Our journey may have started with flights to get here, but of course a country is more than it’s capital. To view only this, would neglect the beauty and variety which helps to make a place whole.
That said, today’s 6am departure was never going to be much fun and the energy levels on the mini-bus for some were high enough to keep others awake due to some talking incessantly. So whilst we learnt a bit more about other people’s countries some of us couldn’t help but think that sleep would’ve been nice!
Countryside wise it’s not dissimilar to any other Mediterranean border country, although it was curious to note the different things used to sell wares by the side of the road (sadly my camera couldn’t capture these little ‘straw’ men with small items attached for sale), and unlike say Greece, there were no visible shrines marking past roadside deaths.
During the one brief stop it was noted that the rest stop included a small ‘mosque’ area to allow for prayers, which was commented on by one of the participants. Of course having access to somewhere to pray can be important and it was something that they had not seen before. It’s interesting to see how this has changed. For example in the UK some large public buildings, especially airports