The question that stays is what was happening with the Olympus camera that on that same spot went crazy a few minutes earlier. Pressing the buttons was triggering completely other functions and it was shooting all by itself. The answer could be that I was crawling through narrow and low corridors inside Cappadocia's underground cities while holding the camera under the pullover? When I got out it was full of dust. But still, why did it recover on the very same place as Partner did?
I met Helen and Richard on my way to Syria, but for not forgetting completely the story about no-man's land at the Albanian-Kosovo border, we organized the meeting in the middle of Turkish and Syrian border guards. The CB was useful as we were trying to find out where is who. At least we saved some money on sms. I thought Partner was well loaded. You should see Florence, who spent eight months parked down in Kuwait! When a car is full, Richard and Helen add a 50% more to that. I wish them good luck on their way back home, and maybe they could be also seen on some of Slovenian roads in a few weeks!
After the short night in Adana another tough night was waiting for me. I had to drive home Ghiath, Syrian guide who brought me the visa to the border. And he was from Damascus! I lay down around 5 am in front of one of Damascus hotels and slept all the way till noon. I spent the afternoon in arranging photos, writing articles and reading a city guide. I'll have to put myself together as far as the car is concerned. The fuel is very cheap (0,11 EUR per litre), but the 100 USD per week diesel tax is sky-high! This means that the fuel is extremely expensive if the car isn't in the move. I was planning to leave the car in Damascus as I go to Lebanon, but now I'm thinking of leaving it in the so beloved no-man's land, while I'll be cycling to Beirut (it's forbidden to take diesel-run cars to Lebanon, some kind of silly ecology-law which doesn't let even EURO 3 engines – that's my Partner – in the country). I'll see what Khaldoun thinks about it. I'll meet him personally tomorrow and I will do the usual Wednesday morning radio report to the first program of Slovene national radio through his phone.
Damascus is interesting, the traffic is just what I love (I was already enjoying in İstanbul), and the old town is gorgeous. Arab music is coming from everywhere, corn and tea are being cooked on the streets, cats are fighting for leftovers from restaurants, and shawarma, Syrian variety of Kebab, is being served in every street. Tomorrow a more intensive exploring of the Omayyad capital is waiting for me.
I put photos of the Adana technicians into yesterday's news, and there is of course the famous pot plant that's travelling with me. Down below you can see some Kapadokya photos and above the proof I'm really in Damascus. Not to forget, since yesterday you can see on the map the total kilometres made from Maribor for each day.
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