Alex and I grabbed the bus for three hours west to the Syrian part of the Mediterranean Sea. Lattakia is known as a more liberal town, perhaps due to an extended American presence of which only bad restaurants and a few streets remain. Lattakia also has great coffee. The priority was the beach so one morning we jumped in a minibus to Wadi Qandil, 30km north of the city for a much needed frolic in the sea and several hours watching families, girls in bikinis (shock, horror!) and feasting on roast chicken and a huge spread of salads and dips followed by nargileh. The next day we headed for the even more ancient city of Ugarit, which has been reduced to rubble but carries the impressive claim of being the site of the first alphabet ever recorded (16-15th century BC).
Alex and I grabbed a drink from a nearby stall in front of a family house and fell into conversation with the family who we noticed were reading their fortunes in their coffee grounds. Introducing Alex as an expert in reading fortunes, we spent the next hour creating fabulous futures from very small hints of fact, through the best translating efforts of their daughter, including that the young man was to have a challenging but rewarding time on his next journey which turned out to be military service.
From Ugarit we hitchhiked to the sea again and found a tiny village where we plonked ourselves under the shade of an umbrella and lunched all afternoon, chatting to the café owner who emotionally told his story of his son from his first marriage, who he hasn’t seen in 15 years and who is now living in Switzerland. A wonderful lazy day.
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