15/03/12
This is what an impromptu underwear party in your room looks like;
angryrectangle.com
10/03/12
That time I went to Lebanon while drunk in the middle of the night
Having reached my maximum allowance of visa extensions, I needed to take a weekend trip outside of the country to renew my visa. Lebanon was the obvious choice thanks to it’s proximity and awesomeness (o yeah, and all the awesome friends I have there, too).
I had planned to go for a day or two on the weekend, and somehow my friend Bassel decided he wanted to embark on this adventure with me. We had planned to go Saturday morning, but while drunk at a party on Thursday night we hatched a ridiculous plan to go the next day. While I had forgotten the next day, Bassel hadn’t, and texted me to ask about our leaving times. I was at my friend Jose’s house trying to get a BBQ together in a field outside his house at the time. I mentioned it to my friends and was faced with strong opposition due to the likelihood that the road would be closed (due to cold weather and serious ice). I returned home and Bassel met me there. My friends asked again what the plan was and I told them it would “likely be Saturday” since it was late, anyways.
So Bassel and I were sat alone in my living room and started to discuss the possibility of leaving that night. In the end, we decided we wanted an adventure and would try our best. Vodka came next, followed by packing, followed by my roommate coming out of the shower and ridiculing this whole feat.
We headed to the bus station only to discover there were no busses and no service taxis due to - you guessed it - the road being closed. It was suggested to us to come back the next morning and presumeabley the ice situation would be a bit better at that point.
We walked away from the bus station feeling very disappointed after all the excitement we’d generated over the possibility of a night adventure. Then came vodka. Then came a text from my roommate telling us to bring cigarettes back home when our mission inevitably failed. We did not want my roommate to laugh at us.
SO, we flagged down a cab and asked him how much he’d want to take us to the border. He said 2000 pounds, so we passed on it and tried again. The next one said 1000 pounds. We went for it.
We (and by we, I mean mostly I) got fairly drunk in the taxi ride to the border. Passed out of Syria, got a ride to the Lebanese border. Passed into Lebanon. Begged the border officials to let us sleep in the border station (we brought blankets! and it was SO FUCKING COLD OUT). They would not let us sleep there. We wandered into the night and finally settled on a half-built house as being a good enough venue for us to spend the night in. We were totally wet and frozen from falling on the ice a thousand times, but tried to sleep anyways.
The sleep attempt lasted an hour tops since it was simply too cold to be sleeping in a snow bank. Finally we heard a call to prayer and decided to see if we could find a mosque to crash in. When we reached the road we discerned that the mosque was uphill (reminder: serious ice situation) and that a town with cars was downhill. We went for down, and roamed around trying to find somewhere to sleep (including me somehow losing my shoes twice).
Eventually the most amazing man in the world (who was randomly out at 4 in the morning feeding dogs) took pity on us and brought us into his house. He fed us tea, put us in front of the heater, and prepared some food for us. He sat up with us until around 7, then sent us on our way (with beer and more vodka flash) and we managed to sort out a bus to Beirut.
After finally arriving we ate at Barbar (THE BEST PLACE), followed by heading to my AMAZING friend Sofia’s house for showers and dry clothes. It was magical. Next step was to Skype all our friends in Syria to let them know we were, in fact, still alive.
The next two days were spent in a much more calm fashion, involving McDonalds, walks by the seaside, and way too much shopping (“yay! I can use my credit card again!”)
We returned to Syria Monday morning in a much more comfortable and straightforward fashion (Service taxi!) and even discovered I had frostbite on my foot from our snow bank adventure.
And that, kids, is why you don’t go on late night expeditions in the middle of winter. Especially with alcohol. While it makes for a hilarious story afterwards, it is really very excruciating while happening.
Snow!
Tired, cold, drunk Anya
Gettin’ them blankets out so we can try and sleep in a fucking snow bank
In the morning!
Warm! dry! drinkin’ beerz!
GANGST’
08/03/12
That time we had a BBQ outside in a field when it was super cold out..
Preppin da meatz
Gotta fan dat shit
What happened after the ghetto lighter flame-thrower experiment
01/03/12
I do actually have a good excuse for my lack of attention to this blog; and it’s called the internet. I have been having an incredibly frustrating time getting Tumblr to work, and it has caused a huge back up in updates!
So, let’s go back the last two months: January and February I split my time between Damascus and Aleppo, and finally started school again. Unfortunately my school ended up starting way later than I had expected and I had to drop the course.
February I turned 23 and had one of the best birthdays ever. All my friends from Damascus came up, I drank a lot of Sambuca, went to karaoke, and ate cake. It ruled. I even wore a dress.
After my birthday my two Aleppo roomies headed back to their native countries (UK & Australia) for visits, and I packed up for Damascus. I moved in to my new and super awesome apartment where I am priveledged to have two very amazing new roommates. One Iraqi gent who knows everyone and everything, and one Welsh girl who is as cynical and ridiculous as I am (specifically when it comes to movie watching).
As of yet I’m still working on getting a job or sorting out some school, but I’ve been kept very busy otherwise with such things as cooking, kitten hunting, and my latest venture - managing a musician and trying to arrange weekly shows.
Still happy in Syria and despite the recent embassy closure, I have no plans to leave :)
new tattoo time!
birthday dress bitchez
Nothin’ sez bday like Sambuca!
I GOT CAKE, BITCHES!
Weeee!
04/02/11
Looking at pictures on FB of my friends living in London today, it makes me think about what would have happened if I hadn’t decided to stay in Syria. Despite still having a valid UK work visa, I couldn’t imagine leaving this place.
Even with all the photos of going to cafes, art galleries, and other London-y things while I am enjoying daily power cuts and fuel shortages - nothing can compare to the amazing people I know here. Even with the news today showing a particularly bad last couple of days.
Walla ana beheb Suria, and I want to stay here. If I stop feeling safe in this country, I will leave. But until then, this is my new home :)
28/12/11
Holy shit long time no update!
Things since the last update have been so eventful (and changing so rapidly) I haven’t really been able to sort it out into words.. However! Shit has simmered right down, finally, so I can explain;
After Eid week things were pretty quiet until Yahya & I found out we’d be leaving the country sooner than expected. This led to some serious uncertainty from me about ditching my Arabic studies and moving suddenly. In the end (and after a surprise visit from my friends in Damascus which made me cry!) I made the very hard decision to stay.
Yahya left about a week ago, and afterwards some friends came up from Damascus to have Christmas with us. They stayed for about 4 days, and it was pretty much a constant drunken disgusting party fest (as always) and some Christmas feasting thrown in there.
I’m in Damascus now, staying to party for new years, then back to Aleppo in Jan to continue my studies!
Here are some gross drunken pics:
party time!
Gang!
Paint party
Too lazy to rotate this shit
Alley party!
Drunken Gaith makin’ friends
Xmas feast
Man rape on my floor
Back to Sham goodbye shots!
14/11/11
It’s the holiday week of Eid here in Syria, which means I have had 10 days off school and everyone is out of town!
Mostly it has been one giantic party-fest including getting kicked out of the only (and brand new) proper bar Aleppo has to offer, me dressing up like a proper Arab man, and a less than 24 hour trip to Damascus to drink wine and Tequila. I won’t bore you with the details as to how everything happened, but I assure you none of them are related.
Otherwise winter is rolling in here, and I have no heating at home or at school! Yup. I am fucking cold.
Anyways, here’s me pictures of me putting makeup on my friend Ahmed, then being a sweet Arab pimp.
20/10/11
Awesome weekend retreat to Damascus after a sweet party at my friend Yarob’s family home in his village (near Aleppo).
First we all went out to Yarob’s village, near Assad lake (which we also visited) only to come back and hang out chainsmoking in robes until 430 when his family made a huge feast. After the feast, we slept for an hour before heading back to Aleppo.
I got on a bus right away, made it to Sham in plenty of time to surprise the old man from the park (Mustafa) with cake on his birthday. The rest of the weekend mostly involved a lot of drinking (as usual in Damascus) and having money stolen from me (woo hoo!)
Made it back to Aleppo safe and sound ready to start second level Arabic on de weekendz :)
Pics!
Me & some rube
Boat bitchez
I’M ON A BOAT, I’M ON A BOAT. DON’T U EVER 4GETZZZ
NOMS
E’BODY LUV DEM NUTZ GIRL
It sez Happy birthday Mustafa in Arabix!
My homies in Shaaaaaaaaam!
22/09/11
New life!
I am now all moved in to my sweet new digs - a 4 bedroom monster apartment I share with an Australian girl, & a British girl (temporarily).
I also started school, which has been a bit of a shit show. Since there are only 3 people studying Arabic in Aleppo right now, they’ve put us all in one class (despite the fact that we are many different levels of Arabic, me being the crappiest). I had to learn the alphabet in 2 days which sucked, but I’m getting caught up slowly.
Otherwise things are pretty groovy here; hot fall weather, tasty food, cheap taxi rides, good friends, etc etc.
I am keeping busy cooking and studying all the time, getting drunk, eating falafel, & even cooking poutine for the Syrians.
Mostly things look like this:
Cookin’ poutine!
Eating poutine!
Partyin’!
Homies!
22/09/11
Turkey! Again!
After a long and fairly sleepless trip back to Trabzon, Turkey I finally arrived somewhere around 5pm. I had to wait to meet up with my friend Berkant (and previous CS host), and after some dinner, ice cream, & a long period sopping up the free wifi in his hotel, I finally rendezvous’d with him around 2am. I was tired, but we decided to drink until 5 anyways and then he put me up in a half-built room of his hotel. I slept late the next day and missed the direct bus from Trabzon - Amasra, so I arranged a later bus that would take me to a town near Amasra where I could apparently get a connection.
The whole journey really sucked, and the town I was supposed to switch in didn’t actually have direct busses to Amasra, so I had to travel to another town and switch AGAIN. I had heard about Amasra from some Germans we met in Eastern Turkey who insisted it was a wonderful place not to be missed. I was a little disappointed when I arrived and discovered it’s THE holiday destination for every Turkish person and their dog, which of course also means that everywhere was full and prices were at their peak. After several hours I finally arranged a place to stay that turned out to be pretty pimp, and settled in for the night.
Following Amasra I was Istanbul ahoy where I thought I would be able to stay with a friend of Yahya’s. En route to Istanbul he told me he was out of the city and would be back too late to take me in, so I found my way to the neighborhood where all the hostels were and looked for a place. The neighborhood searching actually took around 2 hours of me roaming Istanbul tired, and with all my crap in tow but I did manage to find a hostel in the end. I settled on the first one I found, and send some CS requests that night.
The next day after wandering around being a tourist, things became a bit complicated after I was kicked out of my hostel for having a shower after check-out and the dude wanting to charge me 10 Liras for it. To be fair I wasn’t actually kicked off the premises until I threw the money at him and told him I was going to advise everyone I know not to stay there. FYI, don’t stay at the ‘Big Apple’ hostel in Istanbul! I had several CSers get back to me saying they could host, but noone was available until late. I decided to drink beer and wait it out, and this turned out to be a great decision. I went to a bar called ‘Just Bar’ which apparently has the nicest bartender in the universe who kept bringing me Turkish sweets and so on and so forth. Some nice American dudes who’d just came back from Iraq also kept my beer supply full, and somewhere in there some friends from eastern Turkey contacted me to say they were in town and could pick me up and house me. The day went from awful to awesome very quickly!
By this point, though, I’d decided my heart was not into travelling at that moment, and that I would head home from Istanbul within a day or two. This was the first time I have ever felt like I was burnt out from the road and didn’t want to be travelling. It was weird.
Anyways, my friends came to get me (the bartender even went to get them from the tram station! Nicest guy ever!) and we headed back to their place to drink Raki and eat spaghetti. The next day I did some shopping (Turkey is a wonderful place for this) and checked out the grand Bazaar where I accidentally bought two scarves.. whoops!
I had booked a flight for the next day, but after some Raki with old friends I decided to delay it one more day and continue to hole up in the Istanbul party cave. My last night in Istanbul I even went to the ‘Pudding Shop’ where my dad apparently used to linger in his days, but I think things were different when he was there. I say this based on the look on his face when he first told me about the Pudding Shop after Josh’s dad asked him if he used to hang out there in the 70’s. Who knows.
I stayed up drinking until 4am and caught my flight at 6. I slept maybe 20 minutes on the plane, and otherwise kept on trekking until I got back to Syria. Here I am now, back at home in Aleppo, moving into my new place soon, and starting school in a couple days. So concludes the travelling for a little bit, but is the beginning of what I’m sure will be an interesting few months living in Aleppo. :)
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