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Friday, March 9, 2012

Not Pride and Prejudice, This is Snow and Prejudice


Some of you may already know that, once I was an exchange student  at Keyser West Virginia/ USA, and I had graduated from high school,there.
 Anyway, during my stay, my friends were so excited for me, when the first snow of the winter hit WV, thinking that I was seeing the snow fort he first time in my life. With much limited information sources of the day, they were probably relating Turkey with infinite deserts, camels and a blazing sun. Well, the truth was the total opposite. We used to live under the snow for 3-4 months every winter at my home town. A BIG, BIG prejudice…

Sanırım bazılarınız benim lise son sınıfı Amerika’da değişim öğrencisi olarak okuduğumu biliyorsunuzdur.
Her neyse, orada ilk kar yağdığında, hayatımda ilk kez kar gördüğümü zanneden arkadaşlarım benim için çok heyecanlanmışlardı. Sanırım Türkiye imgelerinin çoğunu çöller, develer ve sürekli parlayan bir güneş oluşturuyordu. Halbuki gerçek bunun tam tersiydi.. O yıllarda Eskişehir yılın 3-4 ayını kar ve buz altında geçirirdi. Çok çok BÜYÜK bir önyargı.



But I faced with a much BIGGER one of mine last week during our trip to Lebanon. Here we are, two experienced traveller who had done all their homework before the trip but somehow never imagined not  to see the famous Baalbek temples because of the snow..We have tried 3 consequtive days to reach there but the Damascus highway was closed due to heavy snow. Well most guide books  tell you that you can ski in the morning and swim in the afternoon in Lebanon  but unable to travel on the high way to Syria due to heavy snow was still beyond my imagination.

Fakat geçen hafta Lübnan gezimiz sırasında kendime ait çok çok DAHA BÜYÜK bir önyargı ile yüzleştim. Evet, biz iki deneyimli gezgin, seyahat öncesinde tüm ev ödevlerimizi yapmamıza rağmen, ünlü Baalbek tapınaklarına kar yüzünden gidemedik.. 3 gün üst üste denememize rağmen araçların Şam otoyoluna çıkışına izin verilmiyordu. Tamam, Lübnan’da sabahtan kayak yapıp, öğleden sonra denize girebileceğiniz tüm tanıtım yazılarında belirtiliyordu ama Suriye yolunun yoğun kar nedeni ile kapalı olması hayal edilie bir şey değildi.







So for now you have to settle with some lousy snowy pics from Lebanon instead of the magnificent Baalbek ruins and the Bekaa Valley. But now I KNOW that it could snow heavily and close the roads in Middle East during March.
As we couldnt go inlands, we visited every inch of the coast line of the country and more posts are coming about them.

Sonuçta Baalbek antik kentinden ve Bekaa Vadisinden muhteşem görüntüler yerine bu post’da vasat kar resimleri ile idare edeceksiniz. Ve evet, şimdi öğrendik ki, Orta Doğu’da kar yüzünden Mart ayında yollar kapanabilirmiş…
İç bölgelere ulaşamadığımızdan, ülkenin sahil şeridini karış karış gezme şansımız oldu. Hepsi yakında, burada….

Bacchus temple at Baalbek: photo from Wikipedia..unfortunately :((

9 comments:

  1. That was a lot of snow, but you looked happy anyway!

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  2. Wow! So much snow! Looks like you were having fun in it! Have a great weekend:)
    Jennifer

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  3. Snow is beautiful, I am however surpirsed that it is still snowing in the USA

    Greetings,
    Filip

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  4. There's been a while since the last time I visit you!! that's a lot of snow! but your pictures are amazing!!!

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  5. The earth is ticked off, has a headache or something...giving us unexpected weather conditions.

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  6. I must confess that I too would never expect to see snow in Istanbul or Lebanon. I just assume it's summer all year long! Warm, beautiful, sunny summer.

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  7. Gorgeous! Now that is one adventure and experience
    Benny & Lily

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  8. Such a pity you missed Baalbek! But I am waiting the photos from the coast anyhow. Because of heavy winter in Istanbul, we had a 6 hours delay in New Delhi, on December 2010. Now I'll fly Turkish Airlines again, on April, hopefuly without weather events.

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  9. It looks like you had a good time anyway!

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