Blogs from North, Syria, Middle East

We arrived in Aleppo via Palmyra on Monday nıght. Nice to be in a big city for a change and Aleppo is a very nice one. Lots of faded old Parisian type buildings again and we went to the best falafel shop since Manchester! Falafel wraps are 30p and I eat lots of them before we leave. We had a cold and windy walk around the city, souks, and citadel Tues mornıng and then unfortuantely had to leave a day early on FCO advice due to protests ın other parts of the country. Despite seeing news coverage of the protests, we didn't see anythıng while in Syria and were always safe. Once again we were welcomed as tourists, and thankfully the heckles in the street are less frequent here!... read more

Over the last few afternoons in Aleppo, I've whiled away a couple of hours in a lovely coffeeshop/restaurant called Ahlildar. It has an unbeatable location in an elegant renovated traditional Arabic courtyard house, with an upstairs terrace overlooking the entrance/courtyard/garden of the Great Mosque, and the main street of the Old City leading up to the citadel standing high on hill in the near distance. So I sit there on the terrace in the late afternoon sun, listening to sensuous Arabic pop music playing from the TV (music which my Italian friend but current Beirut resident Tommy dubs 'habibi shawarma music', because 98% of Arabic popular songs feature the word 'habibi' *my love* at least once, if not several times, and because shawarma is the equally ubiquitous fast food of the Middle East, virtually identical to ... 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

For the last day of 2010, we have chosen Aleppo, the oldest city continuously habited in the world...ok, it may be Damascus, go figure out! You can go from Damascus to Aleppo by road, between 4 to 6 hours...by plane...or simply by train. Leslie loves night trains...so why not. Little problem with the train, it seems the only way is to book it last minute. They have old sleeper trains, 2 beds per cabin, it is relatively clean and pretty confortable. We booked 2 connecting cabins...for 3 of us, 4 beds, the total cost is around 22usd one way....not per person, but for the four of us! I guess if you really want to save money, you could do Aleppo-Damascus and back every day, would be cheaper than a very basic hotel. The train leaves at ... 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

From Turkey into Syria, Urfa to Aleppo After leaving Cappadocia we headed south east to a small very conservative place called Kahta. It looks like some sad forgotten border town. This morning was the first time since our arrival that I saw women, two housemaids; otherwise it’s been all men and boys. Kahta is really the last place of any size to base yourself to get up Mt Nemrut to see the marvellous stone heads. It’s not big on the list of usual tourist destinations in Turkey as it is off the beaten track, so the facilities are limited. Our evening meal options were two restaurants run by the same team, on either side of the street, offering the same menu. Option one was clean, bright and busy, option two was dark and dingy and had ... read more