July 11

Off to Palmyra. I took a taxi from Crac to Homs (got tired of waiting for the Bus in the sun) and actually I took a different taxi all the way to Palmyra (2000 SYP, talked him down from 4000. Very lazy but it was HOT and the line for the bus - and the wait - were very long). Arrived in Palmyra and the 2 swiss I met the day before in Crac showed up at my hotel. Sat and chatted with them for some time in the afternoon (too hot to do anything else). Later that night we watched the final in the basement bar, decorated like a cave, with about a dozen locals.

I tried to walk around outside in the afternoon but it was far too hot (44 or so). So I went back to my room, had a nap. Around 5 I went to have a shwarma and watched kids throw rocks at the villiage idiot (much to other people's amusement) - I saw people mocked in Aleppo as well. Then I made my way to the ruins. Again, the pictures will tell the story. I took my time at first (moving from shade to shade) till 7 or so when the sun started to go down and it was instantly much cooler. By 8:30 it was dark and time to wander back to see the final. After the game I went outside and it was much colder and very windy (there had been no wind before)