Coffee shops in Eygpt are more than just a place for a cup of coffee. They are a way of life. There are coffee shops in Cairo that specialise in lawyers and if you want a cheap lawyer, you go have a cup of coffee and find a young lawyer who doesn't have enough money to set up office except in a coffee shop. Naguib Mahfouz, Egypt's Nobel prize winning author, had his favourite coffee shop, Fishawy, in Khan el Khalili, which was known as a writers' coffee shop. These shops serve the thick sweet Turkish coffee, tea with milk, mint, or lemon, and various kinds of fruit juice as well as providing water pipes with tobacco flavoured with mint, apple, cantaloupe, strawberry, and so on.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Coffee Break
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6 comments:
Thank you Maryanne. The photo is very nice as most of your but I also loved to read your description. I heard time ago about lawyer at cafe but I thought it was almost an urban legend.
Somehow these pictures look familiar to me...
Seda
Istanbul Photo
These pictures remind me of the market in Jerusalem's old city. Beautiful pictures. Do you have any from your non-profit adventures...? Maybe we can share some...?
I've seen this one! Maryanne, you have such an eye, it's like you see with your heart, have captured the feeling of this remarkable place...
This is interesting. Are these coffee shops open to women as well?
(I know I'm ignorant...) :)
Dear Lothiane,
Yes, the coffee shops are open to women. However, to qualify, say in Alexandria, on the Cornishe (sea coast road) in the evenings you will see whole families late into the night/early morning sitting at a shop watching life go by for hours. However, usually you will not see women alone in a coffee shop "ahwa" it is considered "not nice" not a place for a lady and her friends. It's not considered dignified. Does this help? Kind of like a girl in a pool hall of men.
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