Jeremiah's Strange Times

On Eoin and I head through the Middle East of 9 years ago.  This blog entry includes the last of our Syrian stories and the entirety of the correspondence detailing our travails in Jordan.  As with the rest of these middle Eastern posts, this contains the emails sent out to my large list of increasingly weary contacts.  Thankfully, at this stage, my writing style has improved somewhat. Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2004 16:28:58 +0000 Subject: Not so much a pillar of wisdom Hey all Was feeling pretty sick yesterday so the events will be clouded by the runs.  ( ugh)  Anyway, we're in Petra now, in Jordan, another new country.  When I last left ye I was having a fantastic time in Damascus I'll try to catch ye up with the present. We learned the evening before setting of for the Jordanian border that Bosra, a small Syrian backwater with the best preserved amphitheatre in the middle east, which, according to the lonely planet guide it also boa...

Date: Sat, 14 Aug 2004 18:14:01 +0000 Subject: Beyond the gates Hi everybody! (Hi doctor Jerry) I`m currently eating a Hama speciality, its called  halawat al jibna , basically its creamed cheese wrapped in uncooked dough with nuts and caramelised sugar on top.  The guy selling it to me made me use what little Arabic I have, which basically led to the three of us laughing back and forth at each other for about 10 minutes. Its nice, although after 2 pieces I'm beginning to feel a little full....in a queasy sort of way. Our friend in the Krak Hama , a town in Syria, we thought it was gonna be pretty small, it isn't. Actually everything we assumed about Syria turned out to be wrong.  Banish all images you ever had of Syria and let me paint you a picture of a country with religious tolerance, almost European amenities, a beautiful landscape going from reds to blacks, to deepest greens. And to top it off a people so amazingly friendly its almost too ...