through syria

aleppo (halab) is the next stop on the way towards amman. seems to be a huge city with approx. 4 mio. inhabitants. but most importantly it seems to be pretty untouched by tourists and people seem to be pretty foreigner-sensitive which is, of course, sometimes annoying and sometimes (!) enjoyable especially when it comes to arabic. people are even more enthusiastic about having a talk with me or simply saying “hello”.
this gives surges to your self-esteem although it often feels really weird at first.
in one of these situations one guy gave me a wonderful cactus-fruit to eat.
and eventually, i had my first middle-eastern falafel sandwich which was not the typical jordanian style but still very good or even better.
now, something more specific for aleppo, the amazing citadel which is sort of a castle, first built in the 300s b.c.
it is located on a manmade hill which surmounts the rest of the city and therefore you can enjoy a fantastic view from up above and oversee the whole city and in some directions even further.

after having it already expected for some time, one strap of my sandal finally broke and it felt quite weird to walk around like this. so i went to the next cobbler/shoemaker (yes, they still have such a thing and even many of them) to ask him to help me. the one in antakya put some glue and what seemed a bit short-lived to me turned out to hold quite good so that i could walk further. after asking him to put a second sole for the sandal he refused.
so i had to wait till i got to aleppo and, indeed, i asked a cobbler there and he put an additional sole right away for some 80 cents. and it looks long-lasting!

what else did i experience in two days in aleppo?
the first night i was invited to a party by my host on his rooftop. the group was quite international and the most of the syrians who were present spoke perfects english. most of them had lived abroad for some time or even their complete childhood. they seemed quite western and were not much into religion and seemed to be from a rather wealthy class. also, the interest in the current protests going on in allegedly huge parts of syria was not high. at least we didn’t talk about it in any way and no one mentioned something. this could probably be caused by the fear syrians have of the syrian “stasi” or by the good economic situation they have in aleppo and damascus in contrast to other cities in syria like hama and homs.
after two days in aleppo i headed further two damascus. eventually i chose the bus instead of the train because i was curious about the situation on the mainroads. a friend earlier this year had told me that there are tanks and armed soldiers along the roads. surprisingly, i didn’t see any tanks or soldiers along the road and we even stopped at the homs bus station (which is a bit outside of the city and therefore surely not in the center of the clashes). after this weird and unexpected bus-trip i arrived in calm damascus where also no signs of protests or clashes were visible.
this time, for the first time, i had the chance to stay at the palestinian refugee camp “yarmouk” which is one of the biggest (more than 100,000 inhabitants) in syria. although it is really densely populated, camp in this case (as for probably most of the palestinian refugee camp in neighbouring countries) doesn’t mean that people live in tents but rather in houses in an area provided by syria with many institutions like schools financed by the united nations program ; this camp was established in 1957 after already existing for a few years before, since the first waves of refugees from palestinian territories arrived in 1948.
the camp is actually a very vivid place with lots of shops, restaurants and saloons and such. apparently damascenes come to this place to do shopping because prices are a bit lower than somewhere else in syria due to the subsidized places where the shops are located.

back to the east (way back to istanbul and eventually further east)

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first some organizational stuff:
i’m sorry for being so late with this post although i actually wrote most of it already four or six weeks ago.
i was recently pretty busy with setting up my schedule for my studies (and looking for the right flat to stay: another reason for not always having best internet connections in jordan) but still, i kind of want to promise to post more often, also in order to get to the present time and write about things that actually happen right now. therefore i will hopefully increase the regularity of my posts.

otherwise: (for the pictures) you can click on them to enlarge them if you want to. moreover you can see the title of a picture by moving your cursor on it.
to comment on posts you have to click the speech balloon next to the date of the post (below the title).

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the trip from the camp to istanbul was quite a big thing, bigger than i would have expected. first issue was the condition of my body/stomach which was a bit overstrained from the hot weather/sun all day, some beer the night before and too little sleep.
our first few attempts to hitch were disappointing so we walked back into town to catch a bus from there. shortly after we had arrived and i had sat down, i realized that i wouldn’t get up again anytime soon especially not for a bumpy ride on a bus. nevertheless, my fellow hitcher took it, so i was on my own waiting for something to happen , actually for a bus that would take me to the train station. i got on the bus only to get off and realize that i was out of cash and there are no atms near the train station.
an old woman at a shop offered me some water and something to eat, for cash of course! since i didn’t have any lever (bulgarian money) nor euro anymore i didn’t know what to do. till she reminded me that i might have some dollars with me by asking for them. i searched my backpack and, indeed, found the little pocket with some dollars and syrian pounds; actually this was my emergency package for syria to get the visa at the border; but since i already had my visa i didn’t hesitate and gave her five dollars to get a bottle of water, some sesame rings and two lever in exchange. i really needed the water and obviously some money for the bus to get back to town to an atm because, of course, they wouldn’t accept dollars at the train station. the next bus back to town was an hour later, so we had some nice conversation- as far as i can call it that sort of thing.
she was really nice and really enthusiastic to explain some things to me. but still, for the most part, i didn’t understand her.
finally, after going back to town and again to the station and waiting for five hours (including falling asleep for several times in a sitting position) i got on the train at around 3am which was supposed to arrive at 1:40am. i fell asleep right away in the cosy cabin.
i had another stay in istanbul of six days which even topped the first one somehow.
during this time i stayed two nights at neverlandhostel (a really nice hostel where people seem to be interested in you and their surrounding and interesting and not of the typical mainstream type), the other nights were surfed or at some other nice places in istanbul.

finally leaving this mega-city towards eastern turkey, more specifically antakya/hatay (the old biblical antioch) by bus.
and now, as it is the really first part in which i travel alone the whole thing gets another dimension and gets much more exiting. besides the whole new setting (in comparison to istanbul) which one encounters when he or she gets to south-eastern turkey and therefore almost to syria (not only geographically but also culturally and, for my luck, language-wise, in that, that (assumption) 80% speak arabic (in syrian dialect)). the city is wonderfully located in a wide valley between reasonably high mountains, i guess it is somehow the continuation of the libanon and anti-libanon mountains in libanon. on the one side, the city even clashes with the mountains and grows it up a little bit which reminds me of damascus. it consists mainly of colourful houses, most of them not the latest architecture respectively not all of them in their best condition anymore though really cosy.
i got to the city by public bus although the people (while offering a taxi) at the bus station told me that there is non but only their taxis.
on first sight, this seemed like a nice river going through the city center of antakya with a nice promenade. when getting closer and taking a closer look and smell you would figure out that it pretty much stinks like canalization and doesn’t look that charming since the little water which is existent is not really flowing and there’s lot of rubbish in it. might be better in winter and spring months but still, it doesn’t seem as if there’s taken a lot of care about.

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walking around in the city caught the attention of most people i was passing, so i didn’t have to wait long for welcoming words by many of the locals sometimes even followed by some conversation if the person spoke arabic. on the way to an ancient church (“church of st. peter”) which is built into rock on the outskirts of the city and provides a beautiful view over the city i met a turkish guy who spoke some german and a little more english. so he told me that he works in antalya (that’s also where he learnt his german, because of the many german tourists over there) and was currently on a month holiday in his hometown at his parents house. he was on his way home right next to the church, so he invited me for tea and i sat down with his mother, his brother and himself, they first offered some home-grown figues and walnuts before serving tea with home-made cookies.
before they let me go they filled up my backpack with walnuts and almonds from their own garden. i actually had to carry them all my way to jordan although they made my luggage even quite a bit heavier. i still have some and they are really good, so it was worth it.

for now, last post with istanbul in it, therefore:

istanbul and no-border in bulgaria

view from anadolu kava(g)i in the north of the asian part on the bosphorus towards istanbul
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first day, we did a bosphorus tour direction north towards the black sea on a boat with an old friend from my hometown who was going to leave the same night. so, we enjoyed the time, walked up a hill with an old fortress after arriving at the very north of the bosphorus on the asian side, enjoyed the view of istanbul and the black sea from there and, after going (back) to the european side, looked for a fee-free beach where we could cool off from the warm weather (we couldn’t find any; as i later on heard from different sides, there are unfortunately no free beaches in the istanbul area).
three days in istanbul were following during which i met some really nice and interesting people, went to the huge topkapi palace (the residence of the ottoman sultans between 1465 and 1856), had some really good food and so on. i’m not gonna write an own episode on istanbul, only in case that i have really too much spare time at a point in my life. but i think there has been enough written about this city and it is for sure that it is a really great city still having some downsides/negatives such as the overpopulation (pretty much probably simply the typical mega-city syndroms).

after these four days in istanbul we had to go back to bulgaria for the no-border camp (in the border region in bulgaria next to turkey and greece). after the wonderful experience on the way to there we decided to do the way hitchhiking again. but it was not as a joyful experience as the first one, but we needed some seven or eight different rides and had to wait quite long in between, standing in the blazing sun.
the camp was one of my most interesting and amazing experiences on this trip or even my life in terms of meeting great people, having a common spirit, living pretty sustainable (exclusively vegan food, energy only for light and recharging mobiles and the like) in such a huge camp, having huge political discussions despite the common spirit for the one thing with 200 to 300 people and no amplification and, additionally enjoying the wonderful landscape and the camping in this beautiful setting.

first picture

budapest main station shortly before our departure at supposedly 23:30 to belgrad

first way to istanbul

now, that i have left germany about a month ago, i got some things together which i feel i should publish..

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view from the truck on the way to the serbian-bulgarian border
somewhere in the nice mountains which name i still couldn’t find out, so if you have any suggestions?! (maybe balkan mountains!?)… it seems to be the sićevo gorge
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when i wrote this, i was still staying in istanbul, this huge, amazing, glooming, loud city between orient and occident.

to describe my route to there (shortly):

i started in karlsruhe going to munich getting a ride in a car with some friends. i didn't really stay in munich but caught a train to vienna just 1,5h after my arrival.

in vienna, i stayed at a friends house and got to know some more great things about vienna, such as the HUB (co-working space for changemakers of society), a consumption-free cafe in the 7th district, another nice small organic shop which also offers some good fresh food (7th), the shore of the danube (i already knew about that), amongst the other things i somehow already knew (the danube bank, the beauty of the city itself (most parts i went to)).

and finally, to get out of the city again, i got to know the best hitchhikers spot in vienna direction budapest. maximum ten minutes after arrival at the spot we caught a ride on a nice volkswagen t5 bus with lots of space and going quickly. we could have gone even further but wanted to have a brief stop in budapest which was absolutely worth it. another wonderful city where we could experience some nice things. wonderful buildings (which higly suffer from car-expulsions), probably beginning of 20^th century architecture , rock-concerts in a park in the middle of the city, nice ticket inspectors at the tram (selling me the obligatory ticket and then indicating twice till i understood that i shouldn’t stamp it now but rather keep it for the next ride) and interesting beer mixtures.

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the confusing stairs to the subway in budapest, since the advertisements on the sides are also not horizontal but hung up in the same angle as the stairs go down, you totally lose track of space
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after this eventful afternoon and early night in budapest we decided to head further to belgrad by night-train in order to get to istanbul as fast as possible.

after arriving there and finding that there were no attractive alternatives in public transport available (considering price and time) for going further towards istanbul we decide to hitchhike once more. so, we found a road which seemed to be going towards sofia. on the way there by foot we could see some of the remains of war (destroyed buildings) but not many nice spots which even encouraged us to go further (although this conclusion seemed to be rushed into, since in the meantime i’ve heard from so many people that belgrade is an amazing city). after some difficulties finding the right spot we managed to get to the right one, put our thumbs out and just hitched the first truck that came our way.

and this was absolutely the best thing that could happen to us. behind its front seats there was a nice bed and everything you can imagine in the driver’s cab. the driver himself was super-nice, he lives in turkey but actually spends most of his time on the road between turkey and germany or other western european countries. he spoke some german, some english and at least a few words in all the languages on his way between turkey and western europe, therefore, we communicated somehow. anyways, it was my first ride on a truck but i still think that it was the fastest had in quite some time (partly 140km/h which felt like riding an ICE or almost flying). he actually took us with him to the turkish border which all in all took 12h. we got off the truck at the serbian-bulgarian border for the time of the border crossing. after we crossed the border by foot we had to wait for our truck for about three hours and started to feel uncomfortable since we didn’t know exactly where the trucks come out from. we had some nice food (goat or sheep cheese and tomato salad) and finally he was there and we went further.

after this experience we didn’t want to wait again that long at the bulgarian-turkish border and therefore got off again, walked through the crossing and, after being invited to a nice-before-sunrise breakfast (due to ramadan), caught another truck to go to istanbul.

first pic in istanbul…

beautiful!