our souvenirs nor had Jeff had a chance to try Shisha. We decided to walk down the "boulevard" at our resort in Sharm El Sheikh and check out some of the little souvenir shops that lined the cobblestone pathway. We walked into this one shop (because the guy working there was NOT standing outside hassling us to "come in" and "don't worry about money because looking is free"). This guy had the coolest little place. There were really neat, bright colored clothes draped across the ceiling and he had these stars (made from paper) hanging from the ceiling. There were little light bulbs in the stars that made the whole place glow. He had the coolest stuff. I wanted to buy it all. Instead, I picked up 4 of the stars and 2 photo albums for gifts. Jeff bought a cobra statue carved from wood. Then we mosied on and came across this one shop that had a whole bunch of glass pipes outside. We walked in and the young man (our age) inside was just as nice as could be (without pressuring us or being a salesman). We ended up talking to him for a while and then he invited is to smoke shisha with him. (DISCLAIMER: Shisha is flavored Tobacco that is soaked in fruit to give it natural flavors. It is smoked by MANY people in the middle east and if you smoke it with someone, it is a sign of friendship. There is no buzz and no high from it. It is totally legal but is not proven to be healthy or safe. It burns slow thus...it is smoked through a water pipe. The water "filters" the tobacco.) We said sure! So we sat there and talked to him for a while until we had to go get ready for our candle lit, beach dinner :) Totally bummed that we had to leave our new friend Gorge, we told him that we would be back!
After eating so much that we couldn't even TOUCH our main course at dinner, we walked back to hang out with Gorge. We smoked Shisha again (well, Jeff and Gorge did) and we talked and talked. Gorge is Coptic Christian and we talked about the religion and customs. He wrote our name on our arms in Arabic ( i had my middle name "Hope") and made us scarab beetle necklaces. When Jeff went through security at the airport the next day, the guys that watch you go through the metal detector would hold up Jeff's arm and say "JEFF."
It was pretty funny.
Gorge is 29 and works at this shop. His family lives in Luxor.
This guy was really neat. :) We exchanged information and we have even texted back and forth a bit. We have a friend in Egypt :)
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