Why I had to cut my hair...


I went to a Syrian hairdresser to have my hair cut before leaving Syria - I thought it was a good idea to do it in Syria because in Turkey it would be more expensive.
Talking to the hairdresser he explained that he speaks French, so I told him in French how I want my hair to be cut, what I DON'T want (a fringe!!!) and I showed him a picture in one of his hairstyle-books of the cut I want - so what is there to be misunderstood??

When I came out of his shop I felt like the mixture of a Russian prostitute, an astronaut with a helmet on his head and a 45 year old Syrian with a neat haircut:

That's why I asked Isa to cut my hair really short - because the fringe was the shortest part and I absolutely didn't want a fringe - and I think she did a good job (without having learnt how to cut hair)

One friday on an excursion with a Syrian socialist party to Bosra

Fridays are either the worst (if you want to be alone in the sights) or the best days (if you like being with thousands of Syrians) to visit sights in Syria because it's their weekend



me and the former president Hafiz al-Assad







school children dancing "dabke" in the amphitheater at Bosra










another school class, it was the month of excursions for Syrian
schools








typical situation - Syrian children try their English on Isa from Denmark (she cut my hair) and Jose from Spain












Fadi in the red t-shirt invited us to join the trip with the Socialists to Bosra

Mar Musa again, my favourite monastery in Syria in the middle of nowwhere, spent there one night

Back in Mar Musa






inside the chapel, frescoes from the 6th century















Pablo, Jose, and Tomaso - spent a good time with them

eating sheep testicles (not so bad at all!)

Impressions from my birthday




Farbod & Francisco, went with them to the Syrian war museum on the morning of my birthday


the girls I spent many evenings with in Damascus, not only my birthday: Rasia, Razan, and Manal

entry to the war museum (which is actually a propaganda-museum, telling the story of the war against Israel from the Syrian point of view),

built with the help of North Korea (they are big big buddies North Korea and Syria)

Finally finally I try it again after several helpless tries to post something on my blog in Syria…
The problem was actually that Google-Blog is banned in Syria, like many other websites as well. Getting access to it is not a problem because the internet cafes have special software to access the banned sites but then the connection becomes incredibly bad and I lost several times everything I had written and uploading pictures was absolutely impossible.
So now I am in Turkey and access to Google-Blog is possible here (although not to youtube, deezer etc – yes, they also ban webpages here!!), I just decided to spend the first week in quite remote areas in the east of Turkey, so again the internet connection wasn’t good enough… but now:

A short description of how Syria was this time is a bit difficult, it was a very diverse experience. At first, arriving from Beirut, everything seems – and of course also is – much more conservative in Damascus. But I soon got to know some locals in Damascus, spent much time with them in cafes, bars, went to a theater play of Don Quijote in Arabic (very interesting although I just understood very few), a Jazz concert and a poem evening in a bar. Also in the hotel we developed a kind of intimate circle in which every day the same people for almost two weeks took part, playing backgammon, smoking Shisha, drinking tea… With spending some time in a hamam (a Turkish bath), in the different suqs (markets) and eating very well my time in Damascus is best described.
I also met again with Rana, a Syrian I knew from my last trip – but unfortunately she was the only one I could reach because telephone numbers have changed.
Anyway, the best impressions you get from the pictures I took in Syria…

Impressions of Damascus




walking through "New Damascus"




in the city center










my favourite caravanserai

I'm still alive, sorry for not posting anything since such a long time - but it was more complicated in Syrıa than I expected it to be. I'll try to post something withın the next days, now just my new cellphone number:
0090-539 668 00 15
This is a turkısh number because I fınally crossed the border to Turkey yesterday, hangıng out ın Southeastern Anatolia now.