Sun 26/07/09 14:12
Except for adding images and proofing what I’ve written, I think I’ve got all the entries, except for today’s entry, done. It turns out that I have wi-fi access here so I’m planning on getting the blog done before I leave in two days.
Oh, and Antayla is probably the most beautiful places I’ve ever been.
After all the stress of trying to figure out what I was going to do, it turns out that I only had one option, and that was to fly to Istanbul. Well, at least that’s what the travel agent told me. I mentioned that I was going to get all my travel plans taken care of earlier while I was in Beirut, but it didn’t turn out that way. By the time that I got to a place where I could use the internet I couldn’t make reservations anywhere, so I was forced to go to a travel agent. They told me that there weren’t any ferries to Turkey from Cyprus, and they said that I would not get a visa at the Syrian border, so the only thing left for me was to fly to Istanbul. I love Istanbul so it may not have been what I wanted to do, I really wasn’t disappointed that I would go there. The timings of my schedule was kind of crappy though. I left Beirut at 340 in the morning, and my bus to Antalya, Turkey didn’t leave until 830 at night. Like I mentioned I love Istanbul and I thought I’d use the time to do a little sightseeing. Boy was I wrong. First the bus station was about an hour from the center of the city, then they wouldn’t store my bags for me, and there wasn’t anyway I was going to walk around with about 60lbs of backpacks on in 92 degree temperature. So I ended up hanging out in the bus station for about 13 hours. The time went really fast, and the people working there seemed to almost enjoy the fact that I was stuck. After my third nap, I was just sitting in a chair staring up into the distance when a guard came up to me with an espresso and an English newspaper. I looked at him and around the lobby and all the people working there were smiling like they felt my pain. :)
I think I’ve mentioned this before in another blog, but the people in Turkey are really nice to me. I’ve been told that they can be mean, but I really can’t say that I’ve had one experience of a mean person. I think Turkey is probably my favorite country, after the US of course. To give you an example of how nice people are, I arrive in the airport at Istanbul and needed to get to the bus station. I didn’t want to get a taxi, so I start kind of wandering around looking for someone to help me, when I talk to a bus driver. He points me to a bus stop I go over and talk to the driver there and along with a passenger they decide that they know where I want to go, and that was the correct bus. The passenger “takes me under his wing” so to speak and gets off the bus at the same time, gets in a taxi with me and drops me off at the bus station before he travels home. Most places that I’ve been anyone helping me like that, would have asked for money, but this guy was genuinely a nice guy. Though I have to admit I kept thinking that he was up to something, but that’s more of me being paranoid than anything else. I really do love Turkey.
I finally got on my bus to Antalya that night to cheer of one of the porters there. No lie, as all the passengers were lined up to get onto the bus, he tapped me on the shoulder, I turned and he raised his hand and said with a big smile, “Your bus! Your bus!” The trip was one of those great rides that I think planes used to be, it was comfortable, quiet, and not crowded, really probably the best transit time I’ve had.
Sun 26/07/09 13:18
Day two in Beirut has been pretty good, though I can’t say that I’ve seen anything spectacular. I got up fairly late and decided to do some research on the computer while I had some coffee…It’s been a long time since I was able to sit back on the computer and drink a coffee so this morning I probably indulged myself a little too much. By the time that I was ready to leave the apartment it was nearly noon, a lot later than I usually head out.
The first thing I wanted to check was American University in Beirut. Like I mentioned in an earlier post it’s just one of those places that I’ve heard about and since I was here I decided that it would be nice to know first hand how it looks. The school was really nice, it seemed big and was situated right next to the sea. I don’t know much about the school, but the location was great. I just kind of wandered around for about a hour… maybe less though until I found myself down by the sea. Anyone who knows me, knows that I love water, and the Mediterranean was beautiful. There wasn’t a beach just large rocks with people laying out on them while waves came in. It was so impressive I searched for a place where I could get down to the rocks, a place where some kids were fishing, and dangled my feet into the water. The water was absolutely perfect, not like the Persian Gulf which feels like a bath, this water was perfect.
Later on I finally found a place to connect to the internet, but I had to do so many things before I could post to my blog, that by the time I was able to add some entries I just wanted to leave… so my blog is going to have to wait for a while.
Sun 26/07/09 13:15
I’m sitting on the sixth floor of my hostel that is in the heart of Beirut, Lebanon drinking a beer and thinking how great this is. It’s great for a few reasons, the first is that I’m in Beirut. I have this image in my head of the late eighties and early nineties when there was a civil war going on here. I remember watching the news in disbelief on what happened to the city, and now I’m sitting here. The city was once known as the Paris of the Middle East and in my opinion it deserves the reputation. There are tree-lined streets everywhere, small shops jammed together and lots of traffic choking the narrow lanes, which is exactly the way I remember Paris, except Paris didn’t have any buildings with bullet holes. It’s really strange to see that too, bullet holes scattered across the side of a building, or all around the entranceway. It’s also great because I’ve got a great view of the city and a okay view of the Mediterranean Sea. Not to mention I’m the only person in a three-bedroom apartment… In other words, I’m renting a fully furnished apartment in the heart of Beirut, who would’ve thought that? Technically this is called a hostel, but what it is, is an apartment that the owner/manager rents out the bedrooms, as I mentioned only three of them. Since there isn’t anyone else here, and the manager doesn’t stay here, I’m the only one in the place.
I haven’t done anything yet today except take a short walk to get some dinner and some groceries, but tomorrow I plan on taking a trip to the American University in Beirut. According to Lonely Planet, it’s like the hub of Western influence in the city. They say that nearly everyone speaks English and for the most part it very liberal in the area surrounding the university. I’ve got friend in Dubai that have talked about it so there is a little bit of curiosity to see what it’s like… maybe even go inside and try to meet some profs there.
So far on this trip it’s been a little bit rough getting motivated to travel. I’m not really sure of the reason for the difficulty, but I’m starting to think at ways to combat it. Before I was doing what I wanted, and then when I was through I’d make my next plans, but tomorrow I plan to make my exit plan from Beirut and then start doing my sightseeing. Basically the opposite of my normal M.O.. I’m trying to work two, maybe three things. The first is to go to Cyprus, the second is to fly to Istanbul, and the third is to go to Greece. I remember one of the people that I was traveling with in Russia who told me of a ferry/cruise that backpacker do to go across the Mediterranean. She said that everyone just basically sleeps on the deck, and during the busy times the deck is full of people. The problem is, is that I can’t find any mention of that in any of my books. Ultimately that would be the best situation, but I may fly to Turkey, and take a bus around the country to see more of it than I did back in February. Cyprus would be cool too… I just don’t know if that would be smart. I read basically that I would have to fly there, and then fly out, and that’s not something I really want to do. I’d much rather take a boat or bus if I’m going to travel, planes are too expensive for my type of traveling.
Sun 26/07/09 13:08
I’m in the Amman airport at about 11 in the morning before I leave for Beirut. It’s been a good day so far and if everything goes as planned I’ll be in Beirut in about 2 hours. Although there was much that I loved about Jordan, there was much that I was not that fond of, to be more precise, the people that I met were without a doubt kind and considerate, but I got the feeling that they looked at me more like a meal ticket than a person. Amman wasn’t that bad, but in Petra I felt extremely uncomfortable trying to buy anything. It didn’t matter where you went it was like the prices of items were based on the nothing more than the emotions of the shopkeeper. That prices changed daily, sometimes lower and sometime higher. Oh Well.
I met up with a French mother and daughter that lived in India the other day, and since it seems like we were on the same schedule. We were in the same hotel in Petra, I saw them in the park, we were on the same bus to Amman, and we shared a taxi from the bus station to the same hotel, and this morning we shared a taxi to the airport. It was something that I really needed. It’s been tough so far traveling by myself, so any company is really welcomed, and Caroline and her daughter were especially fun to be around.
Sun 26/07/09 13:05
So I’ve been in Jordan for five days and except for a half hour I haven’t had internet at all. It’s really starting to annoy me.
This morning I headed down the hill to Petra at about 830 after a cold shower. It was one of those excitement days before I get to see something that I’ve always wanted to see, like Red Square, the Eiffel Tower, or Tiananmen Square, and I was hoping that I’d get there before the massive number of expected tourists arrived. Unfortunately, that was not to be, I got there right when the first group, or wave, of people showed. Not to worry though it was everything that I had hoped for, the buildings, the paths, caves, and even all the people made for a great experience.
The weather started great and soon ended up being very hot, just like it should… but for some reason, and I’d love to hear if this happens to any others, sunscreen doesn’t seem to work very well for me. I put spf 45 sunscreen on three times today, and wore a hat most of the day and when I got back to the hotel I looked like I had been slow roasted. I guess maybe I should have put it on 10 times. J Or maybe it was just that hot, I did drink four liters of water while I was there, and the rocks are white so maybe the heat and the reflection off the stone fried me.
Sorry about the ramble, but back to Petra. For those of you who might not now what Petra is, it is a city that was abandoned about 1000 years ago, but while it was thriving it had a large population that built their houses and buildings by carving them out of the surrounding mountains. The icon for Petra is the treasury that was used as a backdrop for a scene or two in the first Indiana Jones movie. The treasury was in other movies too, but most people remember it in the Indiana Jones movie. It really is impressive, this ornate and huge building just carved into the side of a big rock. Other than the treasury there were many other buildings that weren’t as well preserved or not as large, but all were still really interesting. One of the great things about this place is that you basically can go anywhere you want. With only a few exceptions, if you saw some place that you wanted to explore, you just went. I took it to it’s limit and got lost twice. If not for a deaf Bedouin boy that guided me back to the path –twice, I’d probably still be wandering around the mountains right now. Okay so that’s a little bit of an exaggeration since there’s really no way you can get lost since almost everywhere you go you can see land marks, but some of the paths aren’t really marked, and it is really easy to start following a goat path and get to a spot where the path just ends, and like I said if not for the Bedouin boy that would grunt at me, walk about ten meters in front, stop and then wait for me to catch up and then start walking again, I really would have gotten lost. It was kind of funny though, he was really nimble on the paths, and I was like a lumbering giant trying to stay up with him. As I write this, another example is coming to mind, you know in LOTR when Gollum is leading the hobbits? That’s what it reminded me of.
So now I have to figure out what I’m going to do tomorrow. I’ve pretty much had my fill of Jordan so my next decision is to go to Cairo or to Lebanon. I want to go to Lebanon, but the visa to get through Syria can be a nightmare and if I try to get one at the border there is a chance that my ride will abandon me, at least that’s what I’ve been told. Most people can go through Syria to Lebanon with about an hour wait at any of the borders, but with Americans, it can take up to five hours and sometimes we may not get them at all. If it takes five hours I was told that the bus would just leave me and move on, and I’d have to catch a ride with the next bus, or by some other means. The thing is, is that once I get to Lebanon, I still have a problem getting to Turkey because I have to go through Syria again… but I could go to Greece from Lebanon, which would be really cool. I don’t really want to go to Cairo, mainly because I’ve been there before and once I’m there there’s no place for me to go. So I think I’ll try Lebanon tomorrow. Wish me luck.
