What we didn’t want it was to be trapped in the big city of Gaziantep, near to the Syrian border; and there we were... in the city centre; lucky we are that the people always help us and we manage to reach Kilis where we walk a little and a man offered to take us and to cross the border.
The fields around the two borders are full of landmines.
It is not a border of a lot movement, and it is very, very slow; we saw many touristic buses from Iran, searching for a cheap country for them and to pilgrim to holy Shia places. We also saw the bus drivers putting an extra money among the pages of the passports for the customs officers, by this way the make everything faster and without troubles.
Right before crossing the last control, the policeman asked us some confusing questions to catch us in a lie, and of course he catch us, because we couldn’t answer fast to the question "where will you be on 11th November?" The guy, angry with us, started to make calls, but the taxi drivers were pressing and finally he left us in their hands; lucky, that we were waiting for the man that had brought us up to the border.
He approached us a little more, up to the town of Azaz; this is very different to Turkey, is poorer, and the towns very old. We continue hitchhiking and something like a motor-cart stopped to bring us to the next crossroad, but on the way we realized that it was a taxi! We had problems because we hadn’t local money, anyway, he didn’t insist and we left. Walking a little bit we found another car to go to Aleppo, and finally we finish traveling today... although with a lot of risk on the road, here there is not sense to drive and the driver continuously had to avoid cars that came head-on.
From the outskirts we already saw the chaos of the city that we approached; lost somewhere we asked uselessly, the language changes radical, many people cannot read the Latin characters; we introduce into the Arab world...
While we waited for a minibus, a man came to help us, we called to our contact of HC and they talked; the man took us to meet him. For a moment we doubt, thinking that he was going to ask us money, but not; the help to the foreigners are points to enter into the kingdom of Allah.
Ahmat, the guy of HC, owns a hotel, and he gave us a room for free for some days, for some days we felt as normal tourists… taking the visit of Aleppo very calm and slow. Ahmat is very attentive, we share some days dining together; he smokes around 5 packets per day, and one day when he smoke a rolling cigarette, he inhale the end so strong that he gulp the cigarette!
In the hotel we met other travelers some of them coming from Australia, others going by bike to China till end the money…we like to know people like this, with those who we share anecdotes, advises...
Aleppo is a very old city, the Citadel is the most famous place here, a big fort that is on top of a small hill, but it has to be completely restored; the best thing are the sights of all the city.
In the national museum are very important remains of the first civilizations, in Mesopotamia; but they have it quite disregarded. The student card in Syria offers important discounts, from the 150 pounds of entry, we pay only 10 pounds, (0,14 €).
Al Madina Suq, is a market of great movement, crowd of shops with vendors that call you without ceasing; butcheries where we saw camel meat, and among other things, soap, something very typical of Aleppo.
This big market connects with the big mosque of the city, practically entire of marble, and with a tomb that contains remains of the great prophet Mohammed. In Syria they are more conservative than Turkey and make us to wear tunics to cover us; the women go with the covered hair, and many of them totally in black.
The people on the street usually greets us and welcome us to their country, we are always ready to chat a while too, for example there was a young guy that showed us part of the city, it was strange but he only wanted to show us things and stay with us.
Since we left home, the traffic has kept evolving little by little; but it is here where we noticed that we are in a very different culture, the traffic lights are not used, and to cross the streets it must be advancing among the cars...
The city is so old that many streets are shored up to don’t fall, the entire old town, is a big labyrinth where it is very easy to get lost.
On prices, we are amazed, Syria is very, very cheap, the urban buses 5 pounds (0,07 €), to eat on the street something like kebab is 15 pounds (0,21 €); but... for the price of one hour in internet… you can eat 7 kebabs!
We have always heard that this country is very safe, and we believe it after have seen a photo… see who dare to commit a crime... On the day previous to our arrival, the government hanged right here at 50 meters of the hotel, 4 boys who were exposed the whole night with the bandaged eyes and a white tunics with something written in Arabic; they were guilty of murder and steal. People have told us that it is not usual, but it is clear that here they don´t think twice…
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