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Published: February 24th 2007
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Ahhh Alleppo.
An ancient and famous Syrian city. Reknown for its age old soqs, imposing citadel, and world heritage listed old city. A city where you can loose yourself for a day, or a week walking throughn its twisting, winding, narrow streets and alleyways.
What is not mentioned is the lingering smell of raw sewage and foot, massive and nearly overwhelming noise and air pollution, traffic that will cut you off below the waste if you drop the ball for a second. But at least the hospitality was still awesome- hey its Syria afterall.
So moving forward.
We rolled into Alleppo and being instantly confused by the city asked a few helful Syrians where a particular hotel was- this particular hotel being the cheapest one in the city. After a few attempts a falla apprached us and pretty much escorted us to the hotel. He didnt seem to know the exact way himself but asked several people along the way and he soon deposted us at the gates of purgatory. All for the princly sum of a chat and handshake. Spider checked out the digs and said they seemed ok- well the price was right.
Now
dont get me wrong, the guys at the hotel were super nice. Always on hand offering cups of tea and ciggies and usually up for a yarn. But bugger me this place was shit! Our floor where our room was located had a lingering smell of poo, stray filthy cats seemed to come and go as they pleased and the room while having a reasonably fresh coat of paint was an odd contraption. It was a 4 by 4 m box. Within this space there were two old rusting beds, a small bedside table complete with ashtray and the previous occupants ciggie butts, and a small bathroom. The bathroom was like something out of a jail cell. It was about 2m long and 1m wide made totally of metal- when you closed the door it made a dense mettalic clang and it felt like you werent coming out of there for 3 to 5. The sink seemed be alive with an uncleanable brown stain, and of course came complete with the requeset pubes and ciggie ash. The shower drain looked like it could be home to a maniac clown, or at best a family of dancing rats. The toilet at
least was a western style affiar- this was to be my saving grace over the next few days- read on.
In our usual ganster like style we rolled out of the hotel (which cannot be named lest I envoke its wrath) to scope out the town. First stop was to purchase some schwarmas. We found a cool little stall run by some cool little cats. Money was exchanged for schwarmas and in the process, as is the case so often in this land, we made some new friends. Our new homies offered their services and said if we needed help or anything while in Alleppo we could call on them- champs!
The next couple of days were spent in sight seeing mode. Checked out the citadel- apparently the biggest citadel in the world. Its massive, and sits on a huge pile of dirt that is man made- dont know who put all that dirt there or who dug the hole (well done Dale) but she be a big pile.
Checked out the sooqs- the lonely planet describes them as mesmorising, you could get lost in here and not care- or something like that. Well the hyperbole setting
gibblets and nibblets
ever wondered whats in hot dogs must have been on high when they edited that text. I mean they were cool and all but its pretty much just a bunch of shops, tonnes of people bustling through them and the odd donkey to contend with. But I will say it provides pretty good photo opps!
As for the next few days well what can I say. It all started with a small tremor in my gut. I said to Kris I was out for the night and retired. The next few days involved about seventy five thousand trips to the toilet. A combination of the absolutely shit house hotel room (sorry mum I lied a touch when I told you the room was ok), insceccent and unrelenting traffic noise, and a lingering stench of ass- almost conspired to break my brain.
Night became day, day became night and I started to have arguments with my shadow that was the only evidence of my continued existence on this plane of life. I only rememberd I was on earth and the earth still revolved around the sun when Spider would appear.
you right mate
yeah pal she'll be right
anything I can do
nah just gotta ride it out
ok if i can do anything let me know
sweet
My touch on reality was a feeble one at that. Spider would come and go but I cant really remember if it was him or the cheshire cat. Water would exit my body minutes after it passed the gums, and I was having odd little fantasies about transporting myself back to good old Australia.
This pasty reality lasted about two days and I was finally on the mend. I had walked through the valley of the dead and came through the other side. With my bowles intact. At least my tollerance would now be at extreem levels.
I ventured out of the hotel room one morning. Still not all that well but on the mend. I have to say I was in a shitty mood and not really up for the alleppo reality. Some poor shoe shine kid copped a little bit as he wouldnt leave let up on wanting to shine my sneakers. Some guy selling schawarmas got a dirty look when he tried to get me in his store. I now really regret being shitty at these people. When youre ill or not in the mood the 'un-normal' (good word there) aspects of a country/city become magnified. Weather it be noise, smell, animals, or people the small differences or big ones that make a new place interesting can become a source of frustration and tension. A little while after these encounters I checked myself and promised to always let the little things slide. In the middle east there are defiantely different ways of doing things compared to the west- and its these things that make the middle east worth checking out. Just pack a lot of tablets!!!!!!!
So all in all Alleppo was a good place to visit. I just had a bit of bad luck.
The next part of our ride is out east along the euphrates river and back to turkey. Hope you enjoy it.
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