Doha Airport

In an attempt to be cost-conscious, I booked a flight to Bangkok with an overnight layover in Qatar. It was a mostly positive experience, as I met this great and really nice guy, Dean, though I'm really looking forward to a real bed (or even cushioned airplane seats!) after sleeping on an airport floor for the past 12 hours.

Aleppo

Traveling alone this past week, with no one to appease but myself, my plans have become somewhat quixotic. I decided to travel to Aleppo, for example, about two hours before actually leaving. For such a short time here, it was definitely memorable. Some of my favorite memories:

- The guy on the bus who periodically walked down the aisle spraying all the passengers with horrendously-smelling cologne
- Touring the city with Rani, who currently works as a tour guide but showed us around for free (and hooked me up with some fabulous deals on souveniers!)
- Having tea with all of Rani's friends in the souqs (this took up the better part of an afternoon, as the souqs are 1.5km long)
- Having drinks (finally!) at the famous Hotel Baron
- Playing truth or dare, which led to a very interesting night
- Having my personality analyzed by Rani's roommate Ido, who was amazingly accurate

Damascus Part 2

Syria was a late addition to my itinerary, and cost me $130 to get in, so I had high expectations for this city, but I wasn't disappointed. This place is incredibly friendly - and shockingly cheap (my meals here have probably averaged about $1.50 each, and I bought a copy of Photoshop CS5 for only $1.00 - ironically, the same price that I paid for a bar of Aleppo soap). Among the highlights:

- Traversing endless souqs with Andrew and Ben in pursuit of a place for dinner the first night I arrived
- Rolling dough for fatta per invitation by the chef of the restaurant we found
- Painting our faces for the US and Germany games, and then watching them in the streets with a group of die-hard football fans
- Eating homemade ice cream rolled in pistachios - a popular dessert in Damascus
- Being invited for tea with a Syrian family, who kept a pet pigeon
- The guy who generously volunteered to jump in a cab with me to show the lost cabbie how to get to my hostel, even though he had to return back to his shop by foot
- Bilal and Hamaza, two of the nicest, most generous guys I've ever met
- Touring the city with Bilal, whose father was a big shot in Damascus and who simply dropped his name to get us entry to the citadel (currently under construction and closed to the public) and to a working Syrian movie set
- The night I came down with a fever, which was only memorable because all the boys skipped the Argentina game to stay in with me

Damascus

I feel like a millionaire in this country... and actually, I'm pretty close. (I have nearly 600,000 Syrian pounds in my bank account right now!) And though I tried to spend some of it today (believe me, I tried hard to spend it!), I couldn't seem to do it.

Here are my totals:

$1.00: Ice cream
$1.00: Postcards
$1.00: Soap
$8.00: A whole bottle of perfume (which smells identical to RL Romance)
$1.40: Lunch
$1.00: Snacks
$2.00: Blackberry Syrup

Grand Total: $15.40... and I probably have enough snacks to last me another two days!

Some of my initial observations of this country:
- The people are incredible. As compared to the other countries I've visited thus far, they know very little English, but upon learning that I'm American, they all greet me with "You are welcome."
- It is much cleaner here than it is in either Egypt or Jordan
- Bargaining is very uncommon (a huge thrill for me, as I can finally stop worrying about being ripped off!)

Random facts about Syria and Damascus:
- Damascus houses the world's largest restaurant, which has capacity for over 6,000 people
- Damascus is the world's oldest continually-inhabited city
- Average government salaries are just $300/month, and university graduates rarely earn over $700/month
- Inflation has been a huge issue for this country over the last couple years
- Though Syrians are well-educated, with a literacy rate of over 80%, the country's unemployment rate is over 10%
- Syria has more Iraqi refugees than any other country

Amman

Though Amman is far from the nicest city I've visisted thus far, its people are definitely among the best. All the vendors here welcome you to their country, countless people have offered us tea and drinks, and a family I met at the bus station encouraged their three-year-old daughter to give me a kiss.

Highlights from Amman:
- Our 50 kuru (75 cent) dinner
- Exploring the Souk Jara markets on Rainbow Street
- Drinking watermelon smoothies
- Eating tons of hummus

Random facts about Jordan:
- Jordan (or, more formally, "The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan") has 7 million people, which is 10 million fewer than Cairo alone
- I'm not certain that it's required in this country for children to enter high school, as I've met at least two people who had only attended school until they were ten
- Considering women here are allowed to work, vote, divorce their husbands, drive, travel in vehicles with men other than their husbands, and leave the house without wearing an abaya and boshiya, Jordan is incredibly progressive as compared to Saudi Arabia
- Imports from the US are not taxed in this country, so there are actually quite a few American cars here!
- Pita bread is served with every meal here
- Nearly all the email addresses of the people I've met from this country have ended with the year they created them, which I think is kind of funny
- It snows here!

Dead Sea

I feel as though I should begin every blog entry with 'What a perfect day…', and this really was. We traveled to the Dead Sea this afternoon, one of the things I had most been looking forward to this trip, and yes, it lived up to my expectations. Floating in water that salty is a pretty unbelievable experience (but be cautious, as it hurts like hell if you get it in your eyes), and since we splurged for the paid beach, we spent the remainder of the afternoon swimming in the pool. Ah, bliss :)

Random facts about the Dead Sea:
○ The salt content of the Dead Sea is 31%, or nine times that of the ocean
○ At 408m below sea level, it's the lowest spot on earth
○ Egyptians used mud from the Dead Sea in their mummification process
○ As a result of the sea's high evaporation rates, the air layers above it are thicker than normal, reducing the strength of the UV rays in the surrounding area
○ Mud and minerals from the Dead Sea have been used to treat a variety of diseases, including psoriasis, herpes, and joint infections, and some insurance companies in the region actually cover Dead Sea treatments for people who suffer from these conditions

Aqaba

I've found since I started traveling by myself that I have an incredibly hard time deciding what I want to do from day to day. Case in point: I decided to go to Aqaba this morning about 20 minutes before the bus left. I'm glad I did, too... after two scorching days in the desert, spending time at the beach was a huge treat. (Surprisingly, it was actually much hotter here than it was in Petra, but having access to a body of water made the heat feel much more manageable.)

Tidbits about the Red Sea:
- It's actually a lake
- It borders Jordan, Egypt, and Israel, and Saudi Arabia is only 10km away
- The water is incredibly blue, and clear, and warm, which makes it perfect for snorkeling

This pretty much sums up what I did here (in roughly this order):
Snorkel
Eat
Nap
Snorkel
Nap
Snorkel
Eat
Sleep

Oh, and I helped one of the hostel employees set up his very first email account and Facebook profile :)

Oh... and I met some very cute Dutch boys... I'm definitely going to have to add Holland to my list of future travel destinations now :)

Petra

What an incredible place. I've seen plenty of pictures of Petra, but I really don't think any of them do it justice. Walking through the Siq realizing that this used to be a bustling community was an awe-inspiring feeling, and being that summer is the low season here, we had the park nearly to ourselves.

Tidbits about Petra:
- Petra is now considered to be one of the seven wonders of the world (which means I've now seen three of the seven!)
- Petra was built in the 3rd century BC but was only discovered in the 1800s
- Indiana Jones was filmed in Petra
- The area surrounding Petra contains 90 hotels, 40 of which have five stars

Highlights of my couple of days here:
- Having tea with a couple Jordanian women at the High Place of Sacrifice
- Climbing to top of monastery (this is no longer allowed, so we had to wait until after the guards had finished their shifts until we could do it)
- Being invited over for dinner with a Beaudoin family, who served me way too much food, insisted I take pictures with all their kids, and shared their daughter's wedding photos with me
- Playing cards with Dutch, British, Irish, Aussie, Kiwi, Argentinian, and Korean peeps
- The buffet dinner at our hostel... chicken, rice, and about 25 types of vegetable dishes... and it's been almost a week since I've had any vegetables with the exception of cucumbers and tomatoes (standard breakfast fare here)
- Meeting some girl who has been hitchhiking through the Middle East all by herself
- Trying tamarind tea

Trip to Amman (Best Day Ever)

Joci and I parted ways this afternoon, and while I am still bummed about no longer having her as a travel partner, the subsequent events of the day did quite a bit in abating my sadness:

I was talking to this Jordanian guy during my layover at the Cairo airport.  About 20 minutes into the conversation, he asks me if I want to sit next to him on the plane, which I agreed to (an odd request, but I figured it would be a short flight, anyway).  Anyway, turns out he gets me bumped to first class.  Then, we get to Amman, he insists on paying my visa fee, and - the best part - he offers to have his driver take me to my hostel in his LIMO.  (Yes, I know it's not advised to get in cars with strange men, but I felt this should be an exception.)

Along the way, I also learned that this guy has 17 siblings (some of whom own large plots of land that he pointed out on our trip from the airport), and that they, along with his friends, typically throw get-togethers for him when he returns from trips (including, interestingly enough, the three-day trip to Cairo he was returning from). He explained that this was customary in this culture, but no one else seemed to agree that this was a common practice, leading me to suspect that this guy just may have had connections to the royal family. I'm still disappointed I never got his last name...

Pamukkale & Kusadasi

 
 
 

Pamukkale was phenomenal. As I don't think I can adequately describe it, I've posted a picture to give you an idea of what it looks like.

Kusadasi, on the other hand, was kind of a waste of time. A popular destination for cruise ships, this place is filled with kitchy souvenier shops and overpriced food. Even the beach was disappointing, as it was crowded and much dirtier than I expected. Thought I wish we had've gone to Alacati to windsurf as we had originally planned, I can't say I'm necessarily upset about the change of plans, as I'm definitely starting to feel some travel fatigue, and I think I needed some down time, anyway. Plus, Joci and I came across an amazing jewelry shop, and flirted our way into some awesome discounts.

Trip to Pamukkale

It seems as though nothing can go wrong for us. Case in point: tonight, we left to catch a 10:00 bus just after 9:00. While it seemed as though we should have had plenty of time to get to the bus station, we quickly realized that the trip would take us just about an hour (making us about ten minutes late).

Luckily, we met a girl on the metro who was getting off at the same stop, and who accompanied us to the bus station (which she sprinted with us to get to!) and then convinced the attendant to contact our bus driver. (We later offered her money for this, but she refused it.)

Fully expecting that we would have to spend the night in Istanbul, we were completely shocked when we were told that the driver had just left and had offered to wait for us! So, though we showed up sweaty and completely unprepared for the ten-hour ride, at least we made it in the first place. Hopefully this luck continues…

Istanbul

Istanbul is definitely my favorite city thus far. It's clean, it's cheap, it has great food, and it has amazingly nice people - and unlike most large cities, everyone here seems really laid back. I could definitely spend a few more weeks here.

Anyway, the highlights:
- Stray Cat Hostel, which is home to three rescue kittens and has THE BEST breakfast I've had so far this trip. (Sunday's menu is eggs and crepes, and the rest of the week they have yogurt, nutella, eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers, and feta... plus free coffee and tea all day long :))
- Visiting Hagia Sophia & the Blue Mosque
- Learning about Islam, which is strikingly similar to Christianity
- Watching Salah (Islamic prayer) at a mosque - interestingly, men pray up front, and women all pray in the back
- Buying souveniers - Turkey has all kinds of good stuff :)
- Having seafood and wine (our best meal yet) with some boys we met from Portugal
- Watching the World Cup
- Smoking nergili (a.k.a. hookah in the States and shisha in Egypt)
- Visiting Topkapi Palace
- Cruising the Bosphorus River by ferry
- Our hammam experience (i.e., being bathed by a topless old woman... not necessarily my idea of an enjoyable experience...)

Tidbits about Turkey;
- Since Istanbul is such a progressive city, these statistics were shocking to me: 45% of Turkish men (which of course includes men from all over the country) believe they have the right to beat their wives, and 37% of Turkish men believe a woman who commits adultery deserves to be killed
- Turkish was the model for an ill-fated international language
- Boys here are circumcised around the age of four, and are dressed in prince costumes to celebrate the occassion (we thought they were really cute until we realized what they signified)
- Oddly, no one here works out - apparently there are very few gyms in this city, and running outdoors is nearly unheard of
- Turkey actually belongs to both Asia and Europe
- In Arabic, the prefix "mu" means person, e.g., Muslim means person of Islamic faith, and Muhammad means blessed person
- Bananas here are really expensive, but cherries are cheap

Typical Turkish foods:
- grilled corn
- sardines
- mussels
- fruit smoothies
- "Turkish delights"
- apricot juice
- apple tea
- shwarma (shaved meat)
- borek (phyllo dough and cheese)
- kompir (cheesy baked potatoes)
- ayran (a salty yogurt drink)
- dondurma (handmade ice cream)
- corn nuts and dried chickpeas (which sound gross but are really good!)

Trip to Istanbul

Joci and I got into Cairo on the overnight train at 5:30 this morning, and instead of trekking around Cairo with all our stuff until our 5:00 flight, we decided we would try to catch an early morning flight. Unfortunately, Egypt Air doesn't offer standby tickets, though, and in order to confirm our seats we would have had to pay another €50. So, deciding money was more important than our time, we opted to hang out at the airport all afternoon, a surprisingly fun experience. We found a spot for breakfast in the morning and were offered free coffee and use of the restaurant booths for napping by the manager, both of which we took full advantage of. So, ten hours and about five cups of coffee later, we are on our way to Istanbul! I can't wait!

Oh, and Joci and I were far from careful about what we ate this trip but didn't get sick once while we were here - I don't really know why, but I'm kind of proud of that.

Luxor

Luxor was incredible - by far my favorite city in Egypt. Surprisingly, Luxor is amazingly lush along the banks of the Nile but is surrounded by desert everywhere else.

Highlights of our trip to Luxor:
- Picking up hitchhikers
- Having pictures taken of us by some Egyptian kid (this was only noteworthy because it was the first time it happened; we were asked to take pictures with many other people throughout the rest of our trip, as well)
- Visiting ancient temples Kom Ombo and Edfu

Highlights of Luxor itself:
- The Bob Marley Hostel, which offered us free falafel sandwiches, tea, and a rooftop lounge for $3/night
- Our hot air balloon ride!
- Tour through Valley of the Kings & Queens with our awesome tour guide Nana
- The oil shop which made designer-inspired scents for amazingly cheap... I was being really good about not buying souveniers, but I gave in and bought a couple
- Eating at McDonald's for the first time in months

Aswan (Felucca Ride)

We began our day with an amazing (and free!) breakfast at our hotel before visiting the Nubian villages on Elephantine Island, just across from the city. While these were great, the highlight of our day was our felucca ride down the Nile.

Highlights of the felucca ride:
- Meeting our Columbian, Italian, Japanese, and Egyptian boat mates
- Swimming in the Nile
- Singalongs hosted by our guide, Nasser, which included the soprano version of The Lion Sleeps Tonight
- Learning dirty words in Spanish
- Learning how to write my name in Japanese
- Learning a card tricks from our guide
- Playing poker by candlelight
- Running into a donkey on my way to the bathroom during the middle of the night
- Sleeping on the boat and under the stars on a nearly perfect night

Aswan (Heat)

Unfortunately, I don't have too much to say about Aswan, as it was way too hot to do very much here. (The high today was 115.) Our hotel is incredible... AC, towels, toilet paper, clean sheets, decent mattresses, and even a rooftop pool and bar (pretty basic by US standards, but close to luxury here)!

Anyway, the only thing we managed to do before 3pm was eat, which we did at this amazing little floating restaurant called Aswan Moon.

Now I understand why everything is open so late here (and why even the kids stay up until well after what we would consider to be normal bedtimes)... this weather is just barely manageable even at 10 and 11 at night. I will say, though, it's pretty great traveling here at this time of the year, as we are nearly the only tourists here and thus have had a much more authentic experience. Plus, it only took my clothes TWO HOURS to dry this afternoon, meaning I don't have to worry about toting around damp clothes.

Something funny I learned today: apparently, the government is required to issue a state of emergency if the temperature rises above 45 degrees, though oddly enough, I've been told it never seems to do that... ha... I love that even the weather reporters here are corrupt.

Trip to Aswan

Trip to Aswan:
Currently traveling to Aswan via sleeper train - way pricier than our train in Morocco ($60 USD as opposed to $30-something in Marrakesh) and not nearly as nice, but at least we'll stand a chance of getting a full night's sleep :)

Interesting (and disgusting) things about the trains here:
- Train tickets can only be purchased in US dollars, which I suspect means we pay more than locals would pay
- Toilets on the train open onto the tracks... I was warned about this by other people who have traveled here, but I don't think I fully understood how disgusting it was until I experienced it for myself.

Cairo

Highlights:
- Eating in an Egyptian food court with our new friend Hussein (who paid for our meal and kept calling us honey)
- Seeing the pyramids!
- Our cab ride with Farek, which included highlights such as Farek's obsession with Lindsay Lohan, Farek singing to the gas station attendant, and Farek grabbing the arms of people in minibuses next to us
- Seeing how papyrus (Ancient Egyptian paper) is made
- Seeing mummies at the Egyptian Museum
- Crossing the street in heavy traffic to get to the museum (extremely dangerous, but it's how the locals do it)
- The ten-year old kid we witnessed smoking at the train station
- The people here (at least the ones we met!)

Tidbits about Egypt and Cairo:
- 90% of Egypt's fresh water comes from the Nile, which is extremely polluted in Cairo
- The airport here has a prayer area
- Friday and Saturday comprise the weekend
- Traffic is insane... lanes are either really wide or non-existent, and drivers here use their horns liberally (people here joke that your car is totaled if the horn is broken)
- 17 million people live in Cairo
- The Rosetta Stone is currently housed in the British Museum in London
- Everyone here loves Obama, and it's nearly always the first thing people tell us when we tell them we're American
- For reasons that still elude me, all the kids here ask for pens
- As women are commonly home during the day, we have primarily encountered men here
- Similar to Morocco, many people hassle you for money here, including the police (and it's incredibly unnerving turning down someone carrying a gun)
- The quantity of cooking oils in the markets here is incredible
- Everyone thinks it's funny to welcome tourists to Alaska
- The metro in Cairo reserves two cars strictly for women (women are welcome to board the other trains as well, but men are forbidden from riding these two trains)
- Sales pitches here are remarkably similar (for example, nearly all spice vendors ask you to identify an unusual spice in order to strike up a conversation and hopefully reel you in)
- Egyptian cuisine is similar to other Middle Eastern cuisine. Our favorite foods here included kushari, shwarma, falafel, figs, Schweppes lemon, mango juice, rice pudding, and dolmas.
shwarma, felafel, figs, Schweppes lemon, mango juice, rice pudding, and dolmas.
- Joci and I get hit on by nearly everyone here (don't get me wrong - it does have its perks ;))

Trip to Cairo

Highlights:
- Getting stuck on the metro on our way to the airport
- Joci's credit card issues (apparently you need to provide the desk the same credit card you used to book the reservation, and since Joci since cancelled that card, she had to write on a scrap piece of paper that she would pay the full ticket amount if there were any issues with her card... oh and by the way, she bought her tickets two months ago)
- Meeting locals on the two-hour bus ride to our hotel (I definitely wouldn't recommend public transit in Cairo!)

Ios

This place is like spring break for backpackers. People stay in one of two hostels on the island (ours was on the beach :)), and bars don't close until 6 in the morning. Vastly different from Santorini, and ironically, just 35 minutes away.

I'm glad we spent the night here, but I think I'm ready to get back to Athens so I can finally sleep... I don't think I can handle more than one night like last night...

Santorini

Santorini:
Wow... this place is incredible. We toured the island via ATV today, and the views are absolutely stunning. This is definitely more of a honeymooning island than a backpacking island, but the days here make up for the lacking nightlife.
Highlights:
- Our private room at Anny's Hostel (hyperlink) for €15/night
- ATV rides
- Wine tasting (I'd highly recommend Santo Winery!)
- Watching the sunset in Oia
- Red, white, and black sand beaches
- Our sailboat ride
- Climbing the volcano
- Swimming out to/our mud bath in the hot springs
- The guy with the mullett
- Rosie
- Baklava (this is really Joci's memory)

Tidbits about Santorini:
- Everything here is painted either blue or white (including the trunks of trees, which for some reason they paint white)

Athens

 

Athens Highlights:
- Joci's arrival!
- Bungy jumping in Corinth
- View of the Acropolis from our rooftop
- The most amazing little outdoor bar, Taf
- 7am construction outside of our hostel
- Walking up four flights of stairs to get to our room
- Trying Ouzo
- Trying sesame seed bars
- The €3 salad place (Everest)
- Eating plenty of Greek yogurt
- Shopping at the flea markets
- Finding a clothing store called Detroit (someone still thinks our city is cool!)
- The ferry ride to Santorini - way classier than I expected

Tidbits about Athens:
- The marathon celebrated its 2500th year anniversary this year. Story of its beginnings here.