What can you buy in the souq?

You can buy everything at the souq. here is an impression, but mind you, it is only an impression. You don't smell the odours, hear the noise and feel the heat. They make soap from olives, they have lovely spices, silk and brains.... just enjoy.

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

Crac des Chevaliers- photo's

Crac des Chevaliers

After easily finding our way out of Damascus we set off on yet another highway to the Crac (castle). This was one of the castles which the French king of Jerusalem made to protect Jerusalem. A Chevalier is a knight, so in English Crac Des Chevaliers is castle of the Knights. The crusader knights largely expanded the castle around the middle of the 12th century. When we arrived at the Crac we couldn't believe our eyes, it was almost complete. A huge castle with more than six towers standing high in a inner and an outer wall. The reason was that this castle was never truly breached, despite several attacks. they just gave it up. it was too difficult to defend it when it was surrounded by the armies of the Islam. They had supplies for 5 years, but after one month under siege the Crusaders agreed to depart in return for a safe conduct.
When we came in through the main entrance(which was a bridge) it was not easy to find our way, with underground tunnels and houses leading to more underground houses, stables and wells. Once on one of the towers, we had a fantastic view, according to mum and dad. After walking around the castle on its walls we went back down to explore the inner part of the castle.
Once in we saw broken remains of a church and even a mosque. When we had seen all the remains of a kitchen, a hall, a market place and a dining room we climbed up another tower where we sat down to eat a sandwich. The only negative point of this castle was that inside people were building a kind of theatre (which made a lot of noise).
When jumping back in the car we all thought that this was the best castle we had seen so far. Looking back at it once again we set off to reach Syria’s main sea port Lattakia.

Damascus

Al Amayyad Mosque

No comments on our blog, so we will keep the truth a little longer from you, or is nobody reading it anymore?? We hope the reason is holiday and in that case we wish you all a perfect holiday. It won't be too long now before we reach the Bovenstraat, but we still have a long way to go.

But first Damascus........

Damascus is one of the oldest cities in the world. The guide book says that Damascus is one of the most architecturally significant cities in the Middle East. We just thought it was wonderful. It has a nice mixture of tradition and modernity.

We wondered through the Souq al Hamidyiyya in the Old City that is surrounded by a Roman wall. We went to the Umayyad Mosque, where even Helma had to were a grey outfit, which was rather uncomfortable and very hot. We tried to find our way through all the little streets while Evert was guiding us and we had a look in the Azem palace which was built in 1749. Of course we also saw the treasures from the National Museum and even managed to find a sticker with the Syrian flag for the car. The souq was amazing they sold everything, but you will read about that later.

We saw the tea sellers in the souq. On Friday it was quiet but on Saturday it was so busy. It was wonderful. The only thing we did not do was a hammam. There are different days for female and male and the boys could not be persuaded to enjoy the service of a bathhouse.

Where are we now???

Damascus at night


Although you´ll see a nice picture of Damascus by night the question is where are we now? Publish a comment with your answer and we will reveal the truth tomorrow the 23rd of July


Good luck

Barty

Jerash

Roman soldiers and the colonnade

Artemis temple

As we are planning to see Damascus, we skipped Amman and drove direct to Jerash, a well preserved Roman city. It was very impressive. Imagine, we walked on the road that Emperor Hadrian and Alexander the great walked on. A lot of walking though, but it was well worth it. Most beautiful was the temple of Artemis.

We also saw a show with roman soldiers and chariots in the hippodrome, fun. now we are stranded in Irbid, the university town in Jordan and tomorrow we will cross the border with Syria where Internet seems to be a little more problematic.