http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/North/Aleppo/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Middle East , Syria , North , Aleppo en-us Mon, 07 Dec 09 14:00:06 +0000 Mon, 07 Dec 09 14:00:06 +0000 When we arrived in Damascus the tour ended for part of the group. So we all had a little party around the truck to say goodbye. I spent most of my time in cities while in Syria. Damascus is said to be the oldest city in the world. It is very large and the people there are very friendly. I spent most of my time wondering around Old Damascus. I saw one of the largest mosques that I have ever http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/North/Aleppo/blog-451174.html After all the reports Irsquod heard about Aleppo most of which were more negative than positive or at best boiled down to the phrase lsquointeresting not beautifulrsquo I was not expecting to want to spend a lot of time exploring the city however I was pleasantly surprised to find Aleppo both interesting and beautiful and the two days we spent there left me wanting more and intending http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/North/Aleppo/blog-450188.html As I travel through this part of the world a region that for most people in the West first and foremost stirs up visions of war instability and fighting I have made this question of violence and safety my foremost topic of conversation with local people. But not in the way that you might think. I have not been asking people ldquowhy is your country so turbulentrdquo or ldquowhy do thes http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/North/Aleppo/blog-443293.html Ive crossed borders before in Europe on trains where the customs officers come on the train and check passports and then go. But i have never physically left one country and crossed the boarder on land to another. For the first time in doing this i picked the Turkish Syrian Boarder. Without a pre organised visa. I thought i would be in for a long day. Ive heard reports of people not getting th http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/North/Aleppo/blog-442940.html Hi everybodyWe're so sorry for the long delay in updating but we've been getting our travel on and so internet has been few and far between. Last weekend we went to Palmyra and hung out with some Bedouins and their camels. Last week we finished the Arabic course and ran wild through the souq and restaurants and up Mount Qaysioun to watch the sunset. Then we celebrated our new freedom from Ara http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/North/Aleppo/blog-422391.html I know we have not blogged in a while. I hope no one thought we were dead but it would be nice to know that someone was paying attention We have had no Internet access English newspapers or English television for 5 days. We are feeling a bit disconnected from the worldDad said it seems so long ago that we were in the USA that he has forgotten what his mother looks like So it is nice to g http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/North/Aleppo/blog-421653.html From Tripoli we travelled to Hama. Lebanon was humid and it affected our competency... We milled around the central square looking lost and redfaced 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 pavemen http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/North/Aleppo/blog-418195.html I've got so much to say about Syria...but precious few moments here at the ol' internet cafe so far I think the only one I've found in Aleppo....I'll be uploading pics but it may take a few days before I'm not paying by the minute and trying to make travel plans at the same time. It appears leaving Syria is a bit more complicated than entering.Syria is inexplicably chaotic and friendly. Y http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/North/Aleppo/blog-415823.html DAY 49First 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/North/Aleppo/blog-404833.html I couldnrsquot imagine how tough it wouldrsquove been to attack this place Surrounded by a forest of trees and sitting atop a ridge that falls away to ravines. This castles prime location is the reason it never changed hands. As I walked up the stairs to the Gate Tower out of breath I joked. ldquoShit Can you imagine trying to attack this place It would have been likehellip Hiding beh http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/North/Aleppo/blog-401452.html After a very late night ....again2am. 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 volunteer http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/North/Aleppo/blog-390051.html On Wednesday we headed out for our tour of Qala'at Samaan which is a chuch from the 5th century dedicated to St. Simon who spent 36 ye on top of various pillars. After he died his followers built the church around the last pillar he was on. Then we headed to various Dead Cities which are ruins of very large cities dating to the Byzantine empire. We were up very far into northern syria near http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/North/Aleppo/blog-388163.html 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 peoplewatched. On Tuesdays museums and sites are closed so we couldn't go inside the citadel. After breakfast we walked past the grea http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/North/Aleppo/blog-388162.html Monday was a very long but eventful day of travel hanging out at the border and talking with lots of friendly syrians. We started the day with an excellent breakfast quesadillatype things that seems popular in both Lebanon and Syria. It's just melted cheese in a fresh flat bread made on a big circular grilltype thing. Then our hotel owner talked us out of trying to see sites on our way to th http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/North/Aleppo/blog-388160.html Dag 238 og 239. Paa formiddagen torsdagen gikk vi for aa kikke paa souqen basaren. Det yrte av liv der baade folk som skulle kjope og selge ting. Vi fikk stort sett gaa i fred med unntak av et par selgere som ville prakke paa oss noen sjal. Mange ville vite hvor vi kom fra og onsket oss velkommen til Aleppo. Vi spiste lunsj paa en kafe ikke saa langt unna klokketaarnet de grillete kylingbi http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/North/Aleppo/blog-376223.html Dag 237. Vi sto opp kl. 08 pakket og spiste frokost. Da klokken var blitt ni var vi klar til aa reise Aziz skulle kjore oss til grensen Tel Abyad til Syria. Turen tok ca. 1 time. Vi betalte Aziz for turen 100 YTL og spurte om han kunne poste et par postkort for oss siden vi hadde glemt aa gjore det igaar. Vi skulle veksle de tyrkiske lirene vi hadde om til syriske pund og Aziz ville pas http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/North/Aleppo/blog-374270.html Day 28 Before I start and write about todayrsquos events I have to write about last night in our hotel at Latakia.Firstly we had 12 hours of the most horrendous thunderstorm that raged through the night. One clap of thunder felt as though it had broken the ranch slider door. It was really very frightening.We went down to dinner looking forward to a nice dinner and what greets us a flood The r http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/North/Aleppo/blog-357845.html Merry Xmas everyone Obviously when we woke up this morning it was xmas day. How exciting. We had a very busy xmas breakfast at the buffet in the silk road restaurant in the hotel. For some reason there were an awful lot of people there as well. We think they were from another tour group. After eating our yummy breakfast we went upstairs to open our pressies. Most exciting as good presents were ha http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/North/Aleppo/blog-357820.html ROAD TO DAMASCUSFlight to Damascus with Gulf Air via Bahrain again was fine. On arrival it was a little chaotic but I passed the time pleasantly talking to a charming man who turned out to be a big shot in a big company in Bahrain.I took a taxi to a hotel that was supposed to be female friendly but found it to be grubby noisy and the bathroom was crawling with cockroaches. They are usually noct http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/North/Aleppo/blog-357658.html Last night was amazing. The thunderstorms of yesterday afternoon continued on into the evening and as we tried to sleep at night the entire hotel room was continually lit up with bright flashes of lightening immediately followed by a earth shaking crash of thunder. It was really quite spectacular although it did make it frightfully difficult to get to sleep. When morning came the weather had rece http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/North/Aleppo/blog-356907.html