Syria vs. Turkey

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Where am I?

Middle Eastern Country 1: I walk down the street and get called out at by about 17 men in 3 blocks. Some ask to kiss me. A plethora of random Japanese words are thrown at me. I think there may be more tourists than local people. I get a random kebab/gyro/shwarma off the street, it is not that great, and I pay the equivalent of a Big Mac meal. I get one square inch of baklava for a dollar. Streets can be very nice and manicured, people are in modern dress - am I really in the Middle East? My hostels have all modern ammenities but I pay 20 USD a night for a dorm room, and more for a single. I see some sights and get charged at least 8 USD per site for entrance. My pictures all have about 14 tourists in them, cameras out. You are surrounded by tour groups all shouting out in different languages. The ones that don't, well believe me I had to be a very patient little girl for those. When purchasing anything I am being ripped a new hole left and right. Although I do get a lot of random things for free. And nightlife can be great, mixing with locals is easy.

Middle Eastern Country 2: I walk down the street and nobody over the age of 15 talks to me past the occasional "Hello!" and smile wave combo. Kids run up, offer me baklava, beg to walk to me wherever I need to go, and giggle when they land an English phrase correctly. I see at max one other tourist per day. I get a random kebab/gyro/shwarma off the street, it is KFC finger-lickin good, and I just want to stuff another one down like the fat glutton I really am. It cost me the equivalent of one McD's ice cream cone, 2 for 1 dollar special. They even threw in eggplant and fries at my request for free. I get a pastry-sized baklava for 20 cents. Looking around, I definitely know I am in the Middle East. Desert, shrubs, sheep dot the landscape, and pretty much ALL women are in burkas and headscarves. I really am a little slut here. There aren't really any hostels (Allah forbid a strange man sleep in a room with a strange girl!) but I pay 10 USD a night for an en suite single. I see some sights and for the ones that charge, are 3 USD max, 30 cents if I had my Sorbonne card. The ruins are better than those in Country 1, and there are absolutely ZERO other tourists around. When purchasing something I feel guilty for not giving the vendor more money. However I am not getting anything for free save a few sweets. And nightlife at least so far is non-existent, because no other females are out past 10pm and certainly not walking without their husbands. Bars...What are those?

To be honest I have blogs written from the last couple days in Turkey and also on the first day in Syria, but I do these on Mr. Mac on bus rides etc, and I can only post those and pictures when I can get connection on my laptop. That's why some days you get emails for 3 posts at once. And apparently Syria just doesn't really do wireless or service French cellular networks, so good luck with Inbox when I get to Lebanon.

I've been in Syria for nearly two days now in Aleppo and now Hama, and it has been a huge sigh of relief, I am enjoying myself tremendously (although I have no traveller friends and nobody to talk to.) I just wanted to update that yes I made it into Syria at the border and yes I am alive. The border crossing is another story in itself but that's another one on my laptop. Judging from emails it seems some of you think I went to Baghdad or something. I think tomorrow night after another day in Syria I will head into Lebanon and then come back to Damascus en route to Jordan.

Don't worry about me, nobody here is interested in girls who have inadequate belly fat to shake when they jiggle their midsection. Excusez-moi, I'm going to eat more baklava now. That and there is a group of teenage Syrian boys staring at me through the internet cafe window.

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