My New Home for a While

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

I've been meaning to write this message for a while now, and I've been putting it off because until recently I'd been pretty upset about it and it was something I didn't want to write about when I was angry.

Before coming to Saudi Arabia and when I first arrived, a lot of my friends facebooked me and said to me "be safe," or "be careful over there," or something to that effect.

This upset me for two reasons. The first is perhaps somewhat selfish and not as serious. Surely in all the years people out there have known me, you have realized that I have no history whatsoever of taking foolish risks or not paying attention in questionable or dangerous situations. I realize some of you maybe only said it to let me know that you are thinking about me, but nonetheless I found it a little frustrating.

The second and much more serious reason this "be safe" thing upset me is because Saudi Arabia is the 15th country I have been to on this trip, and no one said anything for any of the others, which says to me people are concerned simply because it is Saudia Arabia, a country in the "dreaded" middle east.

In the last five years there have been no terrorist attacks on foreigners in the country, with the exception of four french nationals in 2007. Many euopean countries can not boast the same. For example I doubt America can boast less than 4 foreign traveler murders in the last five years. I wonder if even Canada can. The government here is extremly pro-active in keeping this country safe from those types of attacks and have been quite successful. In addition there is currently no travel warning by the Canadian government for coming here.

So why then is eveyone so concerened? This type of unjustified fear of anything middle-east is extremely damaging to not just people from this region, but also unwarrented fears of Islam, foreign governments and most importantly it is counteractive to the idea (and dare I say fact) that a third world country can change, grow, and evolve into something better. And most impressively, Saudi Arabia is doing it without westernizing or sacrificing its culture.

I'm sorry if it sounds like I am soapboxing here, or picking on anyone's general well-wishing, and there are certainly many serious problems that Saudi Arabia faces in its future which I will discuss in detail another time on this blog, but I think this is an important thing to think about, and if we truely want to come together as one people in this world, these sorts of negative preconceptions have to be left behind sooner rather than later.

I'll write again soon and update with some pics of the first couple weeks of my stay here.

It's a new decade

Izmir, Turkey



New Years in Istanbul....

I have to admit, there wasn't much too it! A group of five of us headed into Taksim where we went to a restaurant, had a pretty good meal along with free (bad) alcohol. Unfortunately, the place Sedef's friend had picked was more or less empty. There wasn't much of a party or anything like that, we just hung out at a table and talked and drank. That said though, the company was good, the temperature was in the teens and I had a great night. Just lower key than Sedef and I had expected.


As far as other matters are concerened, this is likely to be my last post from Izmir. Well, for a number of months anyway. As usual, I don't know what the future holds, but I do know this:

Within the next week or so, I will catch a plan to Riyadh, the capital of Saudia Arabia where I will teach english for a while. I say "for a while" because I don't know how long. I'm excited to see the true middle east and finally get a true perception for what it is. Everyone I tell I am going there seems to think I am some brave fool or something but that's not the case at all, and bravery has nothing to do with it (although foolishness.....). I'm not worried for my safety or anything like that. People are people are people, no matter what country you are in. They change a bit with religious and culture differences but in the end they generally want to help you and not the opposite. I don't see any reason why Saudi Arabia should be any different.

Still, I will be away from Sedef for a number of months and that will be hard. I'm really not sure about how I plan to end my trip at this point. I will think heavily about it when I'm ready to leave Saudi and know more about my money situation and what kind of a plan Sedef and I come up with. In the mean time, things will continue their freeze as my bank accounts return to the black again :) i only have a one time entry visa for Saudi so unlike my hopes I won't be able to explore a lot of it's neighbours while I'm there. But I am thinking afterwards I will take the long route back to Turkey by ground and check out some of the neighbourhood.

Anyway, will write again soon. For now it's just a short one.

First Quarter Numbers

Izmir, Turkey

I was originally going to call this post "half-time numbers" seeing as how it's been six months of a one year trip. However it looks more like this trip will be 2 years so instead it's going to be first quarter. Here I will post some numbers about my journey thus far. I have kept track of these things in my journal so they should all be acurate.

From June 25/09 - December 25/09:


Intercity Flights Taken: 7
Intercity Busses Taken: 32
Intercity Trains Taken: 12
Intercity Ferries Taken: 6
Cities Cycled Between: 7
Missed Busses/Trains: 2
Taxi's Taken: 9


Times hit on by girls: 7 (subjective :)
Times hit on by guys: 1 (not subjective)
Times fallen in love: 1


Times Couch Surfed: 10
Panic Attacks Had: 2
Times Lost Something: 1
Times I've Been Lost: ??
Times Robbed: 0
Injuries Received: 12
Times Watched TV: 9
Streetshows Watched: 23


Caves Visited: 4 (I'm counting Cappadocia as one so it doesn't skew the numbers)
Castles Visited: 7
Religious Buildings Visited: 25
Cities Visited: 42
Countries Visited: 14