Syrian ways

When I arrived in Syria three weeks ago my first impressions were that things work a little different from what I have seen so far on my trip... blocks of ice were cut on the dusty sidewalk and oven-fresh bread spread out on the ground, handrails or benches so that it could cool down. What was my stomach going to say to that, I wondered.



My first day in Syria was actually a Friday, which is a holiday for Muslims, just like Sunday is a day off for us in Western countries. The bazaar (or souq as they call it here) was therefore fairly deserted, yet not completely shut down because there is a considerable Christian minority in Syria (many of them seem to be Armenian) and they of course work on Fridays like on any other weekday, whilst their Muslim countrymen hang out in cafés and public places like around the majestic citadel in Aleppo.



Another centre of public social life are mosques, especially the ones with big courtyards. Families come there to relax, maybe have a small picknick, kids run around and mess about and if you are not part of a big intimidating tourist group you'll have the odd conversation with locals and plenty of kids asking you to take a photo of them or young locals asking to take a photo with you.



Syria has lots to offer to the archaeologically interested; where ever you are you never seem to be far away from some ancient ruins like...

Basilica of St Simeon

Abandoned city of Rasafa

...or Palmyra – the single biggest attraction in Syria according to guidebooks and leaflets. (Personally I found Rasafa more impressive with its 300x400m city walls, located in the desert, away from any major road.)

And what about the Syrians themselves? So far I found them an extremely welcoming, polite and hospitable bunch of people (with a few exceptions at tourist hotspots, but that has to be expected). I heard the phrase “Welcome to Syria” so many times, I actually wonder how long they will keep up with it. But seriously, in couple of situations I looked lost for no more than 10 seconds and was already offered help. People guided me from the bus station to my hostel, paying for the local transport on the way, I got a free city tour through Damascus by some locals who wanted to show me their city, roadside shop owners paid for my tea or snack as gesture of hospitality... it is simply amazing. This feeling that locals kind of look after you only ads to the feeling that Syria is an extremely safe country to travel (at least from a male perspective). The other reason why it is such a safe place might be related to the reputation of Syria's prisons and the level of punishment that includes public execution in extreme cases.

with the Syrians being friendly and helpful as they are, hitch hiking was no problem at all...


One thing I have been wondering about the last few weeks is the number of portraits of the Syrian President Al-Assad that you can see on the streets, in shops, offices and on back windows of cars. It reminds me somewhat of the Honecker portraits in East-Germany before the wall came down, although I don't think anyone ever put a huge Honecker sticker on their car. So I figure a lot of people here do feel genuine affection for their president and government.


And some more impressions:

If you cannot find a bar in a Syrian town you have to look for one of the small liqueur stores. You pay about 1Euro for half a liter of beer, that is not too bad for a country where the fast majority are Muslims.

Smells and visual displays at the souq can be overpowering...

Souvenier shop in Damascus. If you are thinking of heading to Israel on your Middle East tour, you should probably go for a different kind of souvenir.

Some statistics:
average cost of street snack: 15 Syrian Pound (=0.25Euro)
traveller's diarrhoea: twice so far, but I think my guts are getting used to the street food now
most frequently asked questions: How old are you? Are you married? Are you Muslim?
My answers: 34 (I keep forgetting that I turned 35 a few weeks ago!) Not yet but in two years, in sha allah (god willing). I consider myself Agnostic, but religion is really a very private matter for me.

More hitching, more couchsurfing and the world's oldest temple - Goodbye Turkey!

So, what has happened during the last week? Well, I made one final stop in Urfa, Turkey and then crossed the border to the Syrian city of Aleppo, my current location.

Urfa was meant to be a short stop following the recommendation by the Kurdish owner of the kebab shop in my home town. I had planned to go there by bus from Diyarbakir, but I couldn't face all the ticket touts that started competing for my attention as soon as they saw me outside the Diyarbakir bus terminal. Too much shouting, too much arm-pulling... so I decided to hitch instead. A few kilometres down the road three Kurds picked me up and gave me a ride to the a nearby police check point on the road. I didn't really know why they dropped me off there, but it didn't matter anyway as one of the police guys actually helped me to get a ride to Urfa. He stopped some of the cars, enquired where they were going and 10 minutes later I was sitting in the car with Suleman who droped me 2 hours later in the centre of Urfa... sweet! Actually, the ride was a bit awkward. I don't think Suleman would have given me a lift if the police officer hadn't stopped and asked him, so he had done the police dude a favour, not me. On top of that we had virtually no way to communicate, so I could not even offer him a conversation in return (which I am sure he would not have minded because after an hour or so he started yawning like hell). Anyway, he put a CD on after some time and later I passed him my phone with Halil on the other end, a potential couchsurfing host in Urfa. Between the two they sorted out where I would get dropped off in Urfa.

It was Saturday afternoon and I was standing on the pavement in downtown Urfa, waiting for Halil. With my big backpack on my shoulders people looked at me like I was a visitor from outer space who got lost in a foreign world. During the 10 minutes wait until Halil showed up I got offered help three times; people gave me their cell phone numbers in case I needed help later on, they offered me to take me to internet places and a middle-aged headscarf wearing woman even offered me her phone in case I wanted to ring someone. It was just amazing! Halil spotted me right away on the crowded pavement and before anyone else of the friendly Urfa people would invite me to their home he took me to Semih's place, one of his friends that I ended up staying with for the next 5 days. I think in total I met like eight or nine of Halil's friends during these days, most of them being students and/or teachers of some kind, a pretty crazy but warm and welcoming bunch. For most of the time I had my own key to Semih's flat, which was also home to the communal chill-out lounge called “The David Lynch Cinema”. What a place! We would often hang out there till late in the night, watching football on a beamer system whilst listening to lots of Goth and metal music. All the flats around us were apparently used as offices, so cranking up the volume did not annoy anyone. Only very few of the guys spoke English, but no matter what flat we were in there was always a computer with internet connection around and we could use the “google translate” service when it got too complicated.

Watching Semih's and Osman's shopping that they dumped on the street whilst they were organising a few more bits and pieces for their new flat

Goodbye meal with Halil, Semih and friends in Urfa

During my stay in Urfa I heard about a place called Göbekli Tepe, a site outside the city in the mountains where a German-Turkish research team had discovered stone temple structures dating back to 9000-10000B.C. Of course I had to go there to check it out! I made a map of how to get there, involving public transport and a 24km return hike. I ended up walking only 10km and the remaining distance I got driven around in a school bus and a private car - people are just so friendly! Once at the site you couldn't actually get close enough to touch any of the ancient structures (a lot of the area was covered up as the excavations are still ongoing, although currently they are on hold) but it was still a pretty good feeling to be there in the middle of nowhere where history gets rewritten.

Göbekli Tepe and its T-shaped stones. Separated from a stone that was erected more than 11000 years ago. The fence couldn't stop my shadow though :)

Water canal on the way back from Göbekli Tepe. With a huge number of dams and a canal network Turkey has tried to change large areas from dry to wet agriculture to increase yields.

Having spent four weeks in Turkey it was time to move on, although I easily could have spent the rest of my trip there without getting bored or disappointed. But my trip isn't open-end any more and I am too excited to see Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. And so I left Turkey with the desire to go back soon but at same time looking forward to the unknown adventures waiting for me in Syria and beyond.

First challenge in Syria, which toilet entrance is for men?

Falling off the tourist trail

So how do you manage to fall off the tourist trail? Well, hitching seems a sure way of doing it and this is exactly how I left Cappadocia. I had arrived by taxi (which is a long story for itself) and now I wanted to get out of Cappadocia for free. The plan was to hitch all the way to Adana in the South and then take whatever bus I could get to either Sanliurfa or Diyarbakir. There wasn't much traffic on the main road and it took me about an hour, a fair bit of walking and two rides to cover the 55km to Nigde. My last ride dropped me at the Nigde bus station and looking at the time I was contemplating taking a bus from there to Adana. This turned out an excellent choice because otherwise I would not have met Sinan, a sports teacher who was attending a course at Nigde university and who was on his way home to Adana. He was very keen on practising his English and so we spent the best part of the three hour ride conversing.

Nigde bus terminal where I met Sinan

Cruising South to Adana through tree-less landscape on a brand new motorway

Arriving in Adana, Sinan helped me sort out my onward bus ticket, which was going to be my first overnight bus. The departure time was midnight and I had at least five hours left to do... well, what do you do at a bus terminal? When I asked that to Sinan he decided to invite me to his home for the evening. And what an awesome evening it was! I was served plenty of delicious home-made Turkish food which his wife and mother-in-law had prepared, I showed him my “photo collection” (before leaving home I looked through the like last 10 years of my life and picked some photos to help me make conversations with locals on the road, photos that tell about me, my family, friends, hobbies and my jobs), we went on a night cruise through the city and stopped for some künefe, a hot-served Turkish desert made with cheese, and chilled out in front of his huge flatscreen TV before he gave me a ride back to the bus terminal. The hospitality of Sinan and his family were truly overwhelming, and the least I could do was leave my e-mail address behind in case he ever makes it to Germany.

My decision to go to Diyarbakir took me even further of the tourist trail. Like Antalya, Konya and Adana, it is another of these gigantic boom-towns (it is more than 10km from the bus terminal on the outskirts to the city centre, and there is nothing but apartment buildings along the way), but this one is situated in the Kurdish dominated area of Turkey. Diyarbakir has been inhabited for more than two millennia, but barley attracts any foreign tourists. I figure that is due to the tensions between Kurds and Turkish military that have led to clashes here in the past, and even fatalities. I have seen some heavily protected military bases here and the odd armoured vehicle on the road, but other than that it is just a normal place like any other. Being one of the very few tourists here I got a fair bit of attention on the old streets in the city centre and also in Mardin, a town 80km south that I visited on a day trip. So many people wanted to know where I am from and what my name is, and all but one encounters were very pleasant and friendly, like people asking me to take photos of them, offering me to dry my trousers in front of a heater after a heavy downpour or giving me bananas for free on a small local market. Okay, if you wander off the main streets you are likely to attract some kids that can accumulate into big groups. It is actually fun as long as they just ask for your name, but when they start asking for money, well... In those situations I just walked into a direction that promised a few adults around, and the first elder would usually tell them to bugger off – which always worked. The only time I got really concerned was whilst watching some locals perform a dance in a side street. All of the sudden I found myself surrounded by a horde of teens, and they did not seem very pleased when I didn't recognise the name Abdulla Öcalan (the imprisoned PKK leader) at first. After a short while I realised what and who they were on about. I made a prison cross bar gesture with my fingers and the atmosphere changed instantaneously. At the end they all shook my hand goodbye whilst saying “we are Kurdish” and then buggered off.

Diyarbakir's old mighty city wall...

...and a view from the city wall

This black and white design is typical for many of the mosques in Diyarbakir

Mahmoud and a life-time supply of tobacco

One of the entrance gates to the old city of Diyarbakir

From what I read I understand that the situation regarding the recognition of the Kurdish people as a minority has improved over the last years. And frankly, looking at the economical situation here people have enough to worry about as it is.

Formerly a palace entrance, now entrance to a Mardin school

Mardin in late afternoon sun

Two well behaved Mardin kids

Outdoor fun in Cappadocia

After a few relaxing days in Antalya I went to Göreme in the Cappadocia region. It is an location ideally suited for outdoor activities with the local attraction being all kinds of weird rock formations and pillars. And as if nature wasn't creative enough, people dug caves, flats and churches into many of these rocks, giving them a kind of “Swiss cheese” look. This all makes the area a big tourist attraction and almost every single “house” was either a cave hotel or cave pension, if not a shop or a restaurant. But being still in low season, the number of visitors were easily outnumbered by the number of hotels around. And yet, I met some interesting folks with interesting stories, like Jack, who met an Iranian on his trip that got kicked out of Iran for playing in a Metal band, and who is now planing to watch this man play the opening act at the Ankara Metal festival in Mid March. Or take Sasha, a crazy Dutchman, who is trying to reach Vietnam overland. He wants to travel via Pakistan but didn't know if he will be forced to take a police escort guarding him through the country. So you can imagine, I was in very good company and together we spend a couple of days roaming around in the bizarre Cappadocia landscape.

Exploring Cappadocia with Jack, Kris and Torben

Cappadocia at its finest, high up from the Uchisar rock castle

There was only one way to get out of this canyon and that was climbing up the steep walls. Thank goodness I was with Torben who lent me his arm to pull me up the tricky part.

Some of the rock carved churches have the most amazing frescoes

Another normal day on the road

I left Istanbul by bus, a very comfortable one. The service was like in an airplane, I even had my own mini TV. Channel 12 was my favorite one since it was hooked up to a webcam next to the bus driver. The whole journey took about 11 hours, but with all the nice mountainous countryside floating past me eyes the trip was quite a pleasure.

At one of the larger bus terminals along the way there was a Turkish delight shop where you could watch them make this delicous looking stuff. I could not resist buying a small selction, and even though it was very rich, it lasted me only a day and a half.

My reason for going to Antalya was the ruins of Termessos, an ancient city up in the mountains that I had read about. I had also read that it was possible to go there by bus and hike up to the site. So when I woke up the next day and the weather looked great, I decided to just go and do it.

After having breakfast at my pension I bought a tram ticket to the main bus station outside town. Only after buying the ticket I realised that there wouldn't be another tram for a considerable time and so I got on one of the mini busses which are much more frequent and also turned out to be a lot cheaper. At the bus station I had to ask twice to find the right bus that stops at the trail head to Termessos. Half an hour later I was already there, and there was a taxi waiting, offering to take me the 9km to the entrance of the actual site. I declined the offer, walked to a nearby restaurant to buy some water since I had forgotten to get any earlier in Antalya, and then I started hiking up the access road. After half an hour a Spanish coulpe passed in a car and offered a ride - I didn't say no this time. We chatted on the way up and I learnt that the guy was doing an Erasmus year at Istanbul university. Apparently all his courses are in Turkish, which he didn't speak, and the lecturers kept asking him what they are supposed to do with him.

The access road ended into a car park and that is where we split up. The following few hours I meandered though the ruins which have been left in a natural state. Quite amazing what you can find there behind bushes and trees.


In the afternoon I started walking back down the access road. This time I got picked up by two Israelis who happened to go all the way to Antalya which was perfect for me. The woman was working in Antalya for a tomato seedling company (tomatoes are really big business in the area) and we talked a lot about the pros and cons of plant crossing and manipulation.

In the evening I had a tasty homemade kebap at my pension and then had the host explain me the stories on the TV news. It seemed to be a very exciting day for Turkish politics: some generals from the military had been arrested for planning to throw over the government in 2003, whilst somewhere in Spain a Syrian Kurd tried to throw a shoe at the Turkish prime minister. And after reading on Spiegel online a bit more about these latest current affairs, I fell asleep... what a nice day it has been!

My first couchsurfing experience

Just before leaving Istanbul I had the chance to spend the weekend with a complete stranger. Well, Gurcan wasn't entirely a stranger. I met him through the couchsurfing.org project, a social network of people that like to meet local people when the travel on one side, and people that enjoy hosting and learning about other cultures on the other side. I had spent some time during the first few days in Istanbul to fill in my couchsurfing profile including some photos so that potential hosts get a better idea who they might be meeting. Then I looked up possible hosts in the city. With more than 5000 couchsurfing members in Istanbul this was quite a challenge. In the end I picked two guys and sent them a request to either meet up for a few hours or surf with them. And this is how I got to meet up with Gurcan at a subway exit in Istanbul on a Saturday noon.

We spent the weekend together and it was a really great experience of Turkish hospitality. We checked out the cinema program in a gigantic mall...

...enjoyed the view from his flat over one of Istanbul's many living quarters...

...and I got introduced to some new Turkish fast food: Kumpir. Yummy!!

After having spent a lot of time in the busy historic areas it was very relaxing weekend and I even got spoilt twice by Gurcan's cookings skills. Two days and many conversations later, on a Monday morning, Gurcan went back to work and I took a bus to get to my next destination: Antalya. Thanks for this fantastic weekend, Gurcan!

Istanbul, oh Istanbul

I don't really know where to start. There are about 15Mio people living in Istanbul, so the size of the city just blows you away. You could say it is like several cities, each with their own character, like the historic Sultanahmet, old and run down housing areas, modern housing areas with lots of multi-storey appartment buildings, the lively downtown area of Taxim... And with Thracians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs and Ottomans having resided at this place at one time or other, the history of the area is extremly rich. One of the most striking facts for me however was the cultural diversity with respect to Islam and the strict separation between state affairs and religion. At universities, women are not allowed to wear the traditional headscarf (although there have been attempts to change that), whilst in some areas of Istanbul the majority of them wears at least the headscarf or is complete veiled in black, and at the same time you can watch women show their belly buttons in TV soap operas.

Part of the daily routine is the muzzein's call for prayer. They do this five times a day, at dawn, noon, afteroon, evening and night. To me the calls sound like some beautiful singing. They are broadcasted via speakers from the minarets. Every mosque seems to has their own muzzein, and given the density of mosques in cities you can often hear overlapping calls. But that still sounded nice to me. In fact, after attending one of the evening prayer sessions I was able to pick out "my" muzzein later on during the night time call when I was already far away and heard at least four or five of them "competing" in their singing skills.

Friday noon prayer is a special one. If you are a moslem man, you should turn up at least for this one, the other prayer times, so I understand, can be conducted at other places if you can't make it to your mosque. So, Friday noon it gets really busy in mosques, even the gigantic Blue Mosque filled completely.

This is a snap of the Basilica Cistern, dating back to the days of the Roman Empire. It was used to supply the city and the palace with water, rather than being some cool underground swimming pool (which was my initial thought given the pretty design of the pillars).

Majestic Aya Sophia, once upon a time it was a church but got converted into a mosque by the Ottomans. Nowadays it serves as a museum that you pay an addmission fee for (mosques on contrary are always addmission free).

Galata bridge across the so-called "Golden horn" water way, with Galata tower in the background. Fishing off the Galata bridge is a favourite past-time for many a man from Istanbul.

A visit to the archeological museum almost resulted in a brain overload. It is a collection of several indivual museums of which I tried to visit two. The amount of information and number of artefacts on display is just overwhelming. Given the rich history of the place it is no surprise I guess: whereever you start digging, you are likely to find some kind of artefact or other.

Side street in Sultanahmet, the historic quarter of Istanbul. Unlike on the main roads there were almost no tourists there, and no touts, a very welcome change. If you spend your time only around the main attractions, having to deal with touts can really get to you. Everyone wants to sell you something, and you are approached in a friendly and often even charming way that it is hard to just ignore and walk past the guys. A friendly "No, thank you, I am not interested" is usually not accepted but will prompt a tout to start over, asking where you are from, followed by some story about his relatives living in your country or he will come out with some compliments about your country of origin. They know so many lines in so many languages to lure you into their shops, you almost have to admire them for their skills.

A little bit further away from the touristy main streets this could be a common sight: plenty of men watching one man dig a hole or sweating with their pals playing backgammon or nine men's morris (deutsch: Muehle) on the sidewalk.

Turkey's national drink #1: Turkish tea, here being delivered to a bazaar salesman.

I had many a glass of tea here already, and with a single exception they have been as tiny as this one. The idea behind the small size is that you get to enjoy it hot, whilst the glass allows you to admire the colour ot the tea.

That was a must-take photo! Spices and teas sold at the bazaar. Unfortunately I cannot reproduce the nice and rich smell here...

The narrow streets in the old town area can be quite taxing for traffic...

...and in the bazaar it gets so narrow and busy that people often just resort to carts to deliver goods.

An hour or two after closing time, and after the garbage collectors have been through, the bazaar seems like a ghost-town...

...whilst at the same time it is getting busy in the Nargile cafes.

After 30 days on the road I treated myself to a hair cut at a Turkish baber. The whole treatment took 1.5 hours and included a haircut, shave, face mask, hair wash and a short head + face massage. For only 10Euros, I could get used to that treatment on a weakly basis!