Skip to main content

Palmyra

The bus dropped me off 2km the wrong side of town. The usually scrap over my bag ensued but this time I won and stormed off before any taxi drivers could kidnap me. After this the hotel touts tried there luck. Just say la shukran and keep walking. Then it was the kids. They worked in packs. While one was begging for money pretending (very poorly) to be sick, another was reaching in to your pockets while another was trying to unzip your bags. This continued until i got to my hotel and the owner chased them off.

Ancient Palmyra must have once been a spectacular city but after an earthquake a 1000 years ago all that remain are a few temples and quite a few columns. If this was anywhere else it would be packed with tourists. But as it is there were only a few dozen other people around. For every one tourist there must have been ten locals trying to sell posts cards or tours or camel rides or taxi's or just asking for money. The youngest of the postcard salesman must not have been a day over two. I guess teenagers just don't have the selling power.

The town itself was just like any tourist resort in Turkey. Everyone talking to you telling you how good their restaurant/store/tour was. It was also more expensive then anywhere else. After seeing the ruins and the citadel nearby I couldn't wait to leave.

cheers,
Scott.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hamburg

Its hard not to say how much I liked about Hamburg without contradicting what I said about Denmark. It had the bars and clubs, but it also had graffiti on the walls and dog shit on the street. It had a buzz to it. And strange things happened. Among other things, I was in a net cafe near my hostel when i got a tap on the shoulder. Turn around there's a bloke I had met in Jordan 4 months earlier. Creepy. Turns out he had just flown in for the weekend to meet someone he met randomly in Poland. I could have just as easily been in Bergen. Other than catching up with random friends I checked out a few of the museums and churchs around town. Highlight was probably the History of Hamburg museum which had more model cityscapes, planes, boats and trains than a boy at heart could poke a stick at. I got lost looking around a harbour that seemed bigger than the rest of the city. I also found myself in the middle of a joke when two germans, two indians and an Australian went out until dawn on t
3 comments
Read more

Aarhus

Same same, but different. Almost. The train trip up from Odense was a joy. It followed the coast up most of the way with great views from one side and lush forest on the other. Aarhus was ... pleasant. Lots of bars and clubs blah blah blah. The cathedral in the middle of town, the largest in Denmark, might have been a highlight if it wasn´t the same red brick structure as every other cathederal and church in Denmark. The recontructed old town was Ok after hours when you could walk around for free but I wouldn´t have paid to see it. Their was an Australian restraunt where I treated myself to an all you can eat buffet. After making do with gristle in London it was a nice change to get a decent steak without having to sell the rights to my first born. For a change up I caught the train out to Silkeborg in the Danish Lake District. If it wasn´t for the still shit weather I might have made more of it and went fishing or canoeing but I made do with a twenty km walk from Silkeborg to Ry (For
1 comment
Read more

Istanbul

My flight to Istanbul was a bargain, 30 quid including taxes. The environmentalists out there would have my head. If the worlds governments and companies took global warming seriously, they would have made it cheaper to take the Train. As it stands 30 quid on the train gets me only as far as the airport and back. Unlike previous trips I was pretty relaxed when i touched down in Sabiha Gokcen Airport on the Asian Side of Istanbul. I guess the usual anxiety I felt in this situation had disappeared with experience. The bus from the airport dropped me off in Taksim Square. A mess of buses going of in all which directions, none of which i recognized. My arch nemesis returns. With my backpack i still stood out like a tourist (well even more so, long blond hair isn't all that common among the Turkish people) and i couldn't wait to get to my hostel in Sultanahment to rid myself of it. After wondering around a little and asking a few of the locals i took the funicular (underground tram)
1 comment
Read more