Istanbul - Damascus overland

Adapted from my travel blog and published in the Turkish Daily News at Intermediate level: http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=85214

Earlier this year I traveled to Damascus (Dimashq ash-Sham) over land. I took the train from Istanbul to Adana, alone in a two-bed cabin, as often happens on Turkish trains. So half the journey I slept, and the other half I watched Anatolia go by.
Adana was an attractive city with a modern center. It seemed as “European” as Istanbul or İzmir, despite being on the Middle East's doorstep. There were many nice cafes and I ate the famous Adana kebabs. I spent the evening watching Turkish dancing and singing in a bar.
Next morning I was up early to get the bus to Antakya, via the ancient city of İskenderun on the Mediterranean Sea.
The "fun" started there. I was pushed into a service bus and taken to a big bus organized to get tourists across the border. But when we got to the border the Turkish authorities told us to go back because the bus was not full. The driver took us halfway back to Antakya, then turned around and went back to the border. Again we were told to go back, so we all got off and were put into two dolmuşes. Our dolmuş, however, did not have enough passengers either, so we were told to go back for a third time.
Finally we found two “hitch-hikers” and, three hours after reaching the border, managed to get across. During this time I made friends with a few of the other passengers. They included an English photographer who lived in Damascus with his Syrian wife.
From Aleppo we got the bus to Damascus. It is said to be the oldest city in the world where people have always lived, going back more than 10,000 years. Following 400 years of Ottoman rule, Syria was taken by the French after World War I, becoming independent again in 1946. The center of the city has a French influence with its architecture and restaurants. I visited the Umayyad Mosque and the old city.
On my second day, John Wreford, the photographer I had met at the border came to my hotel and invited me to Sayyida Zainab, the Shiite area of the city. There were many people from Iraq there, and we met one young man who had lost a hand in the war. They were friendly to us even though we were Westerners. Tourists are not judged by the actions of their politicians, thankfully!
Apart from the magnificent Sayyida Zeinab Mosque, the area looked very poor. There were dead animals hanging in front of the shops and one man was killing fish in front of the customers. We ate “kibbe” and drank spicy Arab coffee in one of these shops. We also saw an informal game of cricket. Probably the players were from Pakistan.
The next day I took the midnight (12:00 a.m.) train from Damascus to Aleppo, then went back across the border by taxi. It cost only YTL 50 from Aleppo to Antakya – where I had a giant breakfast with coffees for a total of YTL 4.