Hello again friends! I shall now continue on the story of my travels with the tale of my week in Syria!

DAMASCUS:

We flew into Damascus (myself & a group of 5 others) on the Thursday that school got out. My first glimpse of the country was of the beautiful countryside, but unfortunately it would be a few hours before I could experience that as we were detained by customs for hours (The US & Syria don't have the greatest relationship so they had to get us Visas & make sure everything checked out before we went through- the customs agent said that we should have gotten our Visas in Cairo but the Syrian embassy here said no...hmmm). I was pretty furious cause I was afraid we wouldn't be let in the country, & said we should have gone through Beirut for that exact reason, but one of the girls I was traveling with absolutely insisted that we fly directly to Damascus so I obliged. Anyway, at approximately 9/10PM, over 6 hours after we had arrived, we were finally free to roam about the country. We took the 1/2 hour bus rise into the middle of the city- Damascus is stunning! I guess the prophet Mohammed saw Damascus from a distance once but didn't go there because he only wanted to experience paradise when he died. I can see why! Our first sights of the city were of the lights on the mountainside. It was absolutely overwhelming & I couldn't believe we were finally here!


So we went to our hostel which was a really charming building in Old Damascus called the Al-Rabie hotel. It had a beautiful courtyard & we managed to snag the last of the roof mattresses (hello being woken up by the Adhan at 6AM!) they had, which the others didn't care for but I found quite cosy. After a good night's sleep it was time to head out into the city! We spent the day wandering old Damascus, went to the Umayyad Mosque which has one of the beautiful paintings I have ever seen, & just wandered around. It being Friday a lot of things were closed, but we still got a really good feel for the city. We headed up the mountain (the highlight of the day) overlooking Damascus at sunset & had dinner overlooking the city. It was truly spectacular! After a great day in Damascus, we checked the bus times & headed to Palmyra that night.

PALMYRA:

We got to Palmyra after midnight that night, & found our way to another hostel by squeezing the 6 of us into a cab. It wasn't comfortable, but doable/short & cheap. We stayed a couple of blocks from the ruins at Palmyra. Our hostel was a bit more comfortable but, us all needing a shower, we had issues sharing the hot water the next morning. Luckily it was discovered that all the rooms down the hall were open, so I snuck in & stole some time in another shower for a much needed shave of my legs. Once we were all done showering, we headed out for breakfast at a local pancake house/tourist hot spot. I had a soggy apple cinnamon pancake & it wasn't that great but others were pleased with their orders. I will never quite understand the mentality that bigger = amazing.

Anyway, after breakfast we headed to the ruins for the day. Part of the reason why Palmyra is Syria's crown jewel of tourism of the vastness of the ruins. It was an old city taken over by the Romans in the first century so thus is known as a Roman ruin. Part of what's so neat about Syria is that it has both Arab & European history. Anyway we needed a few hours to explore, so I headed off by myself cause I felt like wandering. The best part of the day was when I climbed a nearby hill for a view over all the ruins & the oasis that is Palmyra. The temple of Baal was extraordinary, & I left my first Roman ruins very satisfied. I was really sick that day though (not knowing at this point that I was getting hep A, so I spent a couple of hours just chilling in an internet cafe & trying to recover. We took the last bus of the day to Homs, the third largest city in Syria & our jumping off point for Krak des Chevaliers.

HOMS/KRAK DES CHEVALIERS/HAMA:

We spent the night in one of the only nice budget options in Homs, an old building with high ceilings & a nice drafty feel. We ate dinner when we got there at a Lebanese Restaurant, & I had my first fattoush salad (a fave of mine) in the region. It was excellent. The next morning, after some confusion regarding travel plans, we caught a bus to spend a couple of hours in the fortress at Krak des Chevaliers.

Krak des Chevaliers is one of the most stunning ruins I have ever seen. Located in the rolling green hills of the Syrian countryside, the view was fantastic & there was much to be seen. The castle itself had so many different facets that one could spend a whole day exploring its walls. When I got to the top of the castle, I dangled my feet over the edge for a second, but then got freaked out at the wind & turned around. It was an absolute highlight of the trip, & felt like I was on top of the world! See for yourself in the pictures

After Krak des Chevaliers we headed back to Homs, & then to Hama, the next town up. Our original plan was to go to Apamea & the dead cities before sunset, but, realizing that was ambitious, we decided to stay in beautiful Homs for a few hours. We stopped in a lush green park near the old city & checked out the Norias (massive water wheels) which are what Homs is famous for. We hung out with a couple of muezzins, had dinner & headed on to Aleppo that night.


ALEPPO:

I fell in love with Aleppo, or Haleb as they say in Arabic. It's the biggest city in Syria & has some very grand sites. The next day I spent wandering the city by myself, & went first to the citadel. The citadel in Aleppo is possibly the most grand of the citadels in all the cities I've seen. You can see for miles all over the city & it is the centerpiece of a nice little street area of cafes & shops, next to the souq. I then headed to Aleppo's souq which was great! I just love the old town markets. It wasn't cheap though! Living in Cairo I'm lucky enough that the Khan has not yet caught on to Western pricing. I did get a gift for a friend, & a nice pendant for myself though. There are a lot of mosques to see while I explored Aleppo, & it was overall a very full day.

Being by myself for the day I had a lot of thoughts about breaking off from the group & traveling by myself, remaining in Syria (I was originally supposed to go to Lebanon but didn't want to deal with another day at the border- I'll get there eventually, & flying back a bit early. We were losing so much time as a group, I felt like I was being held back from the group, & my interests (ie. I don't much care for drinking) differed significantly from the group. So after calling Ryan & mulling things over for the day, I decided to part ways with everyone else & the next morning said an amicable goodbye. While they were heading to Lebanon, I decided to take a trip to see Lake Al-Assad, touted to be one of the best tourist attractions in Syria & so worth the considerable effort it takes to get there.

LAKE AL ASSAD:

I got a late start to the day, so headed on a mini bus to Ath-Thaur, in the middle of Syria, at around 11AM. I'm not the hugest fan of minibuses- they are really popular in the region but I find them incredibly uncomfortable & they stuff them full of people. When Lonely Planet said it would be a considerable effort to get there. From Ath-Thaur I had to Arabic my way into a mini bus back the other way to a town called Raqqa on the base of where the Euphrates meets Lake Al-Assad while forming a small crowd of Syrian men around me. I got on that mini-bus, & then in Raqqa caught a taxi to take me to Qala'at Jabar, the fortress on Lake Al-Assad.

Some history behind Lake Al-Assad. Hafez Al-Assad, Syria's (now deceased) old president (father of the current one) had a vision to take on an unthinkable task- damming the Euphrates. So he did & Lake Al-Assad was created. After its creation Syria was self-sustainable as far as energy, but since then the Turks have built a dam of their own, which blocks flow of the Euphrates into Syria. So they sometimes turn down the flow to be able to charge Syria more money for energy, & the end result is that they are no longer self-sustainable. Shame.

Anyway, I digress. A lot of money, time, & effort has been put into making Lake Al-Assad beautiful, & it's worked. It is, hands down, the most beautiful lake I have ever seen (sorry Temagami). When we drove into the gates to the protected region it was like driving into heaven. The water was so blue & if I didn't know where I was I'd say I was on the Mediterranean or the Red Sea. Unfortunately, Qa'alat Jabar, the fortress I was going to see & most of the reason for making the trek from Aleppo to Lake Al-Assad, was closed. I was a bit heartbroken, all that for nothing. I did get to admire it from the outside, & it was well worth seeing Lake Al-Assad (the trip was a grand total of $15), but unfortunately the day was cut short & I made my way back into Raqqa.

From Raqqa I was supposed to go back to Ath-Thaur to catch another bus back to Aleppo, but I saw a sign that (in Arabic, I was so proud), said Haleb & so I last minute jumped in that bus, not even knowing how much I needed to pay, or anything like that. It was a bit shorter drive back to Aleppo, which was nice, & I arrived back in town at around 8:30 to collect all my stuff from the hostel & head to Lattakia.

LATTAKIA:

After two nights in Aleppo, I was ready for some new scenery & a new place to stay, along with a new town to experience to celebrate my adventures by myself. I took the night bus to Lattakia (if I had more time I would have taken the train, as it was recommended with the beautiful scenery, but I needed to take advantage of the nighttime to travel), & got there around midnight. I found my little hostel & spent the night in a dingy, but clean little single room, sleeping in the next day. I think that with school & everything, & obviously (not knowing it at that time) getting sick, I needed a bit of time to chill, so Lattakia was perfect. Lattakia is Syria's primary Mediterranean resort town, & it's a bit more upper class- rather that seeing more women in Hijab & Miqab than you've ever seen in your life, there's a lot of tight jeans, high heels, expensive boutiques, & chic little restaurants- not generally my thing but kind of nice as it made me feel like I was on vacation. After sleeping in in the morning, I headed out, got lunch, & grabbed a cab to one of the resorts to spend the afternoon chilling on the beach.

The cab ride was actually one of the scariest I have ever experienced, & the only time in Syria I ever felt unsafe. The cab driver started talking to me & I gave my usual Arabic one-word answers, not trying to start a conversation but also trying not to be rude. Anyway after about 5 minutes I made it clear I didn't want to talk to him, & looked out the window, but he kept creepily looking back at me in his rearview mirror. After the sixth or seventh time of him doing this I called him out & told him to stop looking at me, after which he asked me if we could have a picture. I said a rather disgusted "no" (I was really getting frustrated at this point), & then he asked me to marry him. I said an even more disgusted no to that & he kept talking about ana wa inti (me & you) something or other & fee Amreeka (in America) & blah blah blah. He then tried to take me to what I assumed was his house which made me downright mad. He never slowed down enough for me to hop out of the car, but I started yelling lee sha'ati, DILWATI! (to the beach, NOW!) & after my tone did not let up a couple of times he knew I was serious. As I got out of the cab he tried to turn around (I was in the backseat) & feel up my leg so I got out & ran away without paying for him. He didn't come after me, so it was done.

After that, I really needed to chill. The two biggest sections of beach in Lattakia are controlled by the two five star resorts in town, & I went to one of them, checked out their beach, which was a bit dirty, so tried the other one. It was clearly out of season so I basically had the beaches to myself & didn't even have to pay! It was totally beautiful & a great first-time Mediterranean experience. Feeling comfortable enough, as it was a foreign hotel & the area was fenced-in, I took off my dress & caught some rays for a little while (not too long though due to my skin being very white & burnable). The water was quite chilly so I just waded in it, & spent the afternoon basically until the sun went down reading The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera, my most current read. After a pleasant, relaxing afternoon, I went to the bus station to head back to Damascus.


BOSRA:

It was now Wednesday, & as I had changed my flight to fly out at 2AM on Friday, I decided that I should stay in Damascus for the night & base my next day there. After a very pleasant bus ride (traveling by bus- not minibus- here is generally great & so cheap!) from Lattakia I made my way back to the Al-Rabie hotel where the trip had started. I spent the night there & started the day around 10AM. I was already starting to feel sluggish & off balance (little did I know it was a bout with Hep A coming on), so starting the day was rather difficult. Anyway I took the city bus to the large Pullman station across town, & bought a ticket to the noon bus to Bosra, two hours south of Damascus near the Jordanian border. I had just missed the 11 o'clock bus so I took a nap in the station for a little while, then slept the whole way to Bosra. Bosra is a very small town, without much to do except see one of the most well-preserved Roman amphitheaters in existence. Being one of Syria's top attractions it's a great day trip from Damascus.

Anyway I got dropped off right outside the citadel/amphitheater (they built a citadel surrounding the amphitheater later on) &, after getting hassled by a couple of men trying to sell me a "special" bus ticket, went on into the citadel. The entrance was grand, walking over a real moat (waterless) & everything! What was nice about Syria too (forgot to mention), was that everywhere only gives you a student price if you have an ISIC card, so I was like yes! I knew I bought it for a reason. So at every site, instead of paying 150 pounds (like 3 dollars) I paid a mere 10 pounds to get in, saving a big percentage of my cash (hey- 150 pounds goes a long way in Syria- most bus tickets cost less than that!). I walked up the citadel to the top, not realizing that the reason I was by myself was because it led to a dead end. It was still pretty cool though! I then turned around & eventually found the ampitheater. I was amazed! It was so easy to picture it back in the Roman times, when the entire audience section was covered in white sheets & the essence of flowers & other sweet things wafted over the crowd. Every year they actually have the Bosra theater festival where it once again comes to life- I would love to see that.

Anyway I was done in the citadel in less than an hour, so I went to a cafe, got some hummus & some fresh squeezed orange juice (I am really going to miss the fresh squeezed juices & their cheapness), & waited for the bus to come. At around PM, it was back to Damascus, & into my last night of my trip. I spent the time walking around the souq, stopped for some dinner at a restaurant recommended by the Lonely Planet (I had lots of Syrian pounds left to use up) & then made my way to the airport that night. A nice end to a wonderful week! I hope to return to Syria at some point- I'm planning on coming back & living in the region so I'm sure I will. I learned so much from the people there & it was great to see another facet of the Arab world. I will go to Lebanon at some point, probably for at least a week, but I got over my disappointment in not going there pretty quickly when I realized how short of time we would have there combined with the inevitable border day I didn't want to deal with. Malesh!

I shall write soon about my life in Egypt for the last couple of months & my bout with Hepatitis A. For now I'm going to go out & enjoy the city because, hey, I only have so much time left! Over & out, love you all!

So I know I said I'd be better, & have yet again failed, but here's another (& possibly one after this one, I'll try but I won't promise) blog entry for you! It's so hard to believe I've been here for three months, & am now lamenting the very little time that I have left. Yes, I'll be back, but I've so fallen in love with this place that it will be hard to say goodbye for a little while...

Anyway! So the theme of this post will be short accounts of my travels outside of Cairo thus far!

DAHAB:

First & foremost was Dahab & Mount Sinai! I went early in February. After planning to go to Luxor for the weekend, the AUC travel agency screwed up on our ticket dates & we decided we still wanted to travel that weekend. So we basically out of a hat picked Dahab, & let me say it was the right decision! I went with my friend Laura & two other girls who live in the dorms. We hopped a bus around midnight that Thursday & arrived in the Sinai peninsula to see the sunrise over the mountains in the wee hours of the morning. We were debating over whether or not to bring our passports, well thank god we did because there were about 8 security checkpoints along the way. I guess that's the price you have to pay for feeling safe in the Middle East. Anyway, we arrived in Dahab at around 8:30AM on Friday morning, & took a taxi (a truck bed) to our hostel called Alaska Camp. Dahab is magical- it's so laid back & basically the ambience of chilled out-ness sucks you in & makes you want to stay forever. I could have very well spent a month there, or every weekend. The bus ride was so worth it. The way Dahab is set up is the main part along the shore is lined by restaurants with whom you exchange business for using their portion of the shoreline. It is so beautiful. You sit there, looking at Saudi Arabia in the distance over the Red Sea, & ponder how you could be anywhere else. A guy who runs our hotel (a bit too forward with women, but thankfully there were a few of us to avoid anything truly uncomfortable) took us snorkeling for the afternoon- it was some of the most beautiful seascape I have ever seen! The Red Sea is unimaginably blue, & then you dip your head underneath & see every color of the rainbow along with countless species of wildlife- fish, plants, etc. I so wish I had the time to get my SCUBA certification cause I would love to dive there! Holas, it shall happen later on. That being my first real snorkeling experience, I was very lucky, & loving the place already. It is so picturesque as well, how the mountains meet the water, you think you are in a scene straight out of a movie. Especially being in Egypt! I would never have thought such natural beauty could exist. Gameel awi indeed.

That night we climbed Mount Sinai, which, in biblical terms, is the mountain that Moses is said to have received the ten commandments from God. So being such a holy site to three major religions, you would expect something extraordinary. It didn't disappoint! We started the climb at about 1AM, & already it was truly celestial. I mean that quite literally as the stars, even spending every summer for the last 10 years in Temagami & being lucky enough to experience that sky, were unlike anything I had ever seen before. With every turn it was like we were walking into the sky- indescribable really. Eventually Laura & I, being the fast walkers that we were, escaped the throngs of tourists & got to a part of the path to ourselves, which was nice because we didn't have to frustratingly wait for the group in front of us to avoid stepping on their heels. We arrived near the top (with only the final 750 steps to go) at the last camp at about 3:30, & napped for a little while under a blanket we rented, & for which were oh-so-thankful. It was freaking cold! I was wearing my North Face, my Under Armor, leggings, yoga pants, tube socks, & a scarf (I unfortunately donated another one to the mountain on accident) & was still bloody freezing! Near sunrise we made the final climb to the top & got a good spot to watch it. & friends, there's just something about the way that the sun slowly blankets the mountains around you that gives you chills. The landscape is so rugged that you actually feel like you are on top of the cradle of civilization. It was truly one of my most memorable experiences to date. We made our way back down the mountain, took a nap on the drive back & chilled out in Dahab for the rest of the day. Laura & I went snorkeling again whilst the other two took the earlier bus back, & took the 10PM bus to Cairo, arriving in the wee hours of the morning just in time for class! A fantastic weekend, one which I will likely be repeating before this time around here is up.

BAHARIYYA OASIS/BLACK AND WHITE DESERT:

So the following weekend I went on a trip with my program at school to Bahariyya Oasis & the Black & White Desert. I'm not normally one to go on organized group tours, but since you kind of need to go through an organized tour guide to get there I figured the price & the opportunity was worth it- & it was. We left Thursday at around 2PM from school for the seemingly endless bus ride. Got to Bahariyya (south west of Cairo) around 10PM, & whilst the Oasis itself was lovely, the town was a total dump & I was ready to get camping, We spent the first night in a nice little hotel & then got up the next morning to make our way out into the desert with a group of Bedouin Guides.

I guess there were about 25 of us on this trip, & we split up into groups to jeep through the desert. Our drivers were the best/the craziest, so I think it'd be safe to say I was in the most fun car. We first went to a sand dune & that was cool, then to the black desert which is black because it's got lots of volcanic rock on the surface (I stole some). & the way it was described to me was perfectly accurate: it's cool, but after about a half hour you're like, "ok, ready to see something else!". Haha. So we went to Crystal Mountain, which was a way cool hill in the desert with tons of crystal formations (I stole some more) & then stopped for lunch at a buffet.

After lunch it was time for the white desert, which was really one of the coolest places on earth. It's like the moon. First we went to an area with just big blocks of chalk & lots of sand dunes & walked around. Then we made our way to a tiny oasis with a prayer square so our guides & the practicing Muslims who were with us could observe the sunset prayer. After that we went to where we would be camping, a field of these massive chalk formations that makes you feel like you're on the moon. Look at the pictures to understand what I'm talking about.

There's not much more to say about it. I had a hit of the "mummy tummy" (ie traveler's food poisoning- my stomach has NOT been holding up well here. That stay in the hospital in December really finished off my immune system) so I spent most of the night really getting to know those rock formations if you know what I mean. The next day we spent driving back the Cairo, & arrived that evening after having a very satisfying weekend!

SIWA OASIS:

My wonderful man-friend Ryan's (who I mentioned coyly last time :) hehe) mom was in town visiting, & he & I had been talking about going to Siwa together for a little while so we went one weekend in March! It holds the record of my favorite place I've been so far in Egypt. The weekend was just perfect, peaceful, & beautiful!

As there are no direct buses from Cairo, we took a train to Alexandria Thursday night & an overnight bus from there to Siwa. I was pleasantly surprised by how comfortable the train was- like Amtrak but a fraction of the price! The bus was bloody freezing, & I woke up with a sleeping leg & thinking I was in Western New York, but we got there a couple hours early basically free of hassle & took the motorcycle trailer that was our taxi (an upgrade from the donkeys they mostly have) to our hotel. It was called the Shali lodge & is quite possibly the nicest hotel I've stayed in. Not because of amenities or anything but it was so clean & peaceful, the buildings where made of mud brick & had a very earthy feel (especially the bathrooms). The bed were very warm & comfortable, & part of the set of bamboo furniture that complemented the room. We had to wake up the owner since it was so early but he kindly let us into a room so we could sleep for a few hours until ours was ready. The first thing I noticed about Siwa was how quiet it is. Being in Cairo, or most places really, you forget what real quiet sounds like & how lovely it is. I was amazed at how this place seemed to be the epitome of the word "oasis". It was like being in the real version of the archetypal beauty that you see in a painting or a cartoon. Anyway we slept for a while, got woken up to move to our room, & slept some more. We got up around lunchtime & went out for a little while into the town & got some lunch. After renting a set of bikes (yes, I was ecstatic!) we went back to the hotel where Ryan & I took a nap & his mom enjoyed some sun rays. I would normally feel bad about being so useless on a trip, but that was part of the beauty of Siwa: life just moves slower there, & it's nice to be able to enjoy its simplicities.

After we woke up, we biked around town & went out to a place called Cleopatra's Spring which was so peaceful, & idyllic that I can't even describe it in words to you. We enjoyed some fresh juice & some more relaxation, & I longed to swim but realized a) that it would be a little cold & b) that I probably wouldn't be that comfortable in a bikini amongst all the Egyptian men. The night went without a hitch & we woke up the next morning, had breakfast, & headed to a shop where we had made friends with the owner- but perhaps too good of friends as he proposed to Ryan's mom. Oh Egypt. Anyway after that we just walked around admiring town & headed out for our desert adventure at around 3PM. We were set up by a man with a hotel with this guide who I unfortunately would never use again. However, it was a great time anyway! Siwa is right on the edge of the Great Sand Sea, which is one of the biggest dune fields in the world, & we enjoyed some time just driving around the dunes. Our driver apparently wasn't experienced enough, however, as we unexpectedly ran into a bump & got stuck in the sand. While we waited for help to come & pull us out, we pulled out the dune board- it was fun while it lasted, but way too much effort for a not so great dune. When they finally got us out of the sand we hopped back in the jeep & drove around some more, stopping next at a hot spring. After taking a quick dip we went off to the cold spring nearby, which was beautiful but again freezing! Kind of glad we didn't have time to swim. After that it was off to another part of the desert to watch the most grand sunset I've ever seen.

We were then taken to our "campsite" for the night. Now we ordered a site by ourselves out in the middle of the sand where we'd sleep on our own, but instead got put at a campsite with some makeshift huts & another group of travelers. We expressed our displeasure with this, so whilst making the fire, our guide went out & "made" a "wind barrier" (it was the saddest looking thing I've ever seen) in the middle of the sand & set out some mattresses & blankets, which was better than nothing. After a couple hours of Ryan narrating "The Pillowman", & trying to fall asleep whilst the Bedouins banged their drums at 1AM, the three of us had a nice night under the stars, where at one point we could even see part of the Milky Way. I think nothing compares to the stars in the desert.

The next morning we got up first thing, went back to our hotel, showered, & quite unsuccessfully (we only got a 150 pound discount) tried to bargain down our disappointing guide. We spent the rest of the day again admiring the town & began our journey back to Cairo, arriving at around midnight after an arduous journey involving running around in an absolutely poop hole of a town, & being driven so nuts by the horn on the bus I thought I actually might jump out of my skin. It was again an incredible weekend, & one of my best memories of Egypt thus far!

So those are the travels I did before spring break & my bout with hepatitis. Very soon & will fill you in on spring break (Syria!) & my life in the last couple of months. Until then, ma'salaama friends! :)