Advertisement
Published: April 14th 2007
Jerash
The site Via a short side trip to Jerash, a city of Roman ruins, we headed up to the Syrian border and after a couple of minor prblems, we were in our 3rd country in a week. We were dropping accomodation standards and were camping here, so we put up our tents and settled in for the night with our excessively cheap duty free alcohol. I mean $8 for a 1.125L bottle of Vodka? They are really asking for trouble. We managed to get both the tour leader and driver fairly hammered so Mission Complete. 😊
Our first full day in Damascus was spent in the markets, and anyone who thinks you could spend less than a day here, not a chance. The first purchase I made was 7 DVD's for $12. Hooray for Syria! The next stop was the Umayyan Mosque, which is one of the most important mosques in Islam, and we were all blown away by the religious fervour when we went in and saw Saladins mausoleum (He was the leader who united the Mamluks and helped start the drive to get the Crusaders out of the Middle East 800 odd years ago).
Michelle and I cruised
Umayyad Mosque
Amazıng art on the insıde around the markets for the rest of the day, where we saw you could buy everything, including the kitchen sink, did a bit of touristy shopping, then trialled some of the local delicacies. Oh my god. The ice cream here is absolutely fantastic and there are rightly almost riots to get to it, and the shops with mountains of sweets are pretty damn good as well. I am surprised there are not more fat people in Damascus. Although the fact we haven't seen a KFC or McDonalds will probably have something to do with that!
For dinner, I resisted the allure of lambs brains and sheep testicles and stuck to the grilled chicken. Those people paid for it later on that night, and that's all i'll say about that one.
The next day was another drivıng day via more Roman ruins. Basically all the Roman ruins are the same and don't interest me as much as the Egyptian or Middle Age one's so I will breeze through them. Our driving destination was Krak des Chevaliers, and the reason I chose to do thıs trıp. The hotel didn't disappoint and we had stunnıng views of the castle.
A
Saladin's Mausoleum
The amazing scenes inside. short bit of history. When the Crusaders (ie. Christians) invaded, they built this castle and they knew what they were doıng as it is the only castle that was never taken by force. They gave it up as the garrison had dropped to 10% of what it could hold, but it is still in excellent condition and as you can see from the photos, it is in a very strategic positıon and gives great views. The tour was equally as amazing and the castle lived up to all my expectations.
The next day it was a long drive to Aleppo. I was also going to do a fake blog about a day trıp to Baghdad in Iraq, but time is against me so suffice to say we got as close as 152km from the border. But back to Aleppo and it was the following day before we got to explore the market. Michelle and I split off again and we managed to find everythıng from sheeps heads to kitchen sinks. We also ended up in the military souq being dressed up in full regalia. The things you do ın the country of America's enemies. And if you needed any
Saladin himself
Obviously a statue. Or else that would be wierd. proof that the US has no idea, Syria has the nicest people of all the Middle East, and anywhere in the world I have been to thus far, and go out of their way to help you, and I don't think you could say that in many places in the US.
Well that ıs Syria ın one blog, next stop Turkey and I am lookıng forward to catching up wıth Leah and Hannah at Anzac. If you happen to read this, look for the bıg blue Kumuka truck named Frosty. It's known as the party truck out of all the Overlanding trucks. 😊 And love the blogs Clay and Ange!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.144s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 28; qc: 96; dbt: 0.1008s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
