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An Ode to my Backpack

It’s a sad day when a traveler has to replace their backpack. That day arrived for me today. The day my backpack is to be retired. Moved on to pastures new. We’ve had many great adventures together, but the time has come. My backpack entered my knowledge about five years ago. My older brother Tom, himself – like me – a long-term traveler, was sitting late one night at a ferry terminal in…

Adventures of Ben & Victoria: The Ankara Hitch – Part Two

Having successfully conquered the roads of northern Armenia, Victoria and I found ourselves at the tiny border crossing of Armenia and Georgia. It was cold, we on a mountain plateau, and we had to walk the mile or so of no mans land between the frontiers.

That December night, we had no idea where we would sleep, except that it would probably be somewhere in Georgia, in our three-season tent. The…

Adventures of Ben & Victoria: The Ankara Hitch – Part One

Well, it’s December, the temperatures are in the negatives. Ankara is two or three days, and 1,500 kilometres away by hitchhiking. What could possibly go wrong?

This is how mine and Victoria’s thought process went, when we, along with two others, decided to embark on a winter hitchhiking adventure to see a friend in Turkey’s capital.

But, undeterred, we packed our backpacks, and thumbed a ride…

How to #hitchhike from #yerevan #armenia to the #iran border - benallen.ca

As a non-Armenian who has spent far too much time in Armenia for it to be healthy, I’ve come to be asked many questions on life there, sightseeing, prices, taxis, and more. One of the most common questions I get asked – as a regular hitchhiker, and as a person who hosts a lot of Couchsurfers – is: how can I hitchhike to Iran from Yerevan?

Probably 70% of travelers I meet in Armenia are on their…

A tribute to family

It’s amazing how quickly people can feel like family. How throwing a group of people together can create the best of times, fun times, harmonious times, unforgettable times.

This past week, Victoria and I have had an apartment full of travellers. Our place, in the centre of Yerevan, is tiny. It’s just the one bedroom, a small bathroom, and a living room that doubles as the kitchen. But, the…

The Areni Wine Hitch

Each year, as summer makes it’s way gently into fall, thousands of people from around the region descend on the tiny Armenian village of Areni. The reason? The Areni Wine Festival.

Two years ago when I was living in Armenia before, I managed to miss this glorious happening of drink swilling, barbecue devouring, and general joyful debauchery. This time around, I wanted to ensure that this was not…

There was a huge outpouring of emotion in the Syrian community today as news filtered out of the reopening of the fabled “Derby Chips” factory in the war-torn city of Aleppo.

The chips, a light, salted snack akin to the classic English crisp product “Skips” that melt on the tongue, has been a mainstay of the Syrian snack diet for decades. “These chips”, explained one Aleppian currently living in…

When mid-hitchhike snack invitations go bad

It all started when his car shuddered to a halt at the side of the highway on the southern fringes of Yerevan. I hadn’t expected anyone to pull over here. There was nowhere to pull over. No shoulder, too dangerous. But then we were in Armenia. Hitchhiking here is incredibly easy and the driving is far from safe.

A few hours later, the kind driver, who’d picked us up from our less-than-stellar…

The magical music monster of Syria

Clearly, the mighty rumble of Beirut’s jam packed highway wasn’t enough. Neither was the regular maelstrom of shelling providing the soundtrack to the dark hours in Damascus. Oh no, nothing could awaken me from my slumber until the morning light. That was, of course, until I came across some guy with a microphone and a terrible case of verbal diarrhea on a beach in Latakia. Then it became…

The valley of my childhood

I flicked the switch on the kettle, gazed out of the kitchen window for a moment, and immediately flicked the kettle back off again. Coffee could wait. This was more important.

Since I left my native Northamptonshire, England, for the distant shores of Canada, I’ve barely been back for more than a few days. “I’ll be back in a year”, is what I told my friends. Next month, six years will have…

Just another day in Shatila

There was a huge bang. Twenty metres to my left, the guy cleaning an AK-47 outside his shop had accidentally set it off. Again. He’d produced the same dramatic punctuation mark to our day a few minutes earlier, and obviously wasn’t taking too much care whilst cleaning his rifle, sitting in the middle of the street. The guy sitting to my right shrugged, and carried on playing with his pistol,…

No home, no warmth, no end in sight. Syrian Refugees in Lebanon

“There’s a lady here who has ten children aged under 18, and she’s widowed, and living in a tent,” we were told. The thought of that existence, in the cold of the Bekaa Valley winter, was difficult to fathom.

Having grown up in middle class England, and having had a very comfortable life there, and in Canada, I never had many challenges in life, until I began to explore the world. My eyes were…

A nargile store in Borj Hammoud

Smoking nargile is all the rage in Lebanon. In cafes, restaurants, down on the beach, or in the…

Memories of Syria, five years ago

“Nowhere else on Earth have I so often been physically restrained from leaving the homes of…

Why I let a stranger take a laser to my face

Three weeks ago, I lay on an operating table, fully conscious, and let a Doctor I’d met 20 minutes…

Blankets for Syrians

In a few weeks time, I will be packing my backpack and travelling once again to the country I…

Lebanon's south - unspoilt beaches, rustic harbours, and smirking prostitutes

It was the moment we saw the prostitute strutting down the hallway with a triumphant look on her…