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On one of my first days here, we went for an excursion to Bulaq, which is on the other side of the 26th July bridge from Zamalek. There is an old mosque here called the Mosque of Abu el Ala which dates from 1485, and the bridge marks where the Port of Bulaq used to be, the old entry point for travellers to Cairo. Nowadays, directly across from the mosque is a large used clothing market called Wikalet el Balah. Someone said these are donated clothes from the west which are being sold on. At any rate, they are very cheap. I bought a light cotton pair of trousers for LE7.5 (around $2-3) and a new Indian style top for LE20 (about $6). Erin decided he wanted a short sleeve cotton shirt, and managed to find some for LE20. It took a while to find because Erin wanted a 2XL. The next time we came back, Erin looked for another one and unfortunately we got the same cheeky sales person. He said it was my fault that Erin is large and that I should hide his food. Then he turned to Erin and said, "Enta mahshi!" mahshi meaning stuffed, and also
Bulaq
The clothes market mahshi is the general term for stuffed vegetables, so it made us both laugh, but after a while when he kept going on Erin got all grumpy and said if he kept it up he wasn't going to buy anything off him. Both sides of the road are taken up with clothing racks with a small walkway at the edge of the street, in spite of this there is a constant stream of taxis, motorbikes, donkey carts and horses. If you keep walking up the street, the clothing stalls end and fruit and veg stalls begin. Produce is cheap, good quality and you get it at the right price without having an argument. On the Nile side of the street is a winding alley of shops selling galabeyas and fabrics. We also found a good little shisha cafe with apple shisha for only LE1.25 and a great view of the action on the street. I prefer being able to watch the action outside but am only too aware that as a foreign woman I am an object of attention, and doubly so since women at shisha cafes and smoking is frowned upon. So I usually skulk inside at the back. On our way back to the main road, having bought a box of Egyptian sweets and a bag of peaches, the salesman popped out from among the clothing stalls like a jack-in-the-box and told me not to let Erin have any cakes, only peaches. On the corner of the street people sell fresh wholemeal pita bread spread out on racks on the footpath to cool after having been gotten from a local bakery. One time we walked past and all the bread had tipped onto the road. Everyone around helped pick it up and put it back on the racks. We prefer buying the smaller size bread for 15pt each. If you buy it at a shop, it costs LE2 for 5 pieces.
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sharongboyd
Sharon Boyd
hahaha jack in the box!