Happy New Year

Spent X-mas in Ebzimo, 1 of the 2 villages in which the family that adopted me lives. Although they are Muslims, they know that X-mas is special for us. They gave me a present and put on a X-mas program on the television.
But I was more interested in the visitors, as there were a lot. They came to say goodbye to Fozie and here brother who left for Mekka on Wednesday.
As it is now very cold (there is a lot of snow in the Turkish mountains), I decided to give myself a X-mas present by traveling to Deir Ezzor for a few days.

On Sunday I went and explored the different bus stations to see where and when I could catch a bus on Monday and I am proud to say that I did this all on my own in Arabic. Monday morning I caught the bus all on my own also and after 4,5 hours we arrived in Deir Ezzor.

Deir Ezzor is a town at the Euphratis next to the border with Iraq. Monday was a magnificent day with clear blue sky. After having checked in in the hotel, I explored the souk and walked for hours at the riverside.
The next morning, early in the morning, I went to the souk again and spent hours in it. I actually sat down between the Bedouin women who were trying to sell their stuff which was an excellent spot to observe their selling techniques, the candidate buyer's techniques to get a fir price and all the other visitors in the souk. 99% are Bedouin. The women are dressed extremely colourful and all different from one another.

At night I was joined by Mohammed who was touring around with Helen, an Australian woman living in the same house as I do and Michael. The next day I drove back with them to Aleppo stopping at a Bedouin market in a village and at Rasafa, an archaeological site in the East of the country still.

Rasafa must have been a very beautiful city. It was built with a very special kind of stone that glitters in the sun and when the sun settles the city becomes golden.

On Friday, I left for Ebzimo again to spend the New Year, but on Saturday I decided to go to Kafaramme where I found Hadji (106 year old Pater Familias) who was pleased to see me. He is sleeping a lot these days and hardly comes out of his room, but gave me the pleasure of his company for a few hours. We put him back to bed after a little surprise party by the Italian campers in the garden, pizza and fireworks included.

This morning I was very disorientated because (the same as yesterday evening) a big X-mas show was on television to celebrate the New Year. X-mas has a whole different meaning here...