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Published: June 14th 2010
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Don’t get me wrong I’ve seen some awesome stuff on this trip but there’s nothing quite like the feeling of finding a clean t-shirt you haven’t worn yet at the bottom of your backpack. On a less ecstatic note I had my first very minor and long overdue case of food poisoning. I’ve narrowed the source down to one of 3 dodgy falafel sandwiches, two dodgy shawarma, the ice or the tap water I drank. As I said: long overdue.
Aleppo is Syria’s second city and like Damascus it claims to be the oldest continually inhabited city in the world. After several horrific minibus rides I could not believe the bus from Hama to Aleppo. Air conditioning worked (and was turned on), there were only 3 seats in each aisle and they threw in free snacks. All for about €2! A Syrian guy asked me how on earth I managed to travel around the Middle East without speaking Arabic. He didn’t realise if you’re a tourist as soon as you arrive at a bus station people start shouting place names at you, then depending on your reaction just throw you on a bus.
Having been thrown on a bus
and later arriving safely in Aleppo I went for a wander around the old town and the souq. It’s an absolute maze, so best thing is just throw away the map and enjoy the atmosphere. The streets in the souq are pretty claustrophobic though, very narrow and covered. I eventually found my way out and reached the citadel, the city’s most impressive feature. There are pretty extensive ruins inside and views over the whole city.
The city’s a stark contrast to Damascus. Definitely much more conservative, far more women in veils and annoyingly the internet cafes have blocked all the ways to bypass the government’s Facebook ban.
That evening I was sitting in a park beside a large imposing statue of Hafez al-Assad, former president of Syria, and father of the current president. As happens to here anytime I sit down, someone came up to me and started chatting. He kept telling how wise Assad and his son Bashar both were, how beneficial their foreign policy had been. However he also kept complaining about the state of the Syrian economy. He couldn’t seem to make the connection between his two points!
This is my last day in
Syria and I’m still not sure what to think of the place. Seemingly liberal one minute, stuck in a soviet style time-warp the next. The president/dictator Bashar is a real enigma. He was never meant to be president. He was the second son, training to be a doctor in London when his elder brought died and he was thrust into the frontline for the thrown. Well educated, introspective and married to a British-born financial analyst. People expected massive reform when he took office. But it never materialised. There are real questions over what power (if any) he really holds.
From my point of view Syria is a fantastic place to visit but I really can’t see any major change happening here anytime soon.
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Ger
non-member comment
Hope you did'nt eat any that meat hanging in Alleppo Market.