Why stay in Ankara?
IF there is so much more to explore? Thats what Lotta and i thought and decided spontaniously to join some volunteers from Antalya to go to Syria for a week or two.
Too bad i only had a week but in the end it turned out that going home would be the best thing anyways!
We left Ankara on January 22nd. The start was just like it would be - if travelling with us. We got on the wrong bus. ours was late and the same bus company also send a bus to Hatay like 15 min before ours so we put in our stuff and wanted to sit down but there was already someone in our seats so they kinda told us its the wrong one and we had to leave and teh poor steward had to dig out our backpacks. I was so nervous we would miss the bus, luckily there was a turkish guy that spoke english and told me "just relax" lol
well finally we managed to get on the right bus and fell asleep right away so the 10 hours didnt seem that long to us.
In Antakya we met the others from Antalya-it took them 14 h so we were lucky the trip wasnt that long for us.
We got on a bus, that took us to the border, hung out there for awhile to get the visa, iam so glad we had Sakaryya with us cause he speaks arabic and without him iam sure it would have taken much l
onger for us at the border.
So we got to Aleppo at like 6 pm, found the Hotel and it was rainy, what a start!
and i must blame it on my shoes too that i got sick and Rasmus was sick when i left Ankara so i might have cought my cold there . Well my shoes were soaked with water it was freakin cold but we went to eat Falafel so everyone was happy!
We started to calculate in Falafel Units cause a Falafel (apparently the best in town) costs like 25 syrian pounds which is like 30 cents. And we measured everything we spend with that unit! lol
The next days we walked around the old town of Aleppo - visited the castle which is like really cool and looks like its the film set for a Lord of the Rings movie.
So then a couple days later we wanted to go on to Damaskus and stop in Hama on the way.
Sakaryya and Petr wanted to stay in Aleppo and go to Latakia so we left them behind and were now 6 people.
In the lonely planet it says that hama is a charming city but there is not much to see, and well like almost always, the Lonely planet is right. The city is famous for its water wheels but since the river didnt hold enough water - they didnt turn. but we were invited to tea by a nice syrian guy and walked around the city a bit.
The thing about Hama is just- it is a charming city but due to the Massacre of hama in 1982 most of the old buildings and parts of the city were destroyed.
The story goes that a Muslim brotherhood from Egypt wanted to establish a branch of it in Hama and the government didnt agree so there was severe fighting and in the end nothing left.
Well we only stayed a couple hours and then went to Damaskus. All the nice hostels from the Lonely Planet were full so we kinda became scared that we would have to sleep on the roof which was not heated and kinda freezing. But Johannes and Jola managed to find us a nice and cheap hotel.
The next day we explored the old city and went to the Grant Mosque, the huge Bazaar and stuff. It was amazing and we ate very good Syrian ice cream, maybe Florida should go there and get inspired! :)
I even got a tea in this one cafe cause i was coughing so bad and the waitress felt bad for me!
So we stayed there for awhile until the others - while i was sick in bed - met a couchsurfing guy and he invited all of us in even though he already had 2 slowakian students staying with him. That was so nice, so we moved there. The bad part was just that Sophie and i just kept on feeling horribly sick so we stayed in the Appartment and Sam took good care of us. Making tea and soup and entertaining me. Later we went out to meet the others to take them back to the appartment but they called and said they missed the bus and were stuck in Maloula.
But i did have fun in the internet cafe, met some people from Jordan, a guy from Denmark starting a youth project offering Workshops for youngsters-doing research on that right now. A swedish guy th
at knew arabic and was doing an internship in Damaskus and a Lady from Michigan but who lives in London and is studying arabic language now here in Damaskus, she has a degree in islamic art and lived all over the world - including Afganistan-kinda cool :) and she said i still have an american accent -YEAH
So we went back and watched some movies. Sophie felt much worse than me she stayed in bed all day long. I just had some trouble breathing. And it is so nice i dont even have to feel bad that i went to Syria cause i discussed it with Nadav before i went and he said of course its up to me and no one can blame me because of the decisions i make and thats right i just feel so much better if i know that i didnt do anything horrible!
Well i think arabic sounds so cool, Sam quoted some poetry for me- it just sounds like the language the elbs speak in Lord of the Rings-so cool! i love it!
So the next day he went to work and Sophie and i, we basically watched horrible american movies on TV all day long and talked about this and that. And she told me plenty of stories about the other volunteers :)
Then everyone got home. Lotta was sick too. We stayed for one more night in the iraqi refugee quarter and then left the next day. First going to Aleppo but from there, there was no more bus crossing the border. Next bus at 5am. So this one guy from the bus company showed us around the city - looking for a cafe for 2 hours then we went to see his friend in prison??? dont ask me why, he was a bus driver from Turkey and waited for a trial. And appartently he didnt do anything wrong and was a nice guy - but i dont know.
So then we went to his house and met his family-nice people. his mother wanted Lotta to marry his son right away i dont think thats what Lotta wants to do though.
We slept for awhile on the living room floor-with lots of blanchets, pillows and we even got a pyjama. So
nice, then we left for the bus at like 4am. Later it turned out that the guy we were travelling with and who took us to the border to help us, thought we were kinda retarted or just not very independent? i dont know. He didnt even feel like we could arange our blanchets, stir the coffee or order water by ourselves? come one, we are european, we learned how to travel alone years before we were of age? and he is telling us what we cant do on our own???
well Lotta and i were about to punch him in the face when we finally got out in Antakya. We got rid of him quite fast and then met some very nice people from Lebanon. One half italian, half Libanese, One half british, half Libanese, and an norwegian guy living in Beirut traveling together if we ever come to Beirut we can stay with them, So nice!
Lovely and very interesting people!
So at noon we got on a bus to Ankara and 10 hours later we finally arrived in Ankara - i´ve never been so happy in my life to come home. the way back from Syria was just kneppet!
But it was a lot of fun even though i was sick i had my good days too!
And next time i go i will see Palmyra!!! and the sun rise in the desert!
IF there is so much more to explore? Thats what Lotta and i thought and decided spontaniously to join some volunteers from Antalya to go to Syria for a week or two.
Too bad i only had a week but in the end it turned out that going home would be the best thing anyways!
We left Ankara on January 22nd. The start was just like it would be - if travelling with us. We got on the wrong bus. ours was late and the same bus company also send a bus to Hatay like 15 min before ours so we put in our stuff and wanted to sit down but there was already someone in our seats so they kinda told us its the wrong one and we had to leave and teh poor steward had to dig out our backpacks. I was so nervous we would miss the bus, luckily there was a turkish guy that spoke english and told me "just relax" lol
well finally we managed to get on the right bus and fell asleep right away so the 10 hours didnt seem that long to us.
In Antakya we met the others from Antalya-it took them 14 h so we were lucky the trip wasnt that long for us.
We got on a bus, that took us to the border, hung out there for awhile to get the visa, iam so glad we had Sakaryya with us cause he speaks arabic and without him iam sure it would have taken much l
onger for us at the border.So we got to Aleppo at like 6 pm, found the Hotel and it was rainy, what a start!
and i must blame it on my shoes too that i got sick and Rasmus was sick when i left Ankara so i might have cought my cold there . Well my shoes were soaked with water it was freakin cold but we went to eat Falafel so everyone was happy!
We started to calculate in Falafel Units cause a Falafel (apparently the best in town) costs like 25 syrian pounds which is like 30 cents. And we measured everything we spend with that unit! lol
The next days we walked around the old town of Aleppo - visited the castle which is like really cool and looks like its the film set for a Lord of the Rings movie.
So then a couple days later we wanted to go on to Damaskus and stop in Hama on the way.
Sakaryya and Petr wanted to stay in Aleppo and go to Latakia so we left them behind and were now 6 people.
In the lonely planet it says that hama is a charming city but there is not much to see, and well like almost always, the Lonely planet is right. The city is famous for its water wheels but since the river didnt hold enough water - they didnt turn. but we were invited to tea by a nice syrian guy and walked around the city a bit.
The thing about Hama is just- it is a charming city but due to the Massacre of hama in 1982 most of the old buildings and parts of the city were destroyed.
The story goes that a Muslim brotherhood from Egypt wanted to establish a branch of it in Hama and the government didnt agree so there was severe fighting and in the end nothing left.
Well we only stayed a couple hours and then went to Damaskus. All the nice hostels from the Lonely Planet were full so we kinda became scared that we would have to sleep on the roof which was not heated and kinda freezing. But Johannes and Jola managed to find us a nice and cheap hotel.
The next day we explored the old city and went to the Grant Mosque, the huge Bazaar and stuff. It was amazing and we ate very good Syrian ice cream, maybe Florida should go there and get inspired! :)
I even got a tea in this one cafe cause i was coughing so bad and the waitress felt bad for me!
So we stayed there for awhile until the others - while i was sick in bed - met a couchsurfing guy and he invited all of us in even though he already had 2 slowakian students staying with him. That was so nice, so we moved there. The bad part was just that Sophie and i just kept on feeling horribly sick so we stayed in the Appartment and Sam took good care of us. Making tea and soup and entertaining me. Later we went out to meet the others to take them back to the appartment but they called and said they missed the bus and were stuck in Maloula.
But i did have fun in the internet cafe, met some people from Jordan, a guy from Denmark starting a youth project offering Workshops for youngsters-doing research on that right now. A swedish guy th
at knew arabic and was doing an internship in Damaskus and a Lady from Michigan but who lives in London and is studying arabic language now here in Damaskus, she has a degree in islamic art and lived all over the world - including Afganistan-kinda cool :) and she said i still have an american accent -YEAHSo we went back and watched some movies. Sophie felt much worse than me she stayed in bed all day long. I just had some trouble breathing. And it is so nice i dont even have to feel bad that i went to Syria cause i discussed it with Nadav before i went and he said of course its up to me and no one can blame me because of the decisions i make and thats right i just feel so much better if i know that i didnt do anything horrible!
Well i think arabic sounds so cool, Sam quoted some poetry for me- it just sounds like the language the elbs speak in Lord of the Rings-so cool! i love it!
So the next day he went to work and Sophie and i, we basically watched horrible american movies on TV all day long and talked about this and that. And she told me plenty of stories about the other volunteers :)
Then everyone got home. Lotta was sick too. We stayed for one more night in the iraqi refugee quarter and then left the next day. First going to Aleppo but from there, there was no more bus crossing the border. Next bus at 5am. So this one guy from the bus company showed us around the city - looking for a cafe for 2 hours then we went to see his friend in prison??? dont ask me why, he was a bus driver from Turkey and waited for a trial. And appartently he didnt do anything wrong and was a nice guy - but i dont know.
So then we went to his house and met his family-nice people. his mother wanted Lotta to marry his son right away i dont think thats what Lotta wants to do though.
We slept for awhile on the living room floor-with lots of blanchets, pillows and we even got a pyjama. So
nice, then we left for the bus at like 4am. Later it turned out that the guy we were travelling with and who took us to the border to help us, thought we were kinda retarted or just not very independent? i dont know. He didnt even feel like we could arange our blanchets, stir the coffee or order water by ourselves? come one, we are european, we learned how to travel alone years before we were of age? and he is telling us what we cant do on our own???well Lotta and i were about to punch him in the face when we finally got out in Antakya. We got rid of him quite fast and then met some very nice people from Lebanon. One half italian, half Libanese, One half british, half Libanese, and an norwegian guy living in Beirut traveling together if we ever come to Beirut we can stay with them, So nice!
Lovely and very interesting people!
So at noon we got on a bus to Ankara and 10 hours later we finally arrived in Ankara - i´ve never been so happy in my life to come home. the way back from Syria was just kneppet!
But it was a lot of fun even though i was sick i had my good days too!
And next time i go i will see Palmyra!!! and the sun rise in the desert!
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