Syria
15th - 19th November (Damascus, Crac de Chevalier, Aleppo)
By Alex
My last post (Egypt) was quite negative, so I was hoping that Syria would give me some positive experiences to write about. Thankfully, it delivered in spades. Syria was one of my favourite countries on the trip, despite only having spent 5 days here. We were stunned at how welcoming the Syrian people are. Everywhere we went people helped us find, organise and buy what we needed.
The border crossing into Syria, however, was one of our more stressful to date. The branch of the Syrian Central Bank at the border refused to accept our LAST 100 dollar bill, owing to the tiniest of tears in the top corner. This meant that we didn't have enough foreign exchange to enter Syria, and were stuck in no-man's land between Jordan and Syria. I started to have visions about camping in no-man's land waiting for something to change. After a couple of hours of negotiations, a friendly policeman (never far away) convinced the banker to take our dodgy note, and we were on our way, albeit with no forex left and no firm indication as to whether we would be able to use our VISA cards.
As soon as we arrived in the capital, Damascus, we were assisted by the wonderful Ahmed. We had been driving around aimlessly searching for a VISA cash machine, and had stopped next to a bank when Ahmed pulled up alongside and offered to assist us. Only being a week out of Egypt, we were still a little weary of offers of help from stranger, but our fears soon subsided. Ahmed proceeded to guide us around the city for an hour, eventually locating one of the few VISA cash machines, then continued the tour helping us to find a hotel. As we parted, he even gave us a gift which completely changed the way we would be able to enjoy our stay in Syria. Ahmed - we will not forget your generosity - Thank you!
Damascus may well be my favourite city that we have visisted on this trip. It has the most relaxed vibe of all the middle eastern cities, a modern vibrant feel in a city littered with ancient historical sites. It is also muc more liberal than the capitals of Syria's neighbours. Alcohol is more readily available and I saw women's hair for the first time in 3,000kms. The souq (covered market) is wonderful to explore and the Umaya mosque exquisite. I really am struggling for superlatives. Oh, and Jordanian beer is cheaper here than in Jordan.
We spent a couple of great nights in Damascus, wandering the markets, eating the best 1 dollar food to date - flat bread wrapped sesame-encrusted falafel with friend cauliflower, chips, pickles, tomatos and a cabbage and parsley salad, coasted in lemon juice and tahini. If your mouth isn't watering after reading the description then you don't deserve to eat one.
Next up, we visited an enormous hill top crusader castle, Crac de Chevalier. Leaving behind the olive groves and winter wheat in the arid south, we climbed steadily out of Damascus and entered the evergreen forests in the hills to the north of capital. Barring the narrow tropical banks of the Nile, it was the first time we had been surrounded by greenery since Ethiopia more than a month before. Crac is easily the most impressive castle I have visited - almost completely preserved, there is no need to close your eyes to be able to imagine how it once looked. There are no barriers and only a few plaques. You can wander freely around the cavernous complex of walls and towers which once housed up to 4,000 soldiers.
Our last stop in Syria was Aleppo, the northern city. Once again, as soon as we arrived in the city adn got out of the car clutching an upside down map, a passerby kindly offered to help us and spent an hour guiding us around the city helping us find parking and accommodation. Aleppo is great to wander around - there's a hill top citadel, anohter great souq to get lost in, and a bizarre christian quarter; but the notable experience was my first real taste of European winter in 2 years. Temperatures plummeted to about 5 degrees and we struggled to find enough warm/clean clothes to keep out the weather. I realised that my body had acclimatised for Malawi - for the next 2 weeks I would seriously struggle to keep warm in temperatures of around 10 degrees despite wearing numerous layers, a weather proof jacket and a beanie. I felt cold morning, noon and night, except for the brief 10 minute post-shower period, in the rare cases that we found a place with hot water.
Syria has so many things going for tourism that it's difficult to write a blog post that doesn't gush with positive comments. But the quality which stood out for me, as you may have already guessed, is the interactions with the lovely Syrian people (and the excellent falafel). I would love to visit this country again sometime, one could easily spend a week exploring Damasucs alone. But time was not our most plentiful asset - we had a date to make in Turkey, where we would take on 2 new passengers for the Journey from Asia to Europe...
15th - 19th November (Damascus, Crac de Chevalier, Aleppo)
By Alex
My last post (Egypt) was quite negative, so I was hoping that Syria would give me some positive experiences to write about. Thankfully, it delivered in spades. Syria was one of my favourite countries on the trip, despite only having spent 5 days here. We were stunned at how welcoming the Syrian people are. Everywhere we went people helped us find, organise and buy what we needed.
The border crossing into Syria, however, was one of our more stressful to date. The branch of the Syrian Central Bank at the border refused to accept our LAST 100 dollar bill, owing to the tiniest of tears in the top corner. This meant that we didn't have enough foreign exchange to enter Syria, and were stuck in no-man's land between Jordan and Syria. I started to have visions about camping in no-man's land waiting for something to change. After a couple of hours of negotiations, a friendly policeman (never far away) convinced the banker to take our dodgy note, and we were on our way, albeit with no forex left and no firm indication as to whether we would be able to use our VISA cards.
As soon as we arrived in the capital, Damascus, we were assisted by the wonderful Ahmed. We had been driving around aimlessly searching for a VISA cash machine, and had stopped next to a bank when Ahmed pulled up alongside and offered to assist us. Only being a week out of Egypt, we were still a little weary of offers of help from stranger, but our fears soon subsided. Ahmed proceeded to guide us around the city for an hour, eventually locating one of the few VISA cash machines, then continued the tour helping us to find a hotel. As we parted, he even gave us a gift which completely changed the way we would be able to enjoy our stay in Syria. Ahmed - we will not forget your generosity - Thank you!
Damascus may well be my favourite city that we have visisted on this trip. It has the most relaxed vibe of all the middle eastern cities, a modern vibrant feel in a city littered with ancient historical sites. It is also muc more liberal than the capitals of Syria's neighbours. Alcohol is more readily available and I saw women's hair for the first time in 3,000kms. The souq (covered market) is wonderful to explore and the Umaya mosque exquisite. I really am struggling for superlatives. Oh, and Jordanian beer is cheaper here than in Jordan.
We spent a couple of great nights in Damascus, wandering the markets, eating the best 1 dollar food to date - flat bread wrapped sesame-encrusted falafel with friend cauliflower, chips, pickles, tomatos and a cabbage and parsley salad, coasted in lemon juice and tahini. If your mouth isn't watering after reading the description then you don't deserve to eat one.
Next up, we visited an enormous hill top crusader castle, Crac de Chevalier. Leaving behind the olive groves and winter wheat in the arid south, we climbed steadily out of Damascus and entered the evergreen forests in the hills to the north of capital. Barring the narrow tropical banks of the Nile, it was the first time we had been surrounded by greenery since Ethiopia more than a month before. Crac is easily the most impressive castle I have visited - almost completely preserved, there is no need to close your eyes to be able to imagine how it once looked. There are no barriers and only a few plaques. You can wander freely around the cavernous complex of walls and towers which once housed up to 4,000 soldiers.
Syria has so many things going for tourism that it's difficult to write a blog post that doesn't gush with positive comments. But the quality which stood out for me, as you may have already guessed, is the interactions with the lovely Syrian people (and the excellent falafel). I would love to visit this country again sometime, one could easily spend a week exploring Damasucs alone. But time was not our most plentiful asset - we had a date to make in Turkey, where we would take on 2 new passengers for the Journey from Asia to Europe...
posted by Alex at 07:17
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