Humans of New York Facebook page posted a picture of two old men living in New York city, with a caption that said: “We have been friends for 43 years now. Every few years, we meet for a few hours and pick right back up.”
As I was scrolling today on Facebook as I do every day, I saw that post which has wonderstruck me! I paused at it for seconds because it got me into a moment of a beautiful flashback to yesterday.
This is exactly how my three friends and I are like. I mean I do have many friends whom I see every day, but these three are the closest to my heart and yet I do not see them very often. Thanks to academics! we only meet every now and then. But when we do, we manage to “pick right back up”.
June 13, however, was the day I reunitied with my three amigos, Hana, Gehad and Monica. Those three beautiful young women whom I can never let go of. Those whom I dream of sharing every moment of my life with. They can easily get me out of the blues where my heart greives and take me into a different world where my heart cheers up and where my mind relieves.
I ran into Gehad and Monic on campus last Sunday. I was so happy that I saw them back then and so were they. We spent a couple of hours together in the library blabbing about how summer courses suck. We thought, however, as we were about to leave for the bus that we should hang out off campus. We decided that we should confirm that on a whatsapp group that we have created a long time ago.
On our whatsapp group we all confirmed the outing and we decided that we would hang out on Wednesday in Nasr City. We were so lucky on Wednesday that we couldn’t find a place where we would sit for Iftar! Most of the restaurants in Nasr City were reserved.
However, we ended up breaking the fast in Redline restaurant. A restaurant that seemed abondoned like a ghost city as there was no one in it except for the workers who worked there.
But it was really nice there. It was so cozy and extremely quiet that our voices seemed to echo.We were the only ones in the restaurant along with a father and his son who were breaking the fast at the neighboring table.
Hana and I had Fettuccini and it was so tasty; Cheese maccaroni diving into white sauce with big chicken pieces dipped within! Whilst Gehad and Monica decided to share a meal together. They had grilled Chicken, Bird’s Tongue soup (Lesan Asfoor), a bowl of rice, pickles and a Tamr Hindi drink. I personally couldn’t resist the pickles they had, so I decided to join them in eating those colorful pickles.
We were all basically eating from each other’s food, because sharing is caring, right? I ate their pickles while they ate from my Fettuccini. They sort of attacked on Hana’s food as well.
After we finished eating, we waited a bit for the food to digest. Our stomachs were so full that we could barely even move. But that for our stomachs and for our so-opened appetite was still the beginning as we decided we would go eat at several other places on the same day.
So, we paid the check and got ready to leave, but first we made sure that we wouldn’t leave the place without taking a picture so we would celebrate our reunion for Iftar.
Afterwards, we decided to go to Cinnabon where we had two giant pieces of Cinnabon, one with caramel Sauce and Cinnamon and the other with chocolate (Chocobon). Again, the spirit of sharing food was so strong. We all shared the two peices and ate them both in no time. It made Gehad even wonder how we were so fast as we ordered the Cinnabon after a girl sitting next to us had already taken her order, and we finished eating the Cinnabon before the girl finished hers!! We literally “licked” the plate with our forks and could barely resist more!
After leaving Cinnabon we decided to go have something fresh to drink, and so we decided to go to a place called Romana which was two streets away from where Cinnabon was. It was a small shop where you would actually see fruits like pinapple and Orange hanging! Outside the shop there were only two or three tables where people would sit and wait for the beverages to be made.
I personally ordered a pinapple juice, Gehad ordered lemonade whereas Hana and Monica decided to have orange juice. The beverages were really well made. They were so refreshing, so tasty and so colorful.
In this part of the blog, I have to confess that I hated sharing my juice with Monica and Gehad. I basically hate sharing beverages even if it were water because it is disgusting!!! but I had to do it anyways because they asked me to.
Anyhow, we sat there a bit and decided to buy some junk food to eat as we were drinking because we have had too much sugar in our bodies that day as we ate two pieces of cinnabon.
While we were there at Romana, we laughed hysterically that our stomach hurt so bad and all the people around us were looking at us as if we have gone mad. We kept rewinding the memories we have had together a long time ago. We were going hyper that we started mixing stories together.
My friend Monica started doing hair flips as I was shooting videos of us and of the place where we were at. Gehad couldn’t keep herself from laughing at Hana’s jokes that she could hardly even open her eyes, while I was too busy taking pictures of Monica doing the hair flips I taught her to do.
Nonetheless, our trip did not stop at Romana as we decided after Romana that we should go eat zalabia at Zalabia and Waffle car. The place was a bit far from Romana but Gehad, having lived in Nasr city her whole life, knew the place by heart, and so she stopped one of the blue buses (a means of public tansportation) and we took it to Zalabia place.
Zalabias were extremely delicious with the sugar powder springled on top of each. They were big, hot and soft that they would fade in your mouth as soon you chew them. We didn’t want to resist eating them, but we had to because we were going to be sick as we have been eating the whole day. And so, we couldn’t finish the whole packet. I had to leave with the leftovers (I ate them the following morning and they were still tasty!)
We wanted to eat fries and waffles as well but we couldn’t. There was basically no room for more. Our last stop was sadly at Zalabia’s. It was half past nine already and hence, we had to go home and call it for the night.
Each took their way to home with the unforgettable memories of Nasr City. I was so happy that I met them that day and my heart will forever cherich the memories we created together that day. To many more…
The Adventures of Tintin 