http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Mary-and-Lizzie/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Mary and Lizzie en-us Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:29:21 +0000 Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:29:21 +0000 From Tripoli we travelled to Hama. Lebanon was humid and it affected our competency... We milled around the central square looking lost and redfaced waving postcards and saying the words 'stamps' and 'bus station' to bewildered Arabic strangers. In the end a young man in faded jeans enthusiastically lead us to the door of the unmarked ticket office in the building next to the section of pavemen http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/North/Aleppo/blog-418195.html I am blogging. I have the will to do nothing else today. Getting here was tremendous effort. The sun the juice stands the women in tight jeans and the alleyes men. The sunglasses stalls and the derelict buildings. This is Tripoli and we have been here two days. Yesterday we ate a lot including a three course meal in beach front fish restaurant called Silver Shore. We ordered mezze to sta http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/Tripoli/blog-416861.html Ok so a brief update I think. Mary has been beavering away at her blog entry for almost an hour so I suspect she'll be done soon I'll make it snappy. In fact even better I'll make it themed. Middle Eastern Food An Odyessy.Tripoli is supposedly the home of Arabic sweets and this has certainly been a theme of our stay here. After this entry we are heading to Le Palais a teashop with an e http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/Tripoli/blog-416859.html I'm in the same hotel lobby. A film starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Rik Mayall I'm shocked such a beast exists is playing. It's been a lazy day today yesterday we half heartedly decided on the Dead Sea as our day trip but as with most half hearted plans it did not materialize. The combination of no easy public transport taxi drivers kept assuring us there were 'no' buses to the sea why did http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Jordan/North/Amman/blog-412517.html I am writing from the hotel lobby and it's rather hot and rather late. We have been lax with this blog we've let it fall out of use to the extent that my mother thought perhaps we had died en route to Jordan. No no we are well. I have been chatting on facebook for the last hour and now I feel all worded out like there is nothing left to say.Music is playing and now the channel has changed. http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Jordan/North/Amman/blog-412313.html I am writing from the hotel lobby and it's rather hot and rather late. We have been lax with this blog we've let it fall out of use to the extent that my mother thought perhaps we had died en route to Jordan. No no we are well. I have been chatting on facebook for the last hour and now I feel all worded out like there is nothing left to say.Music is playing and now the channel has changed. http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Jordan/North/Amman/blog-412310.html He was right There is no bus to Aquaba so Sharmel Sheik here we come The guidebook suggests that this is not quite the place for backpackers and we do not plan to stay the night. At nine pm tonight we leave Alex and arrive on the south coast at six am tommorrow I'm not holding out for a comfortable night's sleep and we hope to get a boat across to Jordan later that day. I suspect that thi http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-410178.html Tomorrow we leave Egypt. On a Superjet bus that the hotel concierge tells us does not exist. No routes from Alexandria to Aquaba No busses to Jordan. We must go back through Cairo. But it says in guidebook we say. He looks confused puckers his walnut face into a swarthy frown and shrugs. I don't know. Maybe. Go to the station and ask. We insist that he tells us how much a taxi should c http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-409790.html We arrived this afternoon in Alexandria 'Alex' to Egyptians after yet another coach journey having returned only yesterday from the Sahara desert camp where we'd been since Monday. I spent the journey doing ankle exercises as yesterday my ankles had swollen grossly five sedentary hours on a hot vehicle not known for doing your circulation any good. My precautions paid off and I don't look http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Mediterranean/Alexandria/blog-409808.html So third time lucky. My previous two blog entries have disappeared into the black void of cyberspace but fingers crossed this one will make it. Irsquom writing this in our hostel sitting in a very warm room the windows are open but the shutters are closed. I can hear the hum of Cairo from the seventh floor but I can see nothing. The main feature of this hum is the car horns frequently http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Lower-Egypt/Cairo/blog-408126.html If you wanna go and take a ride with me.... is in my head because Lizzie tells me the charming Egyptian hostel assistant reminds her of Nelly. I don't see it but I wish I did. He came to fix the screen when the computer gave up after five minutes use on Arabic Facebook and was very excited to see that neither he nor I are wearing shoes. Two of a kind. Most Arabian men would like to be a pea http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Lower-Egypt/Cairo/blog-408109.html We are now packing in earnest. Having serious phone conversations about sandal straps and the relative merits of facial suncare products. Or rather I am not packing I am writing. And there are lightcoloured clothes strewn all over the faded black floorboards of the spare room. The window is open. My mother is a great believer in the benefits of a good breeze. And the sun is an antidote to ev http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Bristol-County/blog-406844.html Things have changed. Friends are pressing heatfelt cards into my hands and I am thumbing gold stars on to an envelope with your name on it. Flatmates friends family. It was my birthday and neither parent managed more than a text message. Nevermind. Twenty three isn't worth writing home about and my lack of birthday greetings make the ones I did get much nicer. The messages It's been so good http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Vauxhall/blog-403597.html Given the title and purpose of this blog this entry should strictly be written by both Lizzie and I whilst pouring over maps and travel guides sitting on the floor in my bedroom and talking routes and visas. We should be uploading equipment lists and travel plans and writing about how many litres in there are in the rucksacks which injections we plan to have and the theats posed by the upcomi http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Vauxhall/blog-402584.html