Blogs from Middle East - page 910

A Pleasant Way to Wake Up at 5am I woke up feeling the only way you can after an overnight bus ride - with a crick in my back and a faint confusion over exactly how few hours I managed to sleep. Then I looked out of the window. A faint yellow light was just taking hold and everything still had that quiet and peaceful look that can only happen between the rise of the sun and the rise of all the people. The colour yellow appeared to be everywhere; no green or red, nor blue, just yellow everywhere. Immediately outside of the bus there was the yellow, dusty soil which led towards the fading yellow stone walls surrounding the yellow buildings which themselves clustered around minarets that were themselves tinted yellow by the morning sun, ... read more

So I got up at 5:30 so that I could be out the door to the bus station at 6:00, so I could make it for a 40 minute bus ride to the next city, to get to a 7:30am bus to Palmyra. So I arrived in Palmyra at 9:30am and checked out the ruins before it got too hot out. Like all tourist sites, I was getting harrassed to take tours, motorcycle rides, camel rides, etc... But I had already decided to just do it on my own. Finally a man on a camel came along and I told him that I wasn't interested/couldnt afford his price. He finally said I will take you all around in one hour and even show you the tombs (which were far away and required a ticket purchased in ... read more

Hands down...the Grand Mosque is the most amazing building that I have ever seen. WOW. This mosque is still in the making - but when it is done will be able to hold 10,000 people at a time. The official name is the Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Mosque but it is known as the Grand Mosque -Sheikh Zayed is buried there. We were asked to remove our shoes, and women were asked to cover up with robes and head scarves (I am unsure of the official name of the attire). I was very impressed by how welcoming everyone was, my taxi driver told me that all people are welcome..."Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, whatever! All are welcome here!" The artwork in the hall was unbelievable. There was stained glass, mosaics, stone floors with intricate designs, carved ... read more

Today I checked out the Crac des Chevaliers, which is an old (1000 AD) castle/fortress. It was really amazing--incredibly well preserved, but getting there and back to Hama was the real adventure- a knight in shining armor out have been useful! So Camilla (British roommate at the hotel) and I decide to set out around 9:00- 9:30, but first I had to exchange some Turkish lyra into Syrian pound. I didnt do this (well I changed a small amount at the bus station so I would have some, but the rate seemed bad so only a little) when I arrived and was kicking myself for it when I had to walk up an down the street mumbling "money exchange" because all the banks were closed yesterday (Friday= holy day- duhh!) and then follow an old man ... read more

Today was a beautiful day here. The weather was not too hot, there was a nice breeze all day and the night is a bit chilly, but pretty perfect. We went to a place that is very high up in Jordan. Basically we walked around some ancient Roman ruins. In a sense we walked through the history of Jordan in a big circle on top of a very large hill. When you look down and around from the hill you can see where the wealthier parts of Amman are and the much older, poorer parts are. It was very interesting to see what we read about. There are also some statues in a museum we were able to see. Then class was over at like 11:00 am. So, most of us went back to ACOR and ... read more