Where am I now?

I don't even know...

Actually it's a city called Lattakia, on the Mediterranean Sea in the northwest of Syria. It's an interesting city, described as more laid back than the rest of the country and I can only agree. The non head scarfed ladies outnumber those with tetes covered and I've even seen some shoulders here. Mind blowing shit I know.

We arrived here and promptly bumped into Pierre again. I think I've emntioned him, but he's a New Brunswicker who we met in Damascus and saw again in Hama. He went to Aleppo, but on;y spent a day there. We've also being hanging out with Nick, a Swede of Greek and Polish descent.

Yesterday we decided to have a beach day, so we hopped on a public bus and rode north then wandered doent a street until we reached teh "beach". The beach was nice, I guess, except it was just rock, and the garbage (that's to be expected) but the best part was the Zoe show.

Well I guess we were all pretty popular, but Zoe was hell bent on sun bathing in her bikini, so she did. The result was clusters of men and plenty of stairs from teh girls too. Nick and Pierre were dragged off to someone's house for some watermelon and Zoe and I stayed on the beach hanging out. Lots of people doing the ol' "I'm going to take a picture of you right here" while carefully aiming over the shoulder and other fun. And for whatever reason we even had a baby show up. People love handing the baby off to Zoe so they can take some pics.

WHo knows.

Pierre and Nick returned declaring themselves not having a relaxed beach day (apparent;y being tugged and poked and "come here" and "look at this" inhibits relaxation). So we took off, ambling back up the road towards the mainstreet taht would take us back to Lattakia...but wait.Le Meridien, a nice hotel was on the way so we decided t stop off there. Of course they have ridiculous prices if you want to use their pool and beach, so it's a good thing we were guests at the hotel. Room 351.

So we ended up on a real sandy beach with cold showers and a pool. Very nice.

Unfortunately when we returned I was really starting to feel whatever I was feeling. I had had a sore throat a few days before but my brain decided to feel swollen and my lower back sore and my legs really fatigued. WHo knows. If Anyone knows what said symptoms suggest, do tell, but I am feeling better today so not too many worries.