Blogs from Palmyra, East, Syria, Middle East - page 3

We got on the road early decided to try and see some ruins near the north Lebanon border before driving out to Palmira where we would stay for the night. Roads are poorly marked here and even though we now have a map in aerobic it is still very hard to navigate. We ask for directions frequently and many times since there are such a language barrier people are nice enough to jump in their car, bike or motorcycle and tell us to follow them. All help aside, we still end up in a very unsavory looking town and decide to ditch this plan and drive straight out to Palmira. We drove………….way out into middle Syria. There is NOTHING on the way to this place but a sign telling us we are equal distance from Bagdad ... read more

Ah yes, more roman ruins. And man, was this a hot day! A beautiful place to look around, but we spent a lot of time trying to find shade to hide in! There's not a lot around in a roman ruin, in case you were wondering. This was one of the main Roman cities in the area, a huge place which is now in the middle of nowhere, but back in the day was a happening place on the trade route. It was originally a temple to Baal before the Romans came along and piggybacked onto it and made it their own, as they did a lot. Not much more to say... I think I've used my my superlatives for Roman ruins already in previous blogs, so enjoy the photos. ... read more

Well, we’re currently in Palmyra, in the middle of the desert, amongst wonderful Roman ruins and an oasis filled with date palms that surrounds the town. Unfortunately, we both seemed to catch one of the local bugs in Aleppo and have been feeling a little worse for wear for much of the last week. On the brighter side, it’s provided us with an opportunity to experience a lot of the local bathrooms and we’ve certainly gained an appreciation of the finer aspects of Syrian porcelain-ware… From Aleppo, we visited the town of Hama for a few days - a city renowned for its wonderful norias or waterwheels. Some of these wooden structures are up to forty metres across and apparently make this deep, mournful creaking sound as they slowly turn. I say apparently because unfortunately we ... read more

Being that I've really grown fond of Lebanon and Syria, it was dispiriting to leave Lebanon, while at the same time exciting to head back to the wonderland of old city Damascus. On the morning of the 6th, Chi and I woke up in Beirut toying with the thought of finding our way to a Palestinian camp in northern Lebanon. But after much contemplation regarding time, we ended up walking to a bus station and boarding a bus headed to the Lebanon/Syria border. At the border, I stopped by the pizza stand (the one I went to on my way from Syria to Lebannon), only to find that the twins were closing.. they saw how bummed I was and they were nice enough to reopen their store for me! Leaving Lebanon posed a bit of a ... read more

So. Das ist nun also das beruehmte Palmyra - Syriens Sehenswuerdigkeit Nummer Eins, eine Stadt, die wie keine andere am Touristenschwund seit 2001 zu leiden hat. Fangen wir aber von vorne an: Der Bus brauchte von Deir keine zwei Stunden (200km - dank GPS konnte ich sehen, das wir teilweise ueber 130 fuhren. Man stelle sich das in Deutschland vor....). An der Haltestelle (eigentlich ein Cafe) wird man bereits von Taxifahrern empfangen, die einen dann gegen gutes Geld (25-50 Lira, je nachdem wie gut sie es mit einem meinen) zum Hotel der Wahl kutschieren. Fuer dieses bezahlt man dann ein weiteres stolzes Suemmchen. In meinem Fall waren das 700 Lira (10 Euro), aber immerhin mit Abendessen (eher schrecklich, obwohl angeblich von der Mama des Eigentuemers gekocht) und Fruehstueck (akzeptabel). Die Tempel und Graeber der alten ... read more