Wednesday 30 October 2013

wanderlust wednesday: syria


Wednesday.  The day when last weekend feels a lifetime away and there're eons between you and the next.  This too oft ignored, holiday-forsaken day is the day for wanderlust, so wanderlust there'll be.

I'm going to start a regular Wednesday series of travel photos, inspiration and memories to motivate everyone to consider their next round of travel.  It's early enough that you can still get your act together by the weekend, flights are cheaper midweek and let's face it, you're already absentmindedly pinning shots of quirky kittens and Indian ashrams anyway, so you might as well productively slack off.

This first week will be slightly different than the others, more homage than travel inspiration, for a place that has touched me like none other.  
From 2009-2010, I had the privilege and absolute joy of dancing, tasting, learning, poetizing, clambering, traveling, swimming, sleeping, meeting, experiencing, laughing and celebrating in Damascus, Syria.  It was epic.  The above photos are from across the country: Damascus, Basra, Krak des Chevaliers, Aleppo, Marmusa, Palmyra, and the eastern Euphrates region.  

What is happening in Syria now is harrowing.  Tragic. 

Wrong.

 It is not reflective at all of the safety, warmth and awe I felt at living in one of the world's longest inhabited cities, with one of the world's most convivial, congenial peoples.  

This week's choice is not designed as encouragement to fly off to Syria, Somalia or similar (nobody, my dears, likes disaster tourism), but instead this week is a tribute to what was and what will be again.  
In the meantime, take this week's choice as a lesson.

Don't wait.  Wander.   
You never know what will happen.

الله معك، عزيزتي سوريا


















































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