Beautiful day! We took a train and bus to Lattakia (on the coast) and then cycled for about 32km to the beach. The most gorgeous ride! Tough, though.
I'm meeting more and more women from around the Middle East especially, which is really good. Talking to women from Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine really challenges standard viewpoints of what occurs in those countries and the apparent gender relations. This is especially the case with the Iranian team, who are hardly meek and submissive! But then, I'm also aware that the women on this ride, especially the Middle Eastern women, are from particular socio-economic classes.
Tonight we are staying at Le Meridien - a fancy hotel! I'm staying with the other two 'single' teams, that is, the woman representing Germany (Jana) and the woman representing Holland (Marianne). It's really good that we get put together, it means we can make a little mismatched team of our own!
During the ride there were crowds of people everywhere throwing flowers, cheering, offering us snacks etc. It was so amazing, but also embarrassing. And I wondered - why are they here? Did someone tell them to be here?
The First Lady of Syria - Mrs. Assad - rode with us for a bit, but again, I didn't know what to think! The Syrian FTW riders seem to love her, but then she is the wife of a leader whose government you cannot criticise. The problem is that I just don't know enough about Syrian politics to order my thoughts over the matter - I'm woefully ignorant!
Yet again, we were welcomed by a marching band - yikes! It's so very different from anything I've experienced before!!
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