Happy New Year 2005 & the Da Vinci Code


I really hope this won't be an empty phrase because 2004 has not been a very happy one, what with the atrocities in Iraq & Palestine which have become such an ordinary occurance in our daily life, sprinkled with the occasional bomb exploded here & there in the world, and the depressing reelection of GWB and Howard, the ethnic clashes in Holland, the racism in France and the silence in Darfur, the Ivory coast, Chechnya, the Iran earthquake , the Morocco earthquake and so much more that I can't remember but the end of the year is also very sad with the devastating Tsunami toll...I'm not going to ask you to contribute aid , because I'm sure many of you have already done so.

I'm back in Tripoli folks, but my epic travels have not ended yet ;)

On a lighter tone I'd like to say that I'm glad I got to read The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown before 2004 is over . Absolutely fascinating, I hope to buy his whole lot. Preoccupation with world affairs sometimes makes one forget that there are other things in life, one of them is to enjoy reading a good book !

In Libya it is not part of the tradition to celebrate the New Year, so the city is quiet. However, it has recently become fashionable to send each other sms or emails in that context, the mobile has not stopped ringing with these text messages. It's -3 degrees Celcius here today ( about 26 Farhenheit), which is cold by any means. It has just started to rain so I hope it gets a little bit warmer because there are just so many clothes one can wear...

I'm not going to make any promises or resolutions anymore, life is so precarious that it gets more and more difficult to keep them, but I will TRY to answer your new/recent questions to the best of my ability in a reasonably short time ( does that sound too much like lawyers stuff? ;) ).

Thank you for accompanying me on this journey and hope you enjoyed the Christmas message from Syria.

Signing off for this year ...

Merry Christmas from Damascus

Many Syrians love to decorate their houses from the outside for Christmas and it's a magical sight at night as I thought I was taken to a fairytale land . Look at the two photos below aren't they glorious?

For those 'hottie' fans you will find the promised photo of the belly dancer whose performance I very much enjoyed in Egypt.

Then there is a photo of some school girls which I took at the Old Citadel in Cairo, you can see that Arab school girls look like any other school girls all over the world, despite wearing a scarf you can notice that they are having loads of fun actually. They thought I was a foreign tourist and approached me innocently to talk to me .. they were so sweet and polite.

There is also last but not least a photo of old Amman as you leave the city, taken from the taxi while we were driving past.

Christmas decoration- Syria

Another beautifully decorated house in Damascus



Belly dancer - Cairo- Nile cruise december 2004



Egyptian high school girls on an outing at the citadel of Mohamed Ali ( Cairo Dec 2004)






Old Amman- December 2004


Highlander

Stuck in the ME

Well that should teach me to travel in Christmas time, I can't get a flight back to homebase and I'm therefore missing all my other connections. Actually I don't know why I thought that Christmas flights would not be busy in Syria? all flight are full and I'm waitlisted ...and the weather is tooooooooo cold over here . Just got back from Amman ( a special message to those I have not had the time to send emails or text messages to , but hey you know my mobile so just drop a line ;) ) . I am simply too tired, and there is too much going on.

I'm 'almost' back ;)

I apologize to those who cared for this long disappearing act, sometimes things happen to us and we do not feel like doing anything ( and that includes blogging ) , and no I won't be able to share with you what happened, apart the being ill section perhaps ...
Anyway I'm having a sense of deja vu and you probably would as well when you read that for the last two weeks I've been moving through three continents, Europe, Africa and now Asia....UK, Libya, Egypt, Syria ( now) and next week Jordan. I just got in in from Cairo 3 days ago, would you be surprised that I'm actually tired of going to Egypt? though I loved the belly dancer at the dinner I went to ( have nice photos too - a hottie;)) . Was there during that OPEC meeting, and now I'm in Syria after the latest international Israeli terrorist attack has occurred. The mood here ? Life goes on ....the weather is extremely cold , and I was pleasantly surprised to discover the Christmas decorations on many balconies here. Syria has a percentage of Syrian orthodox Christians and the citizens love to decorate their terraces for the festive seasons..I'll try to take some photographs but I doubt my camera is that good for night shots. So I still have plenty to share, just hope I can get back on track ! Hang in there...