Blogs from Aleppo, North, Syria, Middle East - page 4

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

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 kylingbitene vi fikk der var heller torre. Etterpaa gikk vi til kristenkvarteret i den nye delen av byen. Vi hadde lest i reisehaandboken at det der skulle vaere mange kafeer som hadde traadlost internett. Det var mange kafeer, og vi testet et par av de - men vi fant ingen som hadde wifi. Etter en stund med vandring rundt i ... read more

ROAD TO DAMASCUS Flight 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 nocturnal so I dread to think what it would be like at nighttime. I left and walked to find my second choice of hotel which was not far away but no one seemed to know it. Anyway the Afamia Hotel was clean and warm. I had come unprepared for the cold. That evening I wandered around the souk. I ... read more

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 receded somewhat and there was actually some blue patched in the sky. We made our way down to breakfast to find ourselves having the paddle into the restaurant again. Apparently the architects here in Syria don’t follow international best practise and have a drop between the inside and the outside of a building. Because the outside patio was flush with the entrance door the driving rain during the night had ... read more