My friends usually call me “the desert woman“. I guess one of the reasons is my ability to feel really at my place in the middle of any desert. Also besides, I never complain about the heat. Even temperatures above 44 degrees C are pretty acceptable to me and easy to cope with. This “hot picture” could be completed by my passion for the Middle East. That’s true. Wherever I have been so far in the Middle East, I have felt comfortable. No fear, no doubts, no resistance, no confusion. Just like home.

My first touch with the desert was 13 years ago. Well… the Egyptian desert is not what we are used to watching in the movies – endless sandy hills, golden dunes, camel caravans… It’s quite stony and hilly, with some random bushes around, successfully converted to a tourist attraction. But to watch the sunset on a rocky hill of that desert, to ride a camel right at a bedouin’s (habitants of the desert) village, to listen to their traditional music, have dinner, prepared in a very ancient way…that’s a lifetime memory.

I have never “heard” such silence anywhere else, as I have in the desert. The feeling of complete peace and relaxation could be found only in the middle of nowhere. The same feeling I got a bit later in Morocco and Tunisia, where the sandy desert picture is alive. Then Lebanon and Jordan, but not much sand to be seen in there 🙂 

My years spent in Qatar, with some escapes to Abu Dhabi, and Dubai, have complimented the desert impression. I learned to respect and appreciate it truly. It was also a point where my Middle Eastern journey has begun. After so many years it finally turned into a passion.

I do not expect everyone to understand or accept my preferences. In the same way, I can’t understand the skiers, going to the frozen snowy mountains 🙂 Must be something in my blood or my ancestors’ heritage, which pulls me away in that direction. I have a traveler’s heart, B+ blood type, typical for nomadic tribes.

I don’t have any information about mixed-race roots in my grandparents’ genealogical tree. Regarding my relatives, we are pure Bulgarians. But my olive skin and questionable blood type could be the answer to why I love the desert and feel attracted to the Middle Eastern culture. I’ll try to share my impression and viewpoint, following those close connections with mysterious lands and people, who crossed my path.