Egyptian Oils & Flu-Like Symptoms
Of course, me being me, I managed to catch the flu just hours before getting on the plane, at the very beginning of this trip-of-a-lifetime holiday. And of course it didn’t clear up until several days after I came back home. I managed to force my poor, aching body inside of pyramids, through market streets and to spectacular temples and, for the most part, my experience wasn’t too hampered by the coughing and spluttering and wheezing (though whether my travelling companions agreed with this or not, I cannot say).
The one thing I simply could not accomplish, however hard I tried, was remastering my sense of smell. It just wasn’t happening. Nothing was reaching those nostrils. So when we arrived at a famous perfume shop, The Temple Flower Essence (apparently kind of a big deal - like, you need to make an appointment level of big deal), I knew those flu-like symptoms had finally won.
Luckily, despite my inability to smell any of the apparently delicious scents, I was able to see the shop and oh god, I don’t know if I’ve ever been anywhere as lovely and fancy before. The walls were covered in shelves of tiny glass perfume bottles and ornate oil burners. The room surrounded by plush, luxurious seating.
The owner of the shop let us smell all the different oils that he had, asking us to tell him names of perfumes we liked and then finding the exact scent amongst his collection of vials for us to compare. The other four in the group seemed highly impressed by this display and from what I'm told they smelled exactly the same. Whereas I, not wanting to seem rude to our delighted host, just went along with it all, pretending to smell my elbow and looking highly impressed, but the flu is hard to hide and after noticing my obvious symptoms I was promptly brought a glass of boiling hot water with peppermint oil for me to inhale.
Like magic, for 30 glorious seconds I had complete control over my senses. I lost it pretty rapidly after removing my nose from the rim of the glass, despite the steaming liquid being at least 20 times stronger than your average tube of Olbas oil back home. Nevertheless, that one scent made the entire visit that day worth it. What sweet relief.
And we were even provided with lunch - an enormous pot of koshari each (street-food that’s super popular in Egypt, basically filled with rice, pasta, lentils, chickpeas, tomatoes, herbs and spices), it's crazy filling and so flavourful and delicious that it managed to break through and reach my poor weakened tastebuds.
*First posted on MollyTravels.com