Monday, September 12, 2005

Man on Fire!

I just came back from a 6 days trip; I visited Aleppo and Idleb, and then went for 3 days to a lovely beach outside Tartous called “Al-Rimal Al-Zahabieh”.

It was a well spent vacation; I had never been to any of these two cities.

Idleb is so small and calm, windy though. There is almost nothing to do there. NOTHING! People are nice however.

Aleppo on the other hand, is so alive, I didn’t like the restaurants there, but surely loved the streets and the buildings.

After Aleppo, we hit the road heading to Tartous, we took the long road through Al-Ghab valley, passing by many villages.

We reached the sea shore after 3 hours! Gosh I so badly wanted to swim, was late when we got there, so we just cleaned the chalet and went for dinner. Later on that night, we went to a new place opened on the beach called “La Plage” which is a branch of the famous “Gemini Group” restaurants, owned by one of the bigwigs in Syria!

At that night, I lost my virginity towards smoking and had my first Argileh ever. They say that first time can never be forgotten. Well, I didn’t like it, even though I had it every night while I was there but it was tasteless and gave me nothing. Maybe with the absence of me loving it, it gets more like a physical action that consist of sucking and nibbling the plastic end, then blowing the smoke out in the air. Kept doing it till as late as 4 AM. I wasn’t tired at all ;)

Next morning, I was up early, since I’m a morning person. Couldn’t wait any longer; so I was in the water few minutes after. The water was great, the best swim in my life. I never spent time in the water as I did that day; I spent most of the day between the beach and the water. The evening went on as the day before.

The next morning was a different story! I woke up to see a red-as-tomato body! I was severely sun-burnt. I was on fire. My vacation was officially ruined! I used some ointment that was supposed to heal me; it was as useless as it can be.

The night was a nightmare, I hardly stayed outside for a while then inside with the AC turned on and set to -500. Of course, no clothes were to touch my red body!

The day after was again, blank, no water, I hardly managed to have a walk on the beach early in the morning. No swimming at all however!

I have no clue what the hell I was supposed to do! I see people on the beach all day long but they are there everyday, not just one day! I used a sun oil just like the one I saw them using! So why did that happen to me! I hardly take any vacation!

I checked with a friend doctor, I was told that I have second degree burns and he prescribed me a whole bunch of medications :(

Having said all that, I have no regrets, I really enjoyed this vacation, I still have a weirdly colored body but what the hell….

The alpha and omega, I had some really good time over the past week, away from everything and everybody that I know.

It feels great to be away where there is a sea close to you!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

"I used a sun oil just like the one I saw them using! So why did that happen to me!"
sun oil?!?!? that's why you got burnt, you accelerated the process of frying yourself.or should I say, you went from what could been grilled you to a fried you. tastier but defenitly not healthier. instead, you should've used some sunscreen cream that'll protect you from the hot mediterranean sun. well, on the bright side, the pain will go in couple of days and you'll be left with sexy "bronzage" look. good luck with turning some girls heads ;-)

Anonymous said...

didn't like aleppo's restaurants?
seems you didn't know where to go, or you just don't know what tastes good. either way, you're a damascene and damascenes have to keep nagging about almost everything even if it is a world renowned cuisine like the alepian cuisine.

Ihsan said...

Hmmm, that makes sense, the oil thing I mean! I should have asked! I'm so turning heads to an extent that one girl told me that I have a body color that is as red as a monkey's ass :\




I said I didn't like the restaurants but said nothing about the food in Aleppo. I love hot food and Alepian food is known to be hot, besides I had the best pickles in the world in Aleppo!

The restaurants are not that cool compared to the ones in Damascus, I tried several ones and they were OK but I didn't like em.

x said...

I made your mistake this summer already, I was burnt too. The best thing to use is Aloe cream, the Alow plant is grown by many Florideans in their homes to heal their sunburn.

Try to get SPF 45 sunscreen, works like a charm.

GraY FoX said...

wow .... now i know where they extract ketchup from .... salamtak hasssooon .. better being red by sun than being blue by snow .. zzzzzz .... so cheer up and dont apply thoothpaste as some crazy people do :D

Sara said...

Yeah I've experienced that before. I have no idea what made me think putting baby oil at the beach is a great idea. I had 2nd degree burns with blisters and everything. It was painful...

Well, el7amdullah 3a Salameh anyways... Glad you had fun in Aleppo...