Skip to main content

Hama

Yesterday was one of days that I think I will always look back on with a nostalgia that makes you wish you were still traveling . Years from now some one will ask me about my trip to Syria the 'Axis of evil'. Its ok. They don't know any better. I would tell them when out walking one day exploring the streets of Hama, taking in the sites, the old churches, the old town, the water wheels, pretending that the river wasn't worse than a Torrens algal bloom, that I was invited over by a mother and her two daughters who were having a picnic. One of the more interesting conversation i've had for a while went on for the best part of five hours. Interesting because until then I hadn't had eye contact from a member of the opposite sex in a month let alone been spoken to. Even more interesting is that this conversation lasted so long given that they didn't speak a word of English and I didn't speak a word of Arabic. Dyslexic signing would be the best way to describe it.
They shared their dinner, served me tea, refused money when I offered to pay my share and sent me on my way with a 'Welcome to Syria'. Axis of evil my arse. Shukran didn't come close.

Today I went to Crac des Chevialers, an old crusader castle. I was saving my superlatives for Petra and the pyramids but this deserves a few as well. Will let photos speak for themselve (when posted)

Cheers,
schuey

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Strung Treng

Strung Treng was an unexpected stop over, more a hospital visit then the usual tourist stuff. I was waiting in a guest house restaurant for the bus to Laos when i was rather suddenly overcome with a fever and fatigue. I rented a room and slept for almost 24 hours straight. The manger was understandably concerned, he thought it might have been Malaria, and sent me to the doctor for tests. It wasn't Malaria but was probably Dengue Fever but I needed a 10 hour bus trip back to Phnom Pehn to confirm this. Either way the 'cure' was Panadol, plenty of water and rest. I was going to do this in Laos anyway so decided against the bus back to Phnom Pehn and caught the bus to Laos the next day instead.

Amasya

Lonely Planet suggested that Amasya is one of the prettiest towns in Turkey. Set in a mountain valley with a river running down the middle, I couldn't agree more. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves when I eventually post them. Once again the weather was perfect and it hadn't snowed here at all which was good because I had a lot of walking to do. It was a strange town. Mostly because it was one of the more modern towns I had come across, it almost had a cosmopolitan feel to it. But then there would be a horse and cart parked in the street. Most people spoke some English. They would come up to me (blond hair = foreigner), especially children and say hello, welcome, what is your name? where are you from? but that would be it as if that was as far as their grasp on the English language would go. This was excellent but as the conservation wasn't going to go any further (my Turkish matches their English) it made for a weird silence until one of us went on our way. I d...

Torun

The train ride from Warsaw to Torun was a little different as I spent the entire journey in the Cargo carriage, old west stole away style. I would like to say that this made it more exciting but it really didn't. The train was full and even though I had a ticket with a seat number and everything on it this really wasn't enough for rather large man who was in my seat and was two thirds of the way through a six pack (at 8 in the morning no less). The conductor wasn't getting paid enough to care so I found myself sitting on my backpacker surrounded by bikes and other unfortunate souls who were unlucky enough not to score a seat. My first problem with the Hostel I stayed at in Torun was that the directions were from 'a' train station, just not 'THE' train station. What was a 5 minute walk was actually 50. Once there I was greeted by no one. A few knocks on the door, a yell up stairs, a ten minute wait while looking through my guide book for some where else and f...