Aaron and Anne-Sophie

So after stopovers in Amman, Dubai, and Sana’a we’ve made it to Addis Ababa. We only had one person question us about the exit visa again at the airport in Sana’a, but they let us through because we were in transit. Our manager’s blunder still hunts us and they may ask about the exit visa every time we visit Yemen. Our immediate impression here in Ethiopia is the poverty level compared to even the poorest Arab states we visited, but it’s nice to get out of the Arab-Muslim world for a change and get a taste of Africa. It’s the rainy season here. There are very few tourists, at least not western ones. So we stand out. Anne-Sophie is often looked upon as Italian here, and they were the closest to sort of colonising the country, though many consider Ethiopia the only African country not to be colonised by Europeans. After our first day here, we’ve already experienced a lot. (more…)

We’re back in Jordan, after having spent a week in Israel-Palestine, and I’m still not sure how to best describe the variety of experiences we’ve had in such a short time. As usual you can check out our pictures It was my first time in this country, and although Aaron told me a lot about it over the years, I think that one visit here is much more powerful than any description to get a feel of this place, which is why I encourage all of you to come here and see for yourself. (more…)

The life of a traveler is certainly not always as glamorous or adventurous as we make it out to be. A lot of it is just that, traveling. We find ourselves sitting on a bus for hours until we’re awoken by the smell of vomit from the little Syrian kid behind us. We’re cramped in a shared taxi listening to Nancy’s hits again and again. We wake up in a train to see a young 3 year old Turkish girl dancing in front of us and speaking to us not knowing we don’t know Turkish. After hours of dreaming about our home in France or America we awake to find ourselves on the floor of a roof in Damascus. Sometimes we forget where we are and have to remind ourselves. Three years ago I awoke to find myself in house in Nablus scheduled to be demolished by Israeli soldiers; not the most comfortable place to be. If we’re lucky we’ll find ourselves in the bed of a kind host. When Anne-Sophie and I traveled to Guatemala we got a place to stay with the Catholic Church in San Lucas Toliman after helping them paint a building. Life is made to be at its simplest. Everyday we look for the next place to eat, the next place to sleep, and how to get to the next place. So we begin to appreciate the simple idea of shelter, a warm shower, and a good meal. Now we’re in Damascus and will be going to Jordan tomorrow. You can check out our latest Syrian pictures here. (more…)

We just left Lebanon (photos) today and now we’re in Hama, Syria. Although we were only there for 5 days and it’s a small country, there’s so much to say about Lebanon because it’s such a complicated place. Lebanon is 70% Muslim and 30% Christian. It’s the most liberal place we’ve visited as far as dress, even for Muslims. You see some young girl dressed up like these girls in the music videos, and you think it must be a Christian girl, but next to her you’ll see her mother with a head scarf. (more…)

Tonite we’ll be done with our first country visited (Dubai doesn’t really count, because we’ll go through there “so many” times without ever staying very long). You can see our pıcs on the Mıddle East trip Album. Soon we’ll be in Beirut, but of course we’re stopping in Dubai first.

We thought Turkey was going to be a more Western version of the Middle East, but our impression now is that it is more like a slightly Oriental version of Europe. (more…)