Realistically idealistic daydreamer, seasoned procrastinator, atheist and monarchist with a secret agenda and a slight inclination towards voodoo practices.
Will go back there in a few weeks time - anybody cares to recommend good Egyptian wine? That was the only drawback: they served Egyptian wine and nothing else everywhere I went, and since I am not an expert I tried a couple (not all that, to put it nicely) and then stuck to water. Beer is not an option for me.
ive never been to egypt but its fun to visit... not to live, but to visit :p again, depends where you go in egypt also... were you in cairo? or sharm el shaik?
Hey QC! Didn't know you went to Egypt. "Good" and "Egyptian wine" don't really belong in the same sentence. Tolerable, but it often varied from bottle to bottle. They had a sparkling wine that was pretty decent.
Didn't ancient Egyptians invent wine?
A little known fact: THe biggest consumers of Egyptian wine and beer are....Egyptian taxi and truck drivers.
As for living in Egypt vs. visiting...I think had I visited the country before taking a job there I never would have considered it. I think Egypt can be quite challenging for tourists. At least expat get a chance to settle in, seek advice on how to overcome things like being ripped off and the like.
Many places will allow you a corking fee if you bring in something they don't serve. Shouldn't be more than 20-50 LE depending on the restaurant. GRand Marquis is considered the better quality one of the reds.Cru de Ptolemees was the only white available. I was never much of a fan of Omar Khayamm.
Every Mediterranean country makes wine. Goes with the territory. But Egypt wine is probably the worst! Oh well, I don't know whether Libyan wine is worse than Egyptian, never tried it before.
Paniko,
Wine was crap. I wish they served at least some Italian or New World wines with that great food! Or made better local ones.
Ammaro,
I was in Cairo, and going back there in about 3 weeks time. It's dirty, crazy and I loved it.
We the HA,
Hello :P
Cairogal,
Wow thanks for all the info! I can see what you mean, and probably I'd get too frustrated actually living there, but I loved the time I spent in Cairo. Mainly I guess because I had local people take me places and I never really had to try and do anything on my own, other than my actual job. From the moment I stepped out of the plane to the moment I checked in on my flight back to Dubai there were our local colleagues to help me out with everything. And I didn't go shopping so never had a chance of being ripped off! :)
As for the wine - I tried one red and one white and that was it.
Of course you can join our forum, but I'm afraid you'll find it boring. There are very few members. We do have fun there though! People on the forum are all from different parts of the world.
Last year in 2007, i went for the first time to Cairo and I had heard a lot of bad reviews from people in Dubai so I was really amazed at how much fun I had.
True, i was lucky to have people with me that knew Cairo and Alexandria. The food was generally good, I don't drink wine but my friends made negative comments about it. I loved the beer though like Stella (no relation whatsoever with the belgian beer with the same name !!!).
I went in March, it was a great experience. I recommend it to people...and about being ripped off, it is not any different to other north african country. Same rules apply...take the price down until u are satisfied and if not walk away. All in all, prices are low compared to Europe or even UAE.
I didn't even know Egypt MADE wine.