Facing My World – Travel Blog - My thoughts, reflections and experiences of my life around the world.

Probably this was supposed to be one of the most difficult moments of the Middle East trip: to cross the border from Antakya, Turkey to Aleppo, Syria. The reasons are many. Just to tell some:

• If your home country has an Syrian Embassy you must get the visa in advance and not at the border. They even say you might be denied if you try at the border.
• If you are American you are not really welcome in Syria and probably you will wait many many hours, if you’re lucky to get the visa.
• If you’ve been to Israel or you plan to go there (and the border officials find any reference of these places in your luggage)  your visa will be promptly denied.

The first problem is there is a Syrian Consulate in Brazil. The second problem is that Leah is American and there is a consulate in the USA as well, but fortunately she has a British passport which she is using in this trip. But again there is a Syrian consulate in England too.

Besides that I left Brazil in February and she wasn’t in England (neither in the USA) before the trip. So because of these issues we were a little bit concerned about getting the visa at the border, but this was the only alternative.  While we were in Turkey we tried to contact the Syrian embassy there but they requested a “recommendation letter” from our embassies. Guess the price? US$100. Completely out of our budget. So we decided to try our luck at the border.

We left Antakya close to the Syrian border in the morning by bus. Everything went fine at the Turkish border although my Brazilian passport was almost entirely scanned. Right after that we headed to the Syrian border.

First of all don’t expect to read or talk in English there. The only two English words you might find are “Exchange Money” (which was closed).

We were directed to a line to pay the visa fee. After some minutes struggling to find the amount we needed to pay (remember, only arabic) a friendly guy helped us telling the exact price, in dollars. We were not expecting to pay in dollars and they don’t accept Syrian Pounds, their own currency. The problem is we didn’t have dollars. Another few minutes passed by and they said we could pay in Euros. Why not in the beginning? Ok, the fee was finally paid.

And now what? We went to another room with an incredibly “happy” and “friendly” official. First he looked at our passports, then looked at us, put our passports back on table, smoked his cigarette , drank his tea. After two minutes in this situation he left the room with our passports and came back shortly after. More wait.

Finally another official came with our passports, smiled at me and said: “Brazil! Ronaldinho! Football!” Great, we’ve got our passports back, but there was another step left. We went to the Visa line to get the stamp. It was fast and they asked only few questions and finally we got the stamps. We were about to leave and the official called me at his booth again and said: “Brazil visa yes. Argentina visa maybe. Ronaldinho!!” and we all laughed. There is nothing better to do.

Now we needed to go back to the bus which was waiting for us during all the process. When we within 100m from our bus, kind of running, four or five guards started to shout on us. They wanted to open my backpack. After that they asked where we were from and as soon as I said brazil guess what happened?

“Ronaldinho! Football! Samba! Beaches!” And etc. I don’t even need to mention that they gave up on looking inside of my backpack, do I?

Sometimes God saves, but in many others ways, Ronaldinho does.

Welcome to Syria!

Antalya

After some incredible days in Istanbul it’s time to move on. Now what? Well it’s summer time right!?!? So why not go to the beach? That’s exactly what we did heading to the south of Turkey to a city called Antalya. Flying was the best option since the bus ticket has similar prices. Antalya has many beaches and it’s surrounded by many other interesting places. Unfortunately, I mean, fortunately we decided to stay 3 days on the beach and relax a little bit before our next stop.

Keeping our goal of couch surfing everywhere during this trip, we did here again and it worked well, like Istanbul. Again a bit far from the center but easily reached by public transportation. The only problem of Antalya is nobody speaks English. But I’m becoming a good mimicker and “map pointer”.

The beaches here are really good. The Mediterranean water is incredibly warm, clear and clean specially at the rocky beaches. Most of them are private, which means you need to pay a small fee to have access to the facilities like bars, umbrellas, big mattress and other things to make you comfortable. Personally it was worth it. We stayed all day long there and spent TRY$10,00 (less than €5,00) for both of us. But if you don’t want to pay it’s fine, you can stay in between the private spots but bring at least an umbrella otherwise the sun and heat will put you down.

Besides the beaches, the city offers an interesting old city that is cut by and old small tram line. It’s nice to spend some time there and in the brand new park that has and amazing scenic view of the coast. Also it’s a good way to rest and hide from the sun under the many trees in this area. Trust me it’s really hot there.

Göreme, Cappadocia

This place wasn’t initially in our plan for Turkey, but friends and others travelers easily convinced us to head to the north-east of Antalya, before we go to Antakya to cross the Turkish border with Syria.

Göreme, Cappadocia is a region at the province of Nevşehir and it’s famous for the underground cities and the wild fairy chimney formations due to a volcano’s eruption. Now add a bit of the Christian, Byzantine and many other empires and civilizations who built churches and houses for thousands of people inside these incredible natural formations. This is the picture of the Cappaocia landscape.

The small village is surround by mountains and can be easily appreciated from the top after a short hike. Notably a tourist destination, you can find cheap hostels and restaurants. As we have only one day to explore the village we left our backpacks in one of the countless hostel. To have access to the bathrooms and showers we paid a small amount.

The travel agencies and hostels offer many different tours, but you know… we are hardcore travelers (I mean poor travelers) so we decided to go to our destinations by bus or walking, which is perfectly fine for the near highlights. Many other places are far, so you might rather to take one of these tours.

Our highlights are, as I said before, the caves and the chimneys. We spent one hour and half going down to the underground city. This cave is surprisingly not in our guide but it was suggested by other travelers. We took two mini-buses, one to Nevşehir and another to Kaymakli and we finally reached the place. The cave is impressively deep and it supposed to has around 800 hundred rooms, but I haven’t tried to count. Inside the cave you can find tons of tunnels, some wide and illuminated and many others tiny and unreachable.

After that we went back to the Göreme village to have a fast lunch and appreciate, for the last time, the delicious Turkish food. As soon as we finished we headed towards the chimney landscape for an afternoon walk. We’ve seen incredible places during this hike and we found an old church in the middle of nowhere. The guard tried to sell us the tickets but then he offered to show the church for free. After the church, he obviously offered a cup of tea and we learned to never refuse this kind of invitation. After a hot tea on a hotter day plus many pictures taken we decided to move on to another site and go inside the chimneys which were a city many years ago. It’s interesting to think that people lived in these places for so long. Actually they still do.

This was a tiring day, but completely worth it. Göreme and all the Cappadocia is a magical and unique place. I’m glad we changed our plans to visit this place. Unfortunately, everything has an end and it’s time to say goodbye to Turkey.

After almost 10 days in Turkey I can say we loved our stay here, the people we met and the food we ate. Time to go to Syria.

Istanbul, Turkey:

The summer trip ‘09 has officially begun. The first stop is Istanbul, Turkey. We landed in the Sabiha Gökçen airport coming from Gatwick in London. This is the low fare airport and many companies fly to there from Europe. It’s possible to take local buses from the airport to the city instead of paying the more expensive shuttles. After that you’ll probably take the ferry to cross from one side to another.

Istanbul is divided in two parts: the European and the Asian side. We spent the first night in the European side, where you can find the old city (and the most touristic places). We were specifically in the Sultanahmet area, which at first can be a bit overwhelming. That day was very hot and carrying our backpacks through the endless restaurants to find our place wasn’t an easy task. The guys at the restaurants keep offering you a table and this is really annoying. My tip: get used to that and just ignore them. Also try to avoid this places because they are usually expensive and not good quality food.

After some minutes walking through the streets of Istambul, you’ll easily note that it’s a huge city. We are talking about 16 milion people, which 98% are Muslim. Some parts are more conservative than others, but in general the city is open and acceptive. It’s important to remember that we need to respect their culture and rules when we go to mosques and other holy places and women are strongly recommended to cover their hair and sholders with a simple scarf. This is more than enough.

Talking about the European and the Asian side I was expecting something different from what I’ve found there. Surprisingly the Asian side is more developed and liberal than the European side. I stayed in both sides and the diferences are clear. While the European side has almost all the touristic places, the Asian side you see less women wearing scarfs and more boutique stores like Gucci and Prada.

A very popular activity in Istanbul is to have a picnic/barbecue with family and friends during the weekends at the Asian side’s shore. Many kilometers of the recreational area that follow the coast is transformed into a common area for kids, families and friends having fun and enjoying the usually warm summer nights.

The public transportation is really good (buses, minibuses, ferry boats, tram) but sometimes might be difficult to ask for information in English. English is not widely spoken and it gets worse when you go to non touristic places. But we didn’t get discouraged by that and we made it work. Turkish is not an easy language but it’s relative easy to read and say words when you know the basic rules. Comparing to Arabic, Turkish is piece of cake… well at least you can read something.

Another nice thing about Turkey that must be mentioned is the food. It’s incredible. I knew I could expect good food in the Middle East in general, but I was really surprised in Turkey. The food is tasty and relativily cheap comparing to Europe. Vegetarians won’t have problems although many dishes are made with meat. I think I tried everything possible and I might have gained some kilos in Turkey.

Istabul Highlights:
Grand Bazar
Aya Sofia
Blue Mosque
Galata Tower
Topkapi Palace

Next stop: Antalya, south of Turkey.