October 2009

I suppose we should start with Bcharre, where the last post left off.

Like I said Bcharre is a small town where there are the beautiful Cedar forests. But not only is this place known for their forrests and also their great snow season.

But also for the amount of Lebanese Australians that come from here. I have never been to a place where the people are so hospitable. It was amazing. You would walk the streets and get invited into peoples houses without even asking. You were pretty much told to sit down and drink tea with them whilst they asked you where you were from and why you were visiting. It was amazing.

From here on in it was pretty fricking busy! It involved me getting from Lebanon to Syria, from Syria to Jordan and then from Jordan to Egypt!

I concurred most of Syria in the month visiting a lot of Castles and Ruins!

So I was saying about Bcharre, from here I headed to Balbeck which is Hezbollah run… so I then headed off to Syria where I went to:

· Damascus

· Palmyra

· Deir El Zeir

· Raqqa

· Aleppo

· Latakia

· Huma

Then from Huma I headed to Amman Jordan!

In Amman, we hired a car and drove around… refer to posts about that story!

Then I caught a bus from Amman to Aqaba, then a ferry across to Nuwebia, Egypt!

Then bused it to Egypt where I spent a lot of time drinking and partying! IT WAS AWESOME! Some of the best fun I have had on my travels!

October turned to November, and that’s where I say, till next time!

PEACE!

September 2009

September 2009

Wow, am I behind or what… Right so according to the photo I have done a fair bit of travelling this month.

So I have done the Tour of Egypt, that covered Cairo, Aswan and Luxor. Then I went on my own to Alexandria where I met a dude called Matt that lives in Melbourne.

The tour of Egypt was amazing, it was great that we had a good group of people.

So after we said our goodbyes of the tour, like I said I headed over to Alexandria where I met Matt. I stayed there a few nights, and then headed back to Dahab to meet up with the rest of the tour that were continuing to Dahab.

From Dahab I was going to continue travelling with Greg and Anna from Sydney, Australia where we would hopefully visit Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

The border crossing from Egypt to Jordan went without no problem at all. We were able to visit Wadi Rum, Petra, float around in the Dead Sea, visit the capital of Jordan which is Amman and then try our luck at entering crossing the Syrian border.

After 12 hours of piss farting around we made it through the border. We had to hitch hike a few times to get through, but at the end of the day we made it through, very, very cheaply.

Our first port of call was Damascus, and it was an amazing city. The people are so friendly and beautiful that we stayed in Damascus for 1 week. Most of the days in Damascus were spent exploring and visiting museums and there was one night that we got on the beers and planned to visit Bosra the next day.

Well we woke up with a ripping hangover and visit Bosra was a huge struggle, but we made it and almost missed the final bus home.

After spending a week in Damascus it was time for us to get a move on, so we again tried out luck in visiting Lebanon.

The border crossing went very smooth for us, but it took ages because it was a public holiday and we were on a bus full of Syrian blokes.

We stayed in Beirut a few nights, got ripped off but visiting Beirut was like visiting London. It was so westernized.

We did a day trip from Beirut to Bosra where we met our Bearded American friend Preston, who we were fortunate enough to meet up with again in Bcharre.

Also from Beirut, we did a day trip to the Jeita Grotto caves which are nothing more than amazing. They are so amazing that this cave is in the running to be a part of the Natural Wonders of the World.

I actually forgot the write about this in my blog so ill fill in the information so here goes.

Whist in the cave we spoke to one of the workers down there and asked him a few questions about the cave this is what I have:

· 10,000BC is the first recording of stalagmite in the caves, which is from the last ice age.

· Every 100 years there is 1cm of growth.

· The temperature throughout the cave stays the same at 21degrees, but the pressure and humidity change as you go deeper into the cave.

· In 1958 was the discovery of the upper cave

· It took 11 years to make the artificial tunnel that we use to enter the cave

· The stalagmite are caused by the calcium water that drips down, the water evaporates leaving the calcium to crystallize.

· In 1836 an American hunter discovered the lower cave, apparently he heard an echo.

· The lowest to highest point of the cave is measured at 108 metres.

· Bats live in the cave at night.

· No movies have been filmed in the cave, only some musicals.

· You can vote for the Jeita Grotto cave to be in the new 7 wonders by visiting www.new7wonders.com

So that’s just some of the info I have on the cave, unfortunately we were unable to take photos of the cave, which I presume is one of the reasons I forgot to write something on it.

It was a remarkable experience, and looking up at the stalagmites felt like you were looking at something the aliens made, it was beyond this world.

Once we had had enough of Beirut we made our way to Bcharre.

Bcharre is a beautiful little town in the forests of Lebanon. Bcharre is where the cedar forests are, and in fact, one of the oldest Cedars there is used on the Lebanese flag. Whilst in Bcharre the clocked ticked over to the 1-10-09, which is not only my fathers birthday but also the time when this post ends!

So see you next month! Which will be very soon!

August 2009

August 2009

Alrighty then!!!

So last time we spoke I was in the UK! Well August I have spent ripping it up in Egypt! It’s a nice place, the people can be quite annoying at the best of times. But generally they are pretty friendly people.

I have been flat out windsurfing for most of the month, practicing forward loops, upwind 360’s, downwind 360’s, Vulcans, Flakka and Spocks.

Well, I can report that I can successfully do Upwind 360’s now, Vulcans are pretty well sorted and my Spocks are almost there, a few more weeks and I would have had them sorted.

So to be honest, that’s really all to report… just a whole lot of windsurfing.
I stayed in the Club Dahab flat, because I was meant to work out in Dahab, but it turned sour because I didn’t want to get my U.K working visa… this kinda sucked, but it open up a whole lot of new doors and I met some fantastic new people.

At the end of the month, I had booked a tour which started on the 30^th, it should be amazing looking at all the different sites and ruins.

I spent a few days in the hustle and bustle in Cairo and I was starting to get used to it, my Arabic is getting a lot better, but I still cant have a conversation in Arabic. Its only a matter of time!

The plan of attack at the moment, is to travel through Jordan, Syria, Lebanon maybe Israel and then head back to Dahab and complete my teaching. Once I’ve done that ill boost over to the UK see all my mates and do a trip around there then come home.

The problem why Israel is a ‘maybe’ is that once I enter Israel, I will be unable to enter any other of the Middle Eastern Countries! Until my passport expires (or I lose it) so I may just save Israel for another day!

Not much else to report! The September Review should be interesting!

Lots of love

Steve

July 2009

July 2009

The month that I turned into an adult… yeah right! July was pretty awesome, pretty stressful at times trying to organize visa’s and things but overall pretty cool.

I spent my 21^st birthday overseas… although it was awesome, I still missed all my family and friends! It was a huge night with lots and lots of drinks! With lots and lots of partying. If I remember correctly, im also pretty sure that it was a 3 night bender… We did the Big T on Thursday, Friday was an epic club Vass BBQ ‘The Oscars’ and then on Saturday night it was my Birthday… so I pretty huge 3 days.

A lot more windsurfing was involved and a lot more partying was involved during July. I learn how to make spaghetti taste amazing, and I learnt how to cook a stir fry!

My final night in Vassiliki was intense as well, a lot of drinking and a lot of partying, I did an all nighter that night, so I made sure that I could catch the bus in the morning to Athens.

That brings me onto ENGLAND! I arrived in England, and found my way to a little town in Lewes. My first time in England I spent my first sleep in the upstairs room of a pub sleeping on a couch!

After a couple of days, Ash from Club Vass arrived back to the UK, and he showed me around Lewes and London. We had a massive day in London with Ash, Ally myself and Laura. It was an extremely fun day.

This brings me up to the end of July, stay tuned for the August Update.