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I arrived in Hatay at 8 in the morning, and almost immediately I was on the bus to Aleppo, Syria. Through border control and a brand new country for pabloq! The crossing was quite smooth in all due to not having to show my face once to Syrian border control. I ad a quick nap on the bus afterwards and thought I woke up in Istanbul. This was Aleppo, the supposedly the oldest city in the world. It's certainly the noisiest.
I found my accommodation, the Spring Flower Hostel easily, as the bus driver knew where it was. It was a pretty nice place, it was in the tyre shop district of town. I was expecting a lot worse. After no real sleep I decided to go for a walk around.
London at rush hour, all the time X 10 + Beeping horns for nothing + 20 Degrees Celsius - English + Arabic = Aleppo. I was wishing I had never crossed to border.
I walked up to the Citadel, which is apparently the biggest in the world. I climbed up the stairs to get a birds eye view of Aleppo. Not much, but the sound of beeping
Aleppo's Great Mosque
Sorry, but I have seen better horns really. Back down into the souq, it's like a medieval Centre:MK in here with shops and sellers selling everything. I went to the Great Mosque next, not great, but it did have a 1200 year old minaret standing in the courtyard which was I guess. Back into the new city for some dinner, a different type of chicken kebab here, with a tortilla style wrap and yogurt sauce, and for 25p a right bargain.
Back to the hostel for a beer, Jordan's own Meister beer, which was pretty nice too. I met up with a Berliner guy who was in my room and he suggested we should try this "bar" in downtown Aleppo, we did and it was camels piss in a chipped smudgy glass. Although it had a kick like a camel! He must be the only Berliner who hasn't heard of the Berlin Beer festival, he has lived there all his life. I suggested he should check it out, being a 4 time expert and all...
Bet thing for me to do is to leave Aleppo after seeing it all in a day. My next destination was a town called Homs. After picking up the
My Balcony View In Aleppo
Anyone need a tractor tyre? wrong bus to Hama, a second bus to Homs was caught. I arrived at Homs at 2pm, then I broke a pabloq rule, I got a Taxi! Arrgh! I jut cant stand them, but with the bus station being 4km away from anything in this heat it was time to bend the rules a little. There was me moaning about 10p difference in price for a cab ride back home that would cost at least a fiver.
My hotel here in Homs was the one star Girza hotel (I think!), my room was covered in newspaper, maybe there are puppies in here? I went for a walk around town, although everything is shut due to being a Friday. Now I am even more lost I decide to do it again and get a taxi to Krak Des Chevalier. T.E. Lawrence said it was the best castle he had ever seen. We will see about that clever clogs. The taxi driver could not believe his luck when I asked for the castle, he phoned up the wife to (probably) say "I will be late home, I have a Englishman wanting to go on a 50km taxi ride."
Getting there
by taxi is really the only way to get there on a Friday, it was still only 5 pound, but the cabbie kept on saying "Are you rich?" which I replied "Only crazy". After a happy taxi ride, I told him I will make my own way back. Lawrence of Arabia was right, It's the best castle I have ever seen, perched on top of the hills, with plenty of huge rooms and forts. So good that a Syrian filmmaker was using it for a film. Syrian version of Maid Marion and her merry men? Let's hope so!
I got a taxi back to Homs which was a little cheaper but didn't come with any small talk. Once back in Homs I had some dinner in the most western looking place I could find. I ordered a cheeseburger and I got one, Syrian style! It was like a Burger King Whopper meal wrapped in a tortilla, fries and all. Was pretty nice too. Not much else to do here so I went back to my hotel to do some reading and some World Service listening.
Saturday morning I was back at the bus station, ready to go to
Damascus Souq
Look where I ended up on a Saturday afternoon!! the Syrian capital, Damascus. After numerous cups of strong coffee, cold water and toffee's from our coach steward Tim Westwood. We was in Damascus in no time, but the bus station was still 10km out of town. So another taxi was required to get to Martyrs Square, the middle of the city.
I was expecting it to be a little more grand, it was only half the size of Trafalgar Square minus Nelson, lions and some fountains, add a monument to the first telegraph message in the middle east, nice! My hotel was off the square, the Hotel-al-Rabie. Cheap, but that was because I was on the roof. The hotels courtyard was very nice, shame about the rest of it.
Off for a walk around town, seems pretty good, just as busy as Aleppo but with a little more organisation. Time to check out the Souq, Huge! Not many people buying, just getting in the way and refusing to move. Once through the Souq I was in front of the Umayyad mosque, it is in the top 3 most holiest sites of Islam. It didn't seem to be. It could have been mistaken for a crèche, as loads
of kids were running about, rolling on the carpets and eating ice cream. Well I could not imagine anywhere in Syria quite! Afterwards I found a Internet cafe for a bit of western news and to listen to the England footy match.
There does not seem to be much else here to do, so I grab some dinner and a suspect beer and go to bed early. My hotel has a sign "Thank you for not drinking alcohol" Arrgh! It just gets worse!
After a suspect sleep on a flea ridden mattress and a shower I was leaving Damascus and Syria, not for good. as I need to come back through when I go to Jordan.
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