As I was asked to leave the women’s area I whispered to Annina “I am sick and tired of being repressed.” I was inside one of the Muslim worlds most important buildings. You know if you look at all my travels this year. And take the whole believing out of the equation, I’d be a very good Muslim. I have made many unknown pilgrimages to important places in the Muslim world. None more important than Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. Damascus is Syria’s capital and was my last stop here but in the centre of the country Syria has some real gems. [View Full Entry]

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DAY 49 First thing after breakfast heading on a 10 minute walk down the hill to Krak de Chevaliers. It is the most famous medieval citadel in the world. It is an amazing castle within a castle. The small original castle was built by the Kurds and then enlarged by the Arabs then became the castle it is today when the crusaders occupied it in the 1100's. It has 13 huge towers and could accommodate 5000 soldiers. It was a place where Richard the Lion Hearted fortified himself along with the Knights of the Round table with the parts of the [View Full Entry]

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DAY 45 Today we say goodbye to Jordan and head off to Syria. INFO Syria has a coast line on the Mediterranean. It is bordered by the countries of Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine and Israel. Syria is a dictatorship. The previous president (Hafaz) was a true dictator and ruled with an iron fist. In saying this he also brought stability to the country as for thirty years prior to his rule there had been many coups. Not long before his death the President's eldest son and heir, which he had been grooming for the role was killed in a car [View Full Entry]

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DAY 47 This morning is a free day in Damascus. We take our time and then head off for Francine to pay and collect her jewellery. Love it and bought another ring as a gift. We head off in taxis for the public intercity bus station. We have booked seats and are off to Palmyra in the northern desert. 3 ½ hours later we arrive in the centre of the Syrian desert. We stay at a quaint hotel and would have been beautiful in the 1950's when first built. You can still see a lot of the art deco finishes. We [View Full Entry]

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I couldn’t imagine how tough it would’ve been to attack this place? Surrounded by a forest of trees and sitting atop a ridge that falls away to ravines. This castles prime location is the reason it never changed hands. As I walked up the stairs to the Gate Tower, out of breath I joked. “Shit! Can you imagine trying to attack this place? It would have been like… (Hiding behind a tree, arrows flying past. Wheezing,) “hhhhhhh oh ok ok hhhh hang on fellas! Ohhh hhhhh… just give us a minute. (Hunched over, hands on knees) Hhhh hhhhh oh shit… hhhh [View Full Entry]

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Syria turned out to be one of the pleasant surprises of our trip so far. Back in London, we were looking at the maps trying to figure out how best to get between Jordan and Turkey. Syria was in the way. But after doing some more reading we talked ourselves ınto ıt. There were a few nervous moments as we waited for our stamps at the border. My passport is fairly well thumbed now, and the poor border guard had to read evey stamp to make sure we hadn't been to Israel (or 'Occupıed Palestıne' as it ıt ıs referred to [View Full Entry]

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We arrived into Beirut late because the UN Naval ship would not let us inside the 15mile exclusion zone at first, eventually we were at the wharf side but looked bit scary a tank, troop carrier and armed troops everywhere plus the naval ship with its helecopter sitting on the platform. Had a great tour of the town , beautiful beaches and coast line no wondr this was called the Paris of the middle east, some 150 banks set up here because of the privacy laws, then to the ld area ,ruins of roman bathes, many building have the marks of [View Full Entry]

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So once again I've been a little lax with updating this so apologies for that. At the end of February, Anja and I headed off to Lebanon for the 3rd and probably last time this trip. We actually managed to get further out from Beirut than I have managed in the past which was good. First stop Tripoli, which was a lot more like Syria than the rest of Lebanon I had seen previously but still nice. We headed back via a picturesque port town called Byblos and had a fish dinner at a restaurant that was frequented by the rich [View Full Entry]

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Was taken to Maalula to see Mima's home village where her family spend the summer months. Its only a 40min drive from Damascus and Mima's dad drove us there as he had business to attend to in the area. Got to see her house and all the mess that she and her mum and sister will arrive to in the summer. Her dad and brother regurarly spend time there due to the close proximity to their work. They also have a farm that they grow fruit in which only 5km from the house set at the edge of the village. Maalula [View Full Entry]

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Bosra is a must see for every vistor to Syria. Its a couple of hours away from Damascus by bus. Mima, Mays, Eliass and Yazan all went with me that day. We got a local bus from the bus stop in Jeramine? in Damascus to Yazans home town. Can't remember the name sorry, but it was just south of Duma. From there Yazan used his family car to drive us all to Bosra. Bosra is an old Roman ampitheatre. It is very well preserved due to the black rock specail to the area that was used to build it. Its the [View Full Entry]

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