Words
- by Roberto Rocha
- published from Syria
- on 2011.01.30
Our best photos from Syria
If Syria is a rogue nation of terror crusaders, then I want to be one, too. In none of my travels have I seen such massive mismatch between a nation’s character and how the Western media portrays it.
Syria is a nation of kindness. Hospitality is a sacred duty. If a visitor does not feel welcome, it’s seen as a collective failure. It’s impossible to feel lost, confused, or ignored in Syria; a willing helper is always the closest person.
And Syrians like everyone. Unlike many in the West, they know how to separate politics from personal. As people who have lived under repressive regimes themselves, they know that governments doesn’t always represent their people.
Here is a selection of our best photos from the country. Click on “Show info” to read the captions.
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Comments
Que diversidade maravilhosa. Só não entendi o que estaria a Amy winehouse fazendo por aqueles lados….
Roberto,
These photos are fantastic! I’ve wanted to travel around the Middle East for a while now.
What you said about Syria reminds me of how I feel about Burma (a.k.a Myanmar). Terrible government, amazingly hospitable people, perfectly preserved culture, and mind-blowing architecture. I’ll have to go to Syria someday.
One of my favorite things to do is to take photos of people as they’re cooking and buying food. Those shots really put me “into the culture.”
I’m curious, is it easy to get around with just using English? One idea I had was to study some Arabic in Jordan, then travel around after.
Keep up the great work!
Marcus
Marcus, thank you for the encouraging words. So glad you liked our photos.
Arabic definitely helps in Syria, but you can get by with English. A lot of young people speak it, and it’s prevalent in most tourist attractions. My advice: learn some basic phrases and also the alphabet so you can read bus signs, menus, etc. An audiobook like Pimsleur will get you started.
Hello Steve,I am not sure if you wanted to conmmet this or write an E-Mail, but here comes your reply (both as mail and conmmet):First of all: Great that you picked such a long and beautiful route!About the safety: We have not been to Kosovo and we were in Bulgaria without the bikes before the trip had started and we felt always safe camping there. Same with Serbia, Hungary, Macedonia and Greece.What we usually do in order to avoid confusion with the farmers or woners of the piece of land that we pick to be ours for the night:We just go and ask. Often we even make friends with the owner of the field that we want to pitch the tent on and have dinner together or chat. Just two days ago in China we asked permission to pitch our tent at a very nice farmer’s family who invited us to spend the night inside their house! It is a great possibility to make new friends and meet the people.We have also wild-camped in Serbia but not too much. Since it was winter when we were there and we had not had our good Cumulus sleeping bags yet, but some cheap ones, we were freezing cold most of the time and also searched for hotels and pensions (both very expensive). But if you want to couchsurf in these areas: Be sure that people are more than happy to welcome foreigners there! We have visited some small towns in Serbia and Macedonia and made some very very nice friends through CS and WS (warmshowers.org).So of course we can’t promise you that everything is always safe, but we can tell you that we have felt very safe and that we had a great time and that people in Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Macedonia are very hospitable and friendly in our opinion.Have a safe travel and a lot of fun (I am sure you will) and feel free to post your blog adress as well if you will write one. I am curious to read about your travels!Annika
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