When we decided to travel down through the Middle East to Egypt we had no intention of visiting Israel or Palestine. This was partly because we wished to travel on to other Islamic countries who would not grant us entry visas if we had been to Occupied Palestine (as they refer to it), and partly because of our own, particularly my own, political views and prejudices in favour of the Palestinian cause, their right to their own state and the end of the Israeli occupation. I had spent several years boycotting Israeli produce for instance, as my own way of not [View Full Entry]

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We left Damascus at a reasonably early time on Friday morning. This was good; the traffic was quiet as it was Friday and we headed off towards where we thought our road towards Swayda lay. Unfortunately this road was not marked on our map and after asking a few people for directions we were completely lost somewhere near the airport. Eventually we found the right road and realised that we had cycled about 5 miles too far! Any way as soon as we found the right road a blasting cold wind pummelled us from the south. Our friend Ben had emailed [View Full Entry]

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Damascus is the oldest inhabited capital city in the world, at least according to the Syrian Tourist Office. They also claim that Syria (well at least ‘geographical Syria’ - i.e. including Palestine, Israel, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan and large parts of Turkey) is the origin of all culture, agriculture, language, civilisation, writing, and just about everything else, so I’m not sure how true this really is. Aleppo also claims to be the oldest inhabited city in the world - again a contentious claim, and there is apparently a fair bit of rivalry between the 2 cities over which is the oldest. I [View Full Entry]

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Lebanon is a beautiful country with lush green snow capped mountains rising virtually straight out of the glinting blue sea. At least that's how it looked on our ride from the border down the coast into Tripoli - the second city of the modern state and an ancient Phoenican city to boot. It didn't look so nice with constant pouring rain, grey skies and small lakes eveywhere as a result of the somewhat poor city drainage system. But with many of the buildings still in a state of semi-ruin and even those that aren't riddled with bullet holes and shell damage [View Full Entry]

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We were in Halab/Aleppo for around a week despite planning on only spending a couple of days there. Syria is a great country to visit and I would urge you to completely ignore all western propaganda to the contrary. The Syrian people are without doubt the friendliest we have met on this journey and I suspect they will remain so for some time. Prices are ludicrously cheap and nobody even seems to think of trying to overcharge you as a dumb foreigner - unlike here in Lebanon or in Turkey where you should always question every price and usually end up [View Full Entry]

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After a well needed rest in Capadocia we set off again towards the hills. But it was only after about 3 miles when we had to stop because I had bike trouble, my rear mudguard again!! Luckily this time we noticed the real problem - the screw holding the mudguard and the whole pannier rack was about to fall out! I had obviously not done a very good check in Cappadocia. Still that sorted we were off. Passing very interesting villages cut into the cliff sides and getting more and more remote as we climb a gentle pass east out of [View Full Entry]

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Through the gap in the hood in my sleeping bag I can see its still pitch black, and even inside the bag its cold now. I don’t need to pull my arm out to check my watch for the time though, as the second “Allah Akhbar, Allah Akhbar” (God is Great, God is Great) echoes across the empty steppe - it must be about half past five in the morning and time for pre-sunrise prayers. Not for us though and I roll over and bury my head in an attempt to warm up and return to sleep. The last line of [View Full Entry]

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İstanbul - The Crossroads Where Europe meets Asia, East meets West, Islam meets Christianity, the Black Sea meets the Mediterannean, and cliche meets cliche. At once this place is beautıful and ugly, peaceful and noisy and just about everythıng else you can think of. It is more European than most would ımagıne - includıng myself. Shops are full of western goods at western prıces agaın whıch ıs a bıt starnge after so long ın central Europe. This place is huge. İstanbul the biggest city I have ever been in and everyday the numbers of people here grow. Istanbul is beautıful though, [View Full Entry]

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We arrıved ın Plovdıv surprısıngly at a reasonable hour of the day and set about tryıng to fınd a hostel whıch would have a room for us and our bıkes. Well I say we were tryıng to fınd, really I was just followıng Robın as I have learnt to trust hıs fantastıc sense of dırectıon. There would be no way I could have found my way to Turkey without hım. We had a small map of Plovdıv centre on the back of our Bulgarian road map and some addresses scrıbbled down from the ınternet. We had the address for Hotel Co-op [View Full Entry]

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We were wonderıng how the return to the EU would be. We were expectıng lots of fences and queues and hassle. Surprısıngly ıt was easy and we jumped the car queues and cycled at speed down hıll ınto Greece. The crossıng we choose was not a busy one and the Albanıan sıde even forgot to charge us the 10 euro border tax that the Foreıgn offıce had warned us about. (please excusse the 'ı' - İ am on a turkish keyboard and keep forgetting to hıt 'i') Borders are strange thıngs; I can not really imagıne that just because we pass [View Full Entry]

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