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7 Days…
In a week’s time I will be, touch wood, fast asleep in a room in Damascus. I still haven’t booked a hotel or a hostel yet so my mum is having a bit of a freak-out, which is fair enough, but I need to get that sorted out soon… I’ve found a few places but I just haven’t gotten round to actually setting it in stone. Probably should do that tomorrow… :/
Anyway, I’ve been out shopping with my mum. Managed to try and get some essentials. We bought:
- Shorts x 3
- Sandals x 2 (Because it’s probably gonna be sandal weather most of the time out there…)
- Water Purification Tablets (Just in case I go travelling)
- Ibuprofen
- Sunglasses
- Travel fan
- Filofax (Which has become essential to me now as it contains ALL my details, addresses and the like…)
- Sleeveless sweater (As apparently it can get cold during the winter. Bad times)
- Extra wallet.
Now the extra wallet I bought as a sort of back-up wallet, so if I ever got mugged by someone I could give them that one which would have a bunch of useless cards in it and a tiny bit of cash, saving me from losing my real one which has added sentimental value. I have no idea whether this will work or not but hopefully I won’t get into a situation like that anyway, so I won’t have to try it out.
One thing I’m getting pretty nervous about is whether or not they speak English that well in Syria or not, because I think it’s fair to say I’m not THAT great at speaking Arabic… Especially because I haven’t spoken or seen the Syrian dialect yet, which is different to the Arabic I’ve been learning (Modern Standard Arabic). Hopefully I’ll work it out when I get there otherwise I’ll be screwed.
Anyway, I’m getting my Syrian money tomorrow hopefully, but I’m worried about my cards not working abroad, mainly as banks are so useless about things like this: you tell them you’re going abroad but they still block your cards when you’re away, that kinda thing. It also might be a problem if I travel around the Middle East but I’m not sure about that.
On Saturday all my family are coming around as a sort of goodbye party so that should be nice. It’ll be good to see everyone before I go as I probably won’t see them all for ages. Hopefully they’ll come out and see me while I’m out there at some point though, but I’ll have to wait and see!
I’m also trying to find a decent SLR camera or equivalent before I go so I can take some awesome photos which I can put on here to show you all, I’m just not sure which one would be a good one… I shall have to shop around.
Anyway, I’ll post the day before I leave and let you all know my thoughts e.t.c. Fun times…
