Troubles with Saudi

I've had this plan for awhile. It's all about going from Damascus to Sana in Yemen by bus. I'm not very fond of buses but then it would be so cool to go through Saudi that I have a hard time dropping the idea. Traveling by bus has a tendency to become rather boring on your own though so I've been pitching it to more or less everyone I've met around here. But for some unknown reason more or less noone has been interested in taking a three day busride through Saudi with me. That was until Annika thought it could actually be quite cool. So Yesterday the two of us went to the Saudi Consulate in Meze just to find out what our options were. Despite the fact that I knew the general whereabouts of the place it was very hard to find. Mostly because people we asked gave us directions that always was at least a bit off. But we did find it in the end, so I asked this guardguy standing outside where we could ask about visas. He just pointed towards a window and told me to knock on it. I thought it was kind of a strange way of treating people, then again I knew nothing at that time...

Anyway, I knock the window and of course nothing happens, so we end up waiting by the window for about ten minutes before an Arab guy shows up and knocks on it. Of course it opens right away and he gets at least some of his kinks straightend out. As he stands talking trough the window five to ten other Arabs show up and, being Arab that is, they just cut in line. When they were all finished the guy behind the window started to close it again but I managed to catch his attention right before he closed it. The conversation went as follows:

Me (some polite phrases, which he ignored completley): I just wanted to know if it is possible to apply for a transit visa through Saudi.

He: Where are you going? Bahrain?

Me: No, I would want to go to Yemen.

He: You fly to Yemen.

Me: Yes, of course sir but I'm thinking about going from Syria to Yemen.

He: You fly from Syria to Yemen.

Me: Yes that's true but I want to go from Damascus to Sana.

He: So you buy a ticket and take a plane from Damascus to Sana.

Me: I could do that but I've heard about this bus from Damascus to Sana and I would really like to go with it.

He: You do not take that bus, you take a plane.

Me: Ok, I understand. So it's impossible to even get a three day transit visa? (I'm a little slow sometimes)

He: Only if you have family in Saudi you want to visit before continuing to Yemen.

Me: Ok thanks for your help and bye!

The End


So I guess it might be hard to go that way since I don't know anyone in Saudi. If anyone knows someone that would like to invite some Swedes I'd be very happy :) Then again, if that guy at the Consulate is representative for the rudeness of Saudis I'd probably not want to go there anyway.


On the other hand the people at Yemen's embassy were very nice and polite. They just told us that we'll get the visa at the airport. No questions asked. We would also get one at the border but then again, he added laughing, that's up to the Saudis if we get there...

On to more merry matters. Today we had the final exam of this course. I think I needed somewhere between 13.5 and 20 points out of 50 in the exam to pass. The variation is because of the ten points you get from class but since I haven't missed a single class and that I'm the only one that did all our homeworks I don't think I'll need to worry too much about that. And since I got 10 points in the hearing part this time too I'm probably safe.

Keeping with the fine Swedish tradition of exam beer there's a party tonight. Someone at some time decided that everyone should come as a stereotype of their country and that created some problems for me. The Americans only knew of the Swedish bikini team and that would just be so wrong for me so that stereotype was quickly discarded. Then Annika thought that we should go as tennisplayers and that was kind of ok I guess. But in the end I discarded that idea too. My new idea was to go drunk, that for sure would be a Swedish stereotype. Going drunk might still be an option but I hope not to. Considering that I'm a walking stereotype, being tall and blonde, I could probably just go as myself.

Americans also have post exam traditions and one of them is something called "power hour". The idea seem to be that you get a collection of music and you cut 60 to 80 songs down to one minute tracks (so it can be quite the long hour). You then get a shotglass that you fill with beer that you drink during the first track, you then refill that glass and empty it once for every track. As you might have noticed this is a concept that is so wrong in so many ways. Only the idea to drink beer from shotglasses make me a little sick to my stomach, not as sick as I'll get if I really go trough with this, but still... Somehow Noah managed to convince like almost everyone at uni that this is the thing to do before going to the actual party tonight. I'm, on the other hand, is still a bit sceptical.