Blogs from Damascus, South, Syria, Middle East - page 5

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Middle East » Syria » South » Damascus March 8th 2010

Syria was an amazing experience for me, and I met loads of the world's most generous people I ever have in my life, and finally saw a country untouched by the western world. On the trip to the border from Lebanon, I slept most of the way on the Syrian bus therefore the 3 hours trip went by very fast. The border crossing was pretty smooth and straight forward, everything went smooth and it just took us about 2 hours because I think they had to check who the hell we are, Hong Kong SAR perhaps is quite unfamiliar to them. We started our day off in Damascus by visiting the biggest souk in Syria, where we wandered in from west gate and out from east gate of just a few of the many old shops, ... read more

Middle East » Syria » South » Damascus December 14th 2009

Hi all - turn off now if not interested Not that I want to complain but after the civilisation of Beirut Damascus is a dump. I thought I would try the oldest city in the world for a couple of days but the place really drives me mad. It is a very conservative society - almost all the women are covered and you just cannot look for long because it is offensive. I booked a hotel in the old town and I thought this would be where the action was so to speak. Well its not! Once you seen a souk and several mosques ...well thats it for Damascus. Griped - there is just nowhere you can sit and have a coffee and read etc. If you do get a coffee its always a powered nescafe ... read more
Damascus Souuk

Middle East » Syria » South » Damascus December 12th 2009

So on Saturday morning I left Akram and Bianca's flat round 6am and I wanted to take a taxi. I was lucky, just like the last time, there was a car that stopped and the nice gentleman drove me in front of the bus station. Happy days :-) I took the bus at the same bus station (that got me to Petra) for a 4 hour drive back to Syria. I had my passport with me and some cash and many many nice memories and that was it. I paid the exit fee at the border (5din) and off we were towards Damascus. It was again a bit colder when we arrived in Damascus and not quite in the city. When I got off the bus a bunch of taxi drivers surrounded us and all I ... read more
Damascus

Middle East » Syria » South » Damascus December 6th 2009

Goede avond, Na de rondleiding op de universiteit waar Hanan werkt ging het per taxi naar de oude stad. Nog voor we onze bestemming bereikt hadden vertelde Hanan me over het gebouw dat vlak voor ons lag. Het bleek het oudste stationsgebouw in het Midden-Oosten te zijn. Natuurlijk wou ik dat even van dichtbij zien dus eindigde onze taxi rit daar en gingen we van daaruit verder te voet. Ik had mijn camera nog maar boven gehaald of er bood zich iemand aan die Engels sprak en die ons een rondleiding wou geven. Ik vroeg hem of hij voor de syrische spoorwegen werkte en effectief, ik had dus zowaar een collega ontmoet :-) Hij legde ons uit dat de laatste trein enkele jaren geleden geïndigd was en dat dit nu een museum was geworden. Een super ... read more
6 december 006
6 december 007
6 december 008

Middle East » Syria » South » Damascus December 6th 2009

Marhaba - Hallo Joepie, ik ben er geraakt, ik zit gewoon in Syrië :-) Mijn vliegtuig vertrok gisteren in Brussel om dan via Istanbul verder door te vliegen naar Damascus. Toen we in Damascus landden rond 16u30 begon het al te schemeren en een half uurtje later was het alsof het nacht was, zo vlug, dat is toch een beetje wennen vind ik. Hanan stond me op te wachten aan de luchthaven. Wie was Hanan ook al weer? Ewel, enkele jaren geleden, toen ik nog Roeland taalkampen deed in Engeland (Sutton Valence) was er eens een leerkracht uit Syrië die in Reading studeerde. Tijdens het kamp konden we het goed met elkaar vinden en ook nadien zijn we contact blijven houden en toen was er facebook en voila, nu ben ik hier :-) Via couchsurfing kon ... read more

Middle East » Syria » South » Damascus December 4th 2009

Hicran Çiğdem Yorgancıoğlu ‘nun Suriye devr-i Alem Hicri Alem Hicran Çiğdem Seyahatnamesi’nden ..seyahat notlarından alıntılardır . Her hakkı saklıdır .. / Eserin tüm telif hakları H.Çiğdem Yorgancıoğlu’na aittir . Eserin izinsiz kopyalanması çoğaltımı ,yayını ,dağıtımı halinde 5846 sayılı Fikir ve Sanat Eserleri Kanunun hükümleri geçerli olacaktır. KOMŞU KIZI ŞAM ‘da İHTİŞAM ve YaŞAM 'a HAZIRLIK Yeni bir seyahat , kültür sanat ve tarih içinde yeni bir manzume arayışı. . Mukaddes mekanlarda adeta hırkamı giyip yeni renklere ve mürekkebe karıncalanma vaktidir. Bu sene mübarek coğrafyalarda Konya ,Urfa Peygamberler şehri ile bağlantılı gezimin 3. Ayağı Şam. "Mübarek olmayan herhangi bir yer var mı sanki yeryüzünde" bu da başka bir sual cevabı olsa yanıtlamak isteyene . Basitçe anlatacağım her şeyi . Basit ve karmaşık kodların arasında Basit ve yalınlıkla zengin... read more
Cigdem Yorgancioglu
Cigdem Yorgancioglu
Cigdem Yorgancioglu

Middle East » Syria » South » Damascus December 2nd 2009

Damascus Well I left Palmyra in my usual slow, faffing kind of way. No crack-of-bloody-dawn starts for me! The previous night I'd met up briefly with my Brazilian friends who bragged about the best falafel they had ever had, picked up from a little stand just across from my hotel. Starving as I was, and fed up of paying tourist prices for meals (delicious though they may be), I raced off to eat. I had skipped lunch and riding all day had built up a real hunger, but it was all good: just one person in the queue in front of me. No worries, I would eat soon.... Or would I? ...I watched the guy in front proceeded to order falafel after falafel - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, TEN!!? It was ... read more
Quick detour to Iraq?
I think he looks better in my shades than I do
View from hotel window

Middle East » Syria » South » Damascus October 30th 2009

Damascus Some of our group are doing a day trip into Lebanon which periodically closes its border to tours. Kate did the tour last April and the border was closed shortly after. I am sure the closure had nothing to do with Kate’s visit. From our camp it is a Taxi ride into Damascus central so at 9am 12 of us walked about 1 km to wave down a Taxi and it was a small mini bus that pulled up. These operate much like a bus service with no determined route unlike a Taxi that you hire for a private single trip the mini bus will pick up and let down passengers along your journey, so often the trip takes a round about route. We negotiated a fare or 150SN (Syrian Pounds) and as the exchange ... read more
Making Ice Cream
Eating Ice cream
Ready for Prayer

Middle East » Syria » South » Damascus October 24th 2009

Hi Everyone. No Interent WiFi access so I cant transfer Image and notes frommy PC. This is just a quicktext note to give you a short update. We are in Damascus for 1 more night and then we drive to Palmyra tosee the Roman Ruins and complex,we will camp somewhere near Palmyra. Following that we have 2 nights in Allepoand hopefully I will be able to updatethe Blog then. Cheers and Kisses from David T... read more

Middle East » Syria » South » Damascus September 24th 2009

A Long weekend away Damascus and Palmyra? Why not we thought! What a blast, great fun and can really recommend it to anyone fancying something a little different... If your going to go, you must stay in the four seasons though. Location not bad, facilities great! ... read more
On the way to Palmyra
Palmyra
Palmyra




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