Floating trash and Shawarma!

After not getting our apartment, dealing with whiney American women, and generally just being annoyed Chris and I decided we were going to slip away to the majestic coast of Latakia(Greek for dirty beach).

After being accosted by two locals(which usually happens) we worked our way to the train station in a leisurely fasion. Everyone here seems quite keen to talk politics. Within two hours, and two coffees, we hashed out the underlying cause of the worlds ills and laid out a plan for global peace. We should be in charge - to cocky Westerners with two local Arabs. Peace is on the way. We exchanged numbers and made plans to restart our discussion at a later date, and boarded the train.

Syrian trains look like they are vintage eastern block, except they run on time, have nice stations, friendly people, feed you a full snack (photo soon to be posted) and generally put AMTRAK to shame. The pittance of one hundred pounds got us an express ticket and hours of conversation. The closer we got to Latakia, the more humid it became - and I swear much warmer. The night air instantly clung to you like a wet towel, but it was a new place and we were glad to get away.

Like good little boys we oriented our map to where we were, after fighting off cabbies and little kids selling shit, and took to the night. A brief walk found us in the center of town and soon our hotel. More of hostel really it was cheap and clean and didn't have loud girls complaining. We rested for a bit(sweated really) and then made a b-line for the coast. We walked and talked and worked our way up and down the touristy boulevard. Kind of nice but in a cheesy sort of way. We stopped in at a bustling Shawarma vendor that deep-fryed our Shawarma in chicken lard(gut bomb). The avenue was just posh and reminiscent of rich idiots, so we walked on back into town where we settled into a nice streetside cafe. The chess games ensued(I finally won ONE)as well as the Slapjack. My favorite American title for this is lost on everyone but Chris so I just don't say it anymore. The Brits have a similiar game called Snap so Chris calls it TurboSnap! Nice! This attracts MUCH attention because anyone that has played this game knows how heated it can become. At one point we had a gallery of little girls looking on and we turned to them, proclaimed in our best Arabic that we were crazy, asked them if they were crazy, laughed and continued playing. After a few coffees and many games we worked our way home for a sweaty but quite sleep(the mosques don't wake me up anymore).

The next morning we awoke and quickly set out for coffee and a snack. After hanging out under a palm tree sipping our coffee we decided to walk to the train station to purchase our tickets and find our return time. Upon arrival we purchased our tickets and found we had about four hours to kill. Feeling a bit adventurous we walked straight into the slums of Latakia. Beat up old buildings, piles of rubble, trash and awful smells were all very common. The children followed us and a few vendors poked out but largely we were unnoticed. Some boys pointed us in the direction of the beach after a short walk along the tracks, and we finally ended up at a 'locals' type beach place. There was a reed covered patio, a small vendor, an amazingly dirty beach and the grand ol' Medditeranean. Nice sea the Med except when you are wading around in washed up trash. After a short walk in to test the water and sanity of the location I headed back to our table to sit, sip coffee, and listen to music. We spent about three hours just hanging with the locals on this dingy beach before we packed up to head home.

The train back was uneventful and on time. We quickly made it back to meet some co-workers for ice-cream, get the keys to our part-time pad, and get back out to meet some other foreigners for dinner and fun. Neither occured. We took a cab over hell's-half-acre looking for a pair of socks for Chris(forgotten when we moved to the new place) and then another fifteen minutes driving to this super swank pool club to meet these people that we barely knew. It ended up being someone's wedding(again) and I feel wierd about being at a wedding I wasn't invited too, eventhough I know it is also a restaurant - I guess it's a cultural thing. So after eating, drinking, and saying WHAT! 500 times we left for a cab ride from Hell. I noticed our cabbie's meter wasn't running so I had Chris stop him for the arguement. He wanted twice what we paid coming out for the drive back and we said no way! Just then a microbus pulled up and I jumped out and started battering with the guyus in it to find out how much they would take for the same ride. In any other situation it would have been cheap but at this point we were both mad and didn't care too much. So we got out of this bastards cab and into the microbus for a proper cab fare price. The cabbie was then mad and wanted payment for the turn around the block. We said no...he asked where we were from and I said "from a country that knows how to do math.." my humor was wasted on him, the clock was running, so he muttered something and left. Needless to say we finally made it home but what a day that was yesterday!