Lattakia and Aleppo

After the castle we headed to the Mediterranean Sea. It was a highway so we arrived there very fast. We couldn’t find a hotel that was at a beach because in town it was all harbour, so we went into an apartment. We went to the public beach. You could go to a hotel but then you had to pay 10 euro per person. Well, it is unlike Jordan, high season. It was very crowded and the water was in the beginning very dirty and not refreshing, it was warm. At the beach you could also smoke a sheesha (water pipe) and no one lay on the beach they sat on a chair. Helma bought some tomatoes, onions and cucumbers to make our dinner. After a delicious home made macaroni meal we went to bed. But it took a long time to sleep because the Syrian people enjoyed their holiday with disco’s everywhere. The good thing was that they stopped at 11 pm.
The next day we left to Aleppo. It was a beautiful trip in the mountains with some fantastic views according to my parents. Bart and I were reading (!). Halfway we tanked at a petrol station where a man was smoking while tanking as if there was nothing wrong, rather scarry, but luckily no accidents occurred.

When we arrived in Aleppo we could not find the hotel but a friendly man helped us to find the way. The streets were very narrow and it was difficult to find a parking space. They have especially for Aleppo very small trucks that can even drive in the souq. At last we managed to find a parking spot at the tourist centre. This was especially for tourists, but the people of Aleppo were a little bit annoyed, too many cars with an Iraqi number plate use it as a parking spot. They are refugees and definitely no tourists, but they have a nice parking spot in the city centre. We settled in and went for a walk in the old city. It was a lot like Damascus, although here the souq is world heritage site. The things they were selling were incredible. One butchery shop even sold sheep’s brains. We also saw the lungs, liver and spleen, heart and windpipe. Helma thought it was a nice biology lesson, but Bart was not interested. Helma enjoyed it a lot and bought some silk and apricots but Bart and I didn’t find the souq much and we did not stay long. Aleppo also has a citadel, but we saw enough I guess, or we were a little bit tired and left it. We drank something at a very famous historic hotel ‘Baron’ and ate on top of a roof of another restaurant. The waiter did not understand English but he was very nice. He brought Helma some fresh fruit while she expected some fresh fruit juice. We stayed in a backpacker’s hotel and had a room with 4 beds for 15 euro, basic but OK. Lots of backpackers slept on a roof mattress. It was a mattress on top of the hotel with no privacy at all. I think there were about 20 mattresses. The good thing was that it was very cheap and cool because of the blowing wind. Unlike our room that was rather warm.

Your reporter: Evert