Blogs from North, Syria, Middle East - page 4

From Tripoli we travelled to Hama. Lebanon was humid and it affected our competency... We milled around the central square looking lost and red-faced, waving postcards and saying the words 'stamps' and 'bus station' to bewildered Arabic strangers. In the end a young man in faded jeans enthusiastically lead us to the door of the unmarked ticket office in the building next to the section of pavement serving as an impromptu bus stop. We alighted the bus which Lizzie may have mistakenly described as 'plush' and muddled our way across yet another border, reminding ourselves that silly little girls should not make jokes in the company of immigration officials or serious Mexican diplomats. The only remarkable aspect of the journey were the bizarre stop offs: twenty minutes for the women to replenish their crockery supplies in ... read more

DAY 49 First thing after breakfast heading on a 10 minute walk down the hill to Krak de Chevaliers. It is the most famous medieval citadel in the world. It is an amazing castle within a castle. The small original castle was built by the Kurds and then enlarged by the Arabs then became the castle it is today when the crusaders occupied it in the 1100's. It has 13 huge towers and could accommodate 5000 soldiers. It was a place where Richard the Lion Hearted fortified himself along with the Knights of the Round table with the parts of the table still intact. The castle was never taken by force because it was protected by being built upon a steep mountain top and had an outer and inner defense wall. The Sultan Beybars recovered the ... read more

After a very late night ....again(2am). Me and Mima got up to catch the 7am train to Aleppo. For the first time ever I travelled first class, though Mima was quick to tell me that its only Syrian first class. The train was scheduled to arrive after 4hours, but we had a 30min wait at Holms. When we arrived we headed to the Citadel by taxi. Mima had stayed in Aleppo with the rest of the GX volunteers for three months so she knows the city well enough. The taxi driver however still managed to find the long way there and get a few extra syrian pounds out of us. Once we arrived we waited for Mima's boyfriend to meet us. Mahir is a guitar teacher or the 'guitar man' as I decided to call him. ... read more

On Tuesday we got a really lazy start to make up for the chaos of the day before. We had to switch hotels because the Tourist was booked, and then had a late breakfast at an outdoor cafe looking out over the citadel, next to a sort of promenade, where we sat and people-watched. On Tuesdays, museums and sites are closed, so we couldn't go inside the citadel. After breakfast, we walked past the great mosque in town and saw some other tourists go in, so we decided to follow them. It was really interesting to be inside - I had to wear a hooded robe, which they were nice enough to have outside for tourists to use. (Apparently, I don't really need my Haight Street hippie skirt afterall). Inside, we just had to take off ... read more

After Palmyra, we headed back westward to the town of Hama. Hama is known for its large norias or waterwheels. The norias were once used to raise water from the low-lying Orontes river into aqueducts that delivered the water to agricultural areas and gardens. The main attaction of Hama for us was as a jumping off point for sites in the region. We also enjoyed many cheap ($1) tasty chicken shwarmas. Krak des Chevaliers is a large castle that was once of great strategic importance. Whoever occupied this post overlooking the Homs Gap (break between the mountains to the north and the Lebanese mountains to the south) could more or less control the flow of goods between the coast and inland Syria. As you might imagine, the view from Krak is stunning. Approaching Krak from the ... read more