Welcome to Germany. Here you are finally safe!

in #steemit8 years ago

 Hi everyone! STEEMIT

 I am Rami and I come from Syria. I met Maria at the public library in Bonn During The Bookclub first meeting in April. On That occasion Larissa Bender Introduced her book "Innenansichten aus Syrien", a collection of stories, interviews and witnesses about Syrian war. Maria offered me some help to learn German and so we started to meet Regularly. She Also Introduced me to this intercultural blog and suggested me to write about my journey from Syria to Germany.

 Syria used to be a very nice country before the war started, a peaceful and happy country. Suddenly, just out of the blue, we found ourselves in hell. We could not believe That what was going on in Syria was real ... At the beginning we thought it was just a matter of time before we could go back again to our normal life . At that time I was working as an accountant for the Ministry of Finance in Syria while studying for a master's degree in Banking & Finance. We have lived long in the Hope that this war would have ended soon, but it kept going on and on.

 Afterwards, I Decided to flee my homeland with my older brother: we started from Lebanon and we had to take a boat from Lebanon to Turkey. In Tarablus harbor (Lebanon) there were blackberries than 10,000 Syrians with many babies and it was so sad to look at those people who were just like me and had to leave Their old life behind to start everything new in a country they have never seen before . We have waited 48 hours before the Lebanese police allowed us to get on board and while waiting I have met so many people there who shared plans and ideas. Most of the people wanted to reach Because Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel Announced that "Refugees from Syria are welcome to Germany". Others wanted to go to England since they spoke Inglese Because Sweden or to other family members were Already living there.

 The ship started to move at 10 am It was my first time on a ship. We arrived in Turkey at 4 pm The village was very small and from there we took a bus to Azmer, the journey has Lasted 15 hours and then from Azmer we headed to a small nice city called CESMA. It was hard to communicate with people in Turkey since most of them do not speak Inglese and none of us Knew Turkish. We booked a room in a hotel and finally after four exhausting days I could take a shower and sleep decently. After 3 days in CESMA we met a smuggler and headed to Greece. We started our journey at 5 pm and after 12 hours -at 5 ment we arrived on a very beautiful island in Greece. Few hours later we took a ferry to Athens where we arrived at 1 pm and we DECIDED to continue our journey with two guys from Syria.

 We've spent 2 days in Athens and got ready for the second part of our journey: we had to buy jackets, clothes and food since we were forced by smugglers to leave all our belongings in Turkey. We took a bus to the Macedonian borders and we crossed them smoothly before taking a train to Serbia. There we had to walk more than 3 hours in the sun at midday know some people fainted while others got a sunstroke. Luckily enough our group was alright. A bus drove us to Budapest where we Realised That Hungarian borders were closed so we had to stay there for a few days till Croatia opened its borders to refugees. As soon as we got there we met people from Numerous countries: Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and of course Syria. In the early morning we took a train to Zagreb where we could rest for a while before leaving again to Austria. At that point I Realised That the hardest part of our journey was over and it was just a matter of time till we Reached our final destination: Germany.

 As we arrived in Germany we found so many people smiling and waving to us.The first sentence I have heard in Germany was " Welcome to Germany. You are finally safe here . " 

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life...........

This life is what you make it. No matter what, you're going to mess up sometimes, it's a universal truth. But the good part is you get to decide how you're going to mess it up. Girls will be your friends - they'll act like it anyway. But just remember, some come, some go. The ones that stay with you through everything - they're your true best friends. Don't let go of them. Also remember, sisters make the best friends in the world. As for lovers, well, they'll come and go too. And baby, I hate to say it, most of them - actually pretty much all of them are going to break your heart, but you can't give up because if you give up, you'll never find your soulmate. You'll never find that half who makes you whole and that goes for everything. Just because you fail once, doesn't mean you're gonna fail at everything. Keep trying, hold on, and always, always, always believe in yourself, because if you don't, then who will, sweetie? So keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life's a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about.

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense

Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.

Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.

Comments seem unrelated and botty.

@dashlike Did you ever wonder why so many people were trying to get to germany and not just out of the warzone? Would you prefer to be in syria, somewhere closer to home?

Thee situation in Syria and other war-stricken lands of the Middle East is heart-breaking. Let's hope peace will prevail in the region very soon.