Blogs from Aleppo, North, Syria, Middle East

Dear All Greetings from Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city at 2 million people, situated in the north of the country. And what a beautiful city it is, with some great sights and as usual very friendly people. Still having a great time travelling in this fascinating region of the world, and have spent the last days travelling through the Syrian heartland from Tartus on the coast, through Homs and Hama in the centre, to here, Aleppo, my current stop before I head out east into the desert. Will try to upload some photos of the past few days, having been to some amazing places, though this internet café is a tad on the slow side – we’ll see how it goes… Last I wrote I believe I was about to leave Tartus, which was good timing ... read more

Aleppo Aleppo was our last stop in Syria and I was very surprised by the sheer size of the city when we first arrived in Aleppo a lot of people on our bus were surprised to get dropped off away from a hotel in what at first look looked like a unfriendly neighborhood in Aleppo but the streets only looked so deserted and the hundreds of shops lining the street were all closed because it was Friday and most places close in Syria on Friday for Friday prayers. After a brief walk down some side streets and allies we found our secluded hotel which was actually a courtyard of old houses converted into a hotel. The hotel itself was beautiful and after we settled in we were off on another orientation walk throughout the old city ... read more

It's not often I get those "pinch myself" moments, where I'm engulfed by a sense of pure wonderment and awe at being in a particular place and having met particular people in that very place. But I've already experienced two of such moments in my two weeks spent so far here in Syria. I think my lack of "pure wonderment" moments is because, as a frequent traveller, sometimes I get caught up in the regular traveller/tourist routine of: book onward transport, peruse map to find my way, check into a hotel, see the main recommended sights, take photos, find a place to eat, hopefully try to meet a combo of locals and foreigners to talk to, write an email to Mum, crawl into hotel bed and do it all again. And in doing all these necessary ... read more

Enjoying the nice view of the Syrian landscape, kilometers are passing. Slowly in the desert landscape changes into inhabited area. We are approaching Aleppo. When we entered the city, we saw immediately that this is not one of the countries where I would like to drive. The traffic is a complete mess. It reminded me to the traffic of Cairo. The distance between Gaziantep and Aleppo is 120 km, but to arrive here was quite time consuming. We wanted to have a small rest before we started with orienting this city. We asked the driver to bring us to a middclass hotel close to the city center. He brought us to a 'hotel' in the middle of the center. According him it was cheap and cleaner compared to the rest of the hotels nearby. We paid ... read more

Chyba nie wspominalam jeszcze wystarczajaco obficie o jedzeniu. A dzis spedzilismy pol dnia na bazarze, kupujac przyprawy i bakalie. I zjedlismy najprawdziwszego, naprawde THE REALEST, falafela pod sloncem. I co wazne - 4 genialne kanapki, bez pekinskiej kapusty, sosu co przy pierwszym gryzie cieknie po rekach i samego falafela o konstystencji innej niz kula armatnia, kosztowaly 8 PLN. Do tego ulepkowato slodka herbatka w mini szklaneczce za 1 PLN od glowy, pita na zapleczu bazaru, w sklepie z materialami, gdzie siedzi niezliczona ilosc mezczyzn i chlopcow, nie do konca wiadomo, co robia, ktos leniwie przewraca sie na stojacej za winklem lezance, rytmicznie zmieniajac kanaly w telewizorze. Nasz mistyczny falafel mial cienkie ciasto, wzdluz okraglego placka posypane duzo pietruszki z mieta, pomidorki pokrojone w kosteczke, na tym dwa rozgniecione krazki z cieciorki i odrobine jogurtow... read more