posted
People tend to think that the winter in Egypt is so nice and warm and sunny and cosy. Which is not exactly true.
Let's talk about the Egyptian winter for those who actually plan to spend extended periods of time in Egypt or winter holidays there.
Please mention your experience with being home without central heating on a cold Egyptian winter day.
Also what might have happened to you if you were once in the street and it would start raining.
Posts: 8756 | From: Tax-Free Zone | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Never experienced rain when in Luxor during winter but have been bloody freezing!!! Days are lovely, just like summer in UK, not too hot and beautifully sunny but nights, ooohh soo cold.
Many Egyptian homes in Upper Egypt are without glass in the windows and of course many have the normal 'hole in the roof' so its harder to keep the cold and the wind out. Of course there is no form of 'central heating' as we have in UK. Last time I was there it was quite windy for a few days, which it NEVER is in summer when you need it.
People put sheets, plastic, blankets or cardboard against the windows to try to keep the cold out and in the evenings its everyone outside around a wood fire made in a tin tray. which sadly you cant take inside coz of the thick smoke it causes. next winter im taking COAL
-------------------- If you don't learn from your mistakes, there's no sense making them. Posts: 15090 | From: http://www.egyptalk.com/forum/ | Registered: Jul 2004
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oh winter is horrible in Egypt...... we dont have heating at homes so it's even torture, you get get to the toilet, you cant take your clothes offif you want to change or take a shower.
The first 15 minutes in bed under several covers are torture becuase you are still freezing & trembling, your body is cold.
your hands, feet are always cold..... I can never make it without gloves & socks
it's torture
-------------------- Femme Fatale Posts: 3128 | From: Not Your Heaven | Registered: Sep 2006
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On a cold winters day, with no heating, you stay in bed as long as you can, if/when you get up you pile on as many layers of clothes as you can, and if you're not active, you sit wrapped up in a thick blanket, drink loads of steaming hot tea, spend twice as long in the kitchen cooking, and take quadruple length steaming hot showers
Or you go outside to warm up.
But if its extra cold outside because its been raining for more than a few minutes, then you wear your oldest shoes and take a spare pair with you if you're going somewhere nice, because the roads will be full of muddy puddles and you're bound to step in one or get splashed by a car. Well that is if the car still has usable windscreen wipers that haven't dried up through lack of use, so the driver can still see where they are going. Otherwise they'll have to stop every few minutes to wipe the mud splashes off their windscreen! And, after a couple of hours or more rain, there will be abandoned cars everywhere, from water getting into their carburettors from the flooded roads. So you always expect everyone to arrive at least an hour or two later than usual when it is raining...or not at all Posts: 4576 | From: Cairo | Registered: Jun 2002
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I can see an export business emerging from the uk!! Supply electrical blankets and wellington boots. I have solid fuel central heating in the uk and it takes a while to warm up!
Posts: 142 | From: England | Registered: Jun 2006
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I HAVENT BEEN THERE IN DEC OR JAN BUT IF FEB IT WAS BEAUTIFUL THE DATS WERE WARM AND THE NIGHTS WERE COOL, BUT NOT LIKE THE USA THERE IS SNOW AND FROST ON YOUR CAR WINDOWS IT TAKE A LOT TO GET IT OFF BEFORE YOU HAVE TO GO TO WORK.I WOULD RATHER BE IN EGYPT IN FEB. I DIDNT EVEN NEED A JACKET Posts: 9443 | From: USA...... | Registered: Jun 2006
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*makes note to bring electric blanket and feather duvet* wellies not needed
-------------------- If you don't learn from your mistakes, there's no sense making them. Posts: 15090 | From: http://www.egyptalk.com/forum/ | Registered: Jul 2004
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quote:Originally posted by uklady: Yes! Can't you buy wellington boots and electric blankets in egypt?
Both are available, but very rare...most people wouldn't buy wellies for the 5-7 days a year that it does rain, and electric blankets are available, but rare and expensive, but you can find hot water bottles quite easily.
Posts: 4576 | From: Cairo | Registered: Jun 2002
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posted
I remember my first winter and how annoyed I was that there was no heating in my apartment. I went to the landlord and insisted they provide heaters for my roomies and myself. First they were saying that they cost like 50 pounds to buy and I was basically like 'so?'. I pretty much said that if we didn't have heaters we would all move out within 2 days. They believed me (I meant it) and the next day there were several heaters giftwrapped at the door. The thing that irritated me is that the landlords took advantage of my roomies because they figured they were not rich or something. They figured I was because I was American so they took my complaints seriously. I still froze when not in the sphere of my little heater but it was better than before. One time I was just visiting in the winter for a couple weeks with a girlfriend from the states. We were staying in hotels that were not expensive but not cheap, cheap...maybe around 75 E. pounds a night. I loved the hotel and the location and didn't want to change, so I just went and bought a heater and gave it to friends when I left.
I am from the north of the USA so we get cold winters with snow, but I had never felt so cold as I did in Egypt that first winter. Brrrrrr.
Posts: 49 | Registered: Aug 2006
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When I was in Egypt about a month ago, it tended to get cold at night,but we'd put on the heater for a few minutes and I'd instantly be hot. I didn't find it much different fom being home. I get cold turn the heater on, and then I get too hot and turn it off.
Posts: 833 | From: Egypt | Registered: Dec 2006
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I find Cairo and Alexandria to be much colder than Luxor or Aswan, in winter. To me, even cooler Egyptian weather is tropical, compared to the freezing reality of home. Being in an Egyptian house is very much colder than in a well insulated hotel room.
A few years ago, we experienced a weird little flash flood in Luxor. This was very unusual, as it rarely rains there (a few spots, perhaps, occasionally). What impressed me was how quickly the fallen trees were removed from the roads. Before that, it was well over a decade since I experienced real rain in Luxor. I remember the problems it caused due to the construction of many homes.
Forgive me for not feeling too much sympathy for those living in the comparatively kind Egyptian winters. When I was a little girl, my goldfish froze in its bowl, one winter. We had no central heating in the house we then lived in. Now that was cold. Posts: 2953 | From: Slightly south of Azkaban. | Registered: Aug 2006
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quote:Originally posted by MK the Most Interlectual: People tend to think that the winter in Egypt is so nice and warm and sunny and cosy. Which is not exactly true.
Let's talk about the Egyptian winter for those who actually plan to spend extended periods of time in Egypt or winter holidays there.
Please mention your experience with being home without central heating on a cold Egyptian winter day.
Also what might have happened to you if you were once in the street and it would start raining.
Great thread! Well, it was quite a shock for me, learned quickly to wear several layers of clothes, drinks lots of hot tea or nescafe, even have some small heaters for the bedroom at night, otherwise my cold-prone asthma would be a nightmare! Was really surprised how cold things get, and the nighttime is the worst of course.
Only got caught in the rain once in the street, of course I HAD to be wearing my beige pants at the time, kicked mud up on my pants in seconds flat. Ran home quickly and threw the pants into the wash, it is a nightmare being caught up in it, thankfully it doesn't happen so often. It's much worse realizing you've just hung laundry and it begins to rain all over it, real bummer, I think if I had a clothes dryer at this point I would feel like a queen~
Posts: 13440 | Registered: Feb 2006
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ok.. well I have NOT seen any numbers getting tossed out here.. WHat are the Degrees that every one thinks are SO COld??? .. my husband is all dolled up in turtle necks.. hats.. and thick coats.. I googled it.. and it showes the Low's are like 13 degree celsius.. and thats like 55 degree F in Alex.. Here people are in Tshirts at that temp... try being Belly high in SNOW!!.. like -12 degrees celsius !! http://www.ilpi.com/msds/ref/tempunits.html this was helpful for temp conversion Posts: 431 | From: beantown | Registered: Nov 2006
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Forgive me for not feeling too much sympathy for those living in the comparatively kind Egyptian winters. When I was a little girl, my goldfish froze in its bowl, one winter. We had no central heating in the house we then lived in. Now that was cold. [/QB]
DAMNnnnnnnnnnnn !!!! now that is freak'n cold Posts: 431 | From: beantown | Registered: Nov 2006
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quote:Originally posted by magnona777: ok.. well I have NOT seen any numbers getting tossed out here.. WHat are the Degrees that every one thinks are SO COld??? .. my husband is all dolled up in turtle necks.. hats.. and thick coats.. I googled it.. and it showes the Low's are like 13 degree celsius.. and thats like 55 degree F in Alex.. Here people are in Tshirts at that temp... try being Belly high in SNOW!!.. like -12 degrees celsius !! http://www.ilpi.com/msds/ref/tempunits.html this was helpful for temp conversion
The comparison is not fair.
You could have the same temperatures in Europe and Egypt, but it would still feel warmer in Europe. I think the air humidity plays a role in this. You really feel the cold hitting your bones in Egypt. I was there a couple of weeks ago and it was 21 degrees Celsius during the day and maybe 15 at night, and I was freezing!! While it's now about 7 degrees Celsius in Amsterdam and it feels really nice outside, and almost like summer inside the house.
But have you all noticed that having warm feet does miracles to your general feel of warmth? They even have gone far enough to have Microwavable Bras!!
Putting a hot water bottle in your bed and under your feet does miracles too.
Posts: 8756 | From: Tax-Free Zone | Registered: Jul 2005
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yes , it does, i use to look after an old lady in Ireland, and i filled all the bottle s up at anight, and this was a really religious Catholic lady of 93 years old and she always put the bottle on the pussy, these were her very words, I laughed so much with her, they were the days
but yes, i have my hot water bottle s here to, i love it so much, its so comforting to cuddlewith a little wooly old hat wrapped around it
quote:Originally posted by MK the Most Interlectual: But have you all noticed that having warm feet does miracles to your general feel of warmth? They even have gone far enough to have Microwavable Bras!!
Putting a hot water bottle in your bed and under your feet does miracles too. [/QB]
I need those microwavable bras..... my boobs are the parts of my body that are the coldest, also my feet & hands Posts: 3128 | From: Not Your Heaven | Registered: Sep 2006
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quote:Originally posted by *The Dark Angel* aka CAT:
quote:Originally posted by MK the Most Interlectual: But have you all noticed that having warm feet does miracles to your general feel of warmth? They even have gone far enough to have Microwavable Bras!!
Putting a hot water bottle in your bed and under your feet does miracles too.
I need those microwavable bras..... my boobs are the parts of my body that are the coldest, also my feet & hands [/QB]
i want one for my nose always gets coldest Posts: 15090 | From: http://www.egyptalk.com/forum/ | Registered: Jul 2004
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quote:Originally posted by yorkshire rose: ME TO CAT, SOME TIMES, I COULD SCREAM IN PAIN FROM COLD NIPPLES, ITS THE MOST PAINFULL THING EVER, I NEED THE MICRO BRA TOO
Totally agree, it is the worst pain ever.
Posts: 1879 | From: Going to Graceland | Registered: Nov 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Alchemist: Totally agree, it is the worst pain ever.
Bzzzzt! Wrong.
Being kicked in the Yarbles is the worst pain ever.
Well seeing as I don't have Yarbles, I guess I cannot comment on this but until you have felt the screaming burning pain of rock-hard nerpples and wanted to literally rip them off your chest then I guess you cannot compare. (sorry for the graphic nature of this reply)
Posts: 1879 | From: Going to Graceland | Registered: Nov 2006
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which sadly you cant take inside coz of the thick smoke it causes. next winter im taking COAL ![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
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