I've just written what I believe is the last blog post for my Canada travelogue for now and want to switch to Saudi Arabia, the trip I've just finished. "For now" means I've written the main blog posts, but I still have some interesting places in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland that I'd like to write about at some point. This also applies to other trips, like my journeys to Iceland, the Baltics, Poland, and Finland—there are still many unwritten posts about those as well. But right now, I want to focus more on my recent trip to Saudi Arabia.
It so happened that I saw a snack bar at a rest stop, or rather, a gas station. Gas stations almost always have shops, snack bars, and a mosque in Saudi Arabia. The snack bar belongs to the Canadian Tim Hortons chain. I was very surprised to discover this snack bar in Saudi Arabia and thought it would be a good segue to Saudi Arabia.
How did I even get onto the topic of Saudi Arabia? I think one of the reasons was that I've always been interested in many things and also studied ethnology / sicial anthropology. When I started my first job as a doctor, I was given the task of looking after the library. The library was in the basement, and as far as I know, nobody ever ventured down there during the years I was in charge; perhaps one of the senior physicians occasionally. Yes, I often took a siesta down there; I can admit that now. And I always received the new books I added, as well as magazines. Interestingly, we were on the mailing list for the Saudi Medical Journal, and I was an avid reader of this publication, which led to me once writing an article for the German Medical Journal [1]. One of my senior physicians at the time said in the midday meeting that his dentures had almost fallen out of his mouth that morning when he read the German Medical Journal. Not only had I written an article, but I had also cited the Saudi Medical Journal.
In the years that followed, travel to Saudi Arabia was impossible; it was only possible for businesspeople or pilgrims. However, one had to be Muslim to go. Recently, tourism has become possible, and that's why I've decided to travel there now, to experience what Hermann Hesse so aptly described in his poem Stufen [Steps]: "And in every beginning dwells a magic."
Unfortunately, Saudi Arabia and Islam have become sensitive topics, so I need to communicate the conditions for comments more specifically. This travelogue is not the appropriate place for a discussion of human rights. That's something for Amnesty International [2]. Such comments, and Islamophobic ones, will be sealed in the spam folder.
It so happened that I saw a snack bar at a rest stop, or rather, a gas station. Gas stations almost always have shops, snack bars, and a mosque in Saudi Arabia. The snack bar belongs to the Canadian Tim Hortons chain. I was very surprised to discover this snack bar in Saudi Arabia and thought it would be a good segue to Saudi Arabia.
How did I even get onto the topic of Saudi Arabia? I think one of the reasons was that I've always been interested in many things and also studied ethnology / sicial anthropology. When I started my first job as a doctor, I was given the task of looking after the library. The library was in the basement, and as far as I know, nobody ever ventured down there during the years I was in charge; perhaps one of the senior physicians occasionally. Yes, I often took a siesta down there; I can admit that now. And I always received the new books I added, as well as magazines. Interestingly, we were on the mailing list for the Saudi Medical Journal, and I was an avid reader of this publication, which led to me once writing an article for the German Medical Journal [1]. One of my senior physicians at the time said in the midday meeting that his dentures had almost fallen out of his mouth that morning when he read the German Medical Journal. Not only had I written an article, but I had also cited the Saudi Medical Journal.
In the years that followed, travel to Saudi Arabia was impossible; it was only possible for businesspeople or pilgrims. However, one had to be Muslim to go. Recently, tourism has become possible, and that's why I've decided to travel there now, to experience what Hermann Hesse so aptly described in his poem Stufen [Steps]: "And in every beginning dwells a magic."
Unfortunately, Saudi Arabia and Islam have become sensitive topics, so I need to communicate the conditions for comments more specifically. This travelogue is not the appropriate place for a discussion of human rights. That's something for Amnesty International [2]. Such comments, and Islamophobic ones, will be sealed in the spam folder.
Links and Annotations:
[1] Deutsches Ärzteblatt www.aerzteblatt.de/archiv/gesundheitsgefaehrdungen-waehrend-des-fastenmonats-ramadan-ergaenzungen-c5500cae-7062-413c-b015-596a352b8c82
[2] https://www.amnesty.de/informieren/laender/saudi-arabien
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