DAMASCUS

Damascus, another chaos of city, with a dense traffic, taxis crossing in front of you, the loud sound of the horns... We had to move by buses up to the centre, a work that requires a lot of patience, because there are dozens of minibuses, where the people shout the destinations, and everything is written in Arabic. This time we had to look for a hotel, something that we are not used to; first we locate the cheap area, and after visiting 9 hotels, we found the cheapest, with the bargaining we got it for 8 € the double room. The city is of the style of Aleppo, very, very, old, Damascus is divided in several quarters, Christian, Jewish... We saw lot of mosques, churches, luxury palaces; and a market of extraordinary dimensions. We also saw the car of the firemen…

In the interior of the walls is the mosque of the Omeyas; it has a big interior courtyard, with a much decorated facades; and inside a tomb, where like always, the people fight to touch and kiss.

Before leaving the country we must go to the immigration office, although the visa is for one month, we have written on the stamp 15 days, and we are already 21 days in the country... We know that it is simple thing, only is a stamp for another 15 days and finish. But when we arrived... we saw the people doing the papers over the cars on the street, and in the office, a big pile of people with papers and passports everywhere. We were lucky to find a translator that helped us; without his help it would have been very complicated. We did as everybody; pushing and putting the papers in front of the officers to be attended. In a moment we only saw passports all around us, most of them of Iraqi nationality. Finally, almost two pages of passport only for Syria...

To go out of Damascus we were well prepared with the name of the next city written in Arabic to find the minibus, but once in front of all the minibuses, we started to compare the symbols…, and it is impossible, we have to ask to the people.

Near Jordan, we stopped our last day in Syria in the city of Bosra, where there is one of the best preserved Roman theatres, and an ancient Roman city where even the people live. Casually we met here Zacarías, who has a restaurant, and he let us sleep in a Bedouin tent that has outside; and not only that, he took us to his traditional house in the Roman city, to eat with his friends.

COLD NIGHTS IN THE DESERT

We head towards the desert of Syria; and to go out of Aleppo we use the public transportation. The price of the fuel is so cheap in this country; (0,10 €/l.), and travel by bus is very cheap too; we pay 0,6 Euros for 150 km, with stewardess service included…
The road goes near the shore of the Euphrates River, in another of the Silk Road; the ground turned dry and arid, we saw the first "tents" of the Bedouin, nomadic people that lives of the cattle, without a fixed place to live.
The last days have been very comfortable, and to arrive Al Thaura in a windy, and rainy day without place to sleep, it was... But, it is good that always something happen; we bought some peanuts in a shop, and they invited us to have tea; once it happens this, the food and the accommodation is the following. We have talked a lot about the Turkish hospitality, but the Arabs... is too much; we couldn’t eat or drink everything that they gave us, it’s too much!, they treated us as kings, giving us an apartment in the city only for us, inviting us to dine with the family... they even went to find a computer I don’t know where, just to connect internet for us; for them everything of this, is normal; we don’t find the words to thank them for it…

María had the opportunity of stay with the women at the house of Tayssir, where they dress normal clothes, and have the hair uncovered; with the arrival of the men it was a big commotion in the entire house, to put on the long clothes and the scarf on the hair.
The following morning Nadim wake us up with the breakfast, nor in the best hotel... We went by hitchhike to a nearby castle, Qala'at Ja'abar, settled on the shore of the lake that forms the dam of the river; but in the desert it is very complicated to travel like this, arrive, we arrived, but we had to walk a lot of kilometers until we found some vehicle; and the transports that pick us up are usually pick up, which bring us in the towage.


We went into the desert traveling by our way, something that the people cannot understand here for the low prices of the transports. We found a small traditional village, where we were observed and pursue by the children. The night was falling and a truck stopped to take us; avoiding flocks of sheep we found the ruins of Halabiyeh where we pass a very cold night between shouts of bats and barking of dogs.


The next day, it was the same, nobody passes with a car and we had to walk a lot. But on the way we had a nice experience; some Bedouin called us to have tea and to eat corn; real Bedouin people!, with their traditional clothes, the women with the tattoos on the face... We only could speak with “hand language”, but we understood perfectly that next time we don’t need to sleep outside, when we have a place here.


The veterinarian of the area approached us up to Tibni, and we received a new offer of tea, but this time for somebody of the government in the Cultural House. We accepted, but during the tea, a policeman came and started to ask us questions as: -have you been in Israel?, finally he asked us for the passports, and started to note things. At first we refuse to give the passport, but we thought clear and we didn’t want to be retained again, as soon as they returned them to us we went out very quick.
The people always insist on stop buses for us, this time was another policeman, and from the beginning we told him a story…”this is very important project, we cannot take buses, strictly by hitchhike…” after one hour helping us to stop a vehicle (nobody passes), he pay a bus for us and we went direct to Deir Al Zor. Seeing the difficulty of hitchhike here, we took a bus straight to Palmyra where all around turned pure and hard desert.


Palmyra is the emblematic place of Syria, Roman ruins from between the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D., and where they have built a small town special for tourist, a corrupted place, very far of the authentic Arab life, a place where all the vehicles are taxi, where everybody have hotel; the people don’t ask, harasses; nobody helps you if there is not "money, money" first. We avoid the people, and we settle between the ruins and the castle; we pass the night into some ruins that we think are old tombs, because in both sides there were like six cavities to put the bodies. We were lucky to find this place, the nights in the deserts we knew that are cold, but really is too cold because the temperature fell up to about 3 degrees below zero.

After several days sleeping outside and carrying with the house on the back, we are very tired, so we decided to take a bus to Homs; but in the bus station, first they asked us for four tickets, for the backpacks too; after that they asked for a high price bus ticket with that look of "money, money"; we bargain, but as they were laughing, we left; we put the hand up to the first truck that passes and he brought us very happy. With him we went up to Homs, and on the way he invited us to coffee, fruit... but we hallucinate when talking about the PKK, he took a gun to explain us with gestures that indeed there are a lot of problems in Turkey with the terrorist group.
In Homs, we were harassed by the taxi drivers again, all of them wanted to take us and they trick us with the distances, and they bargain their self bringing the prices down. And from Homs, to the north we found Hama. Here we had to look for something to sleep, we were so tired, anyway, the pocket not even notices it, with a hotel for 6 €.
Hama is the city of the water wheels; there is a sort of river that crosses the city, a contaminated river of corrupted water; but along it, is find these old wooden wheels, which give a special touch to the city.

The cheap transport is a very great temptation, but more is the temptation of the adventure and experiences. We left the city on foot, and it is not necessary to hitchhike, we only need to lift the hand a little, and the one that passes, the one who stops. First it was a truck and afterwards a very cute couple from Palestine, they told us that they had left their country and were going to be married in Turkey, because their families didn’t want to see them together. They left us in Ma'arrat an Nu'man and we cross the town looking for the road to Kafr Nobbol. Again we have offers of having tea, or smoke Narghile... we accepted in a car garage shop with the workers, they gave us tea and myrrh, a sort of very strong coffee that is served in very few quantity and is taken of a gulp.
We found the good road and a van approached us up to Kafr Nobbol where we met Rami, of CS. He and his friends took us by car to see the "Dead Cities", ancient neglected towns, built whole of stone. In the most important of them, Serdjilla, we saw two "ancient factories" of olive oil, totally built with stone.

The guys talked to us a little about how the life works here; for example what is normal is that the parents choose the couple of the children and agree on a meeting, afterwards they have a period of time to see whether it works; but the parents really have the last word. During the lunchtime we don’t remember the last time that we used cutlery, we always eat on the floor, using the bread as spoon, very different, and tasty...
Chances of the life, we went back to Aleppo... and we spent one night at the house of Rami’s sister. On the way we stopped in Ebla, a very important place in the history, but only remain that, history and stones...

We decided to leave by train up to Latakia, because the way is very nice, among the only mountains that Syria has, besides it is very cheap, 3 hours of journey for 1 € both tickets...
The liars taxi driver told us that the city centre is too far, to which we arrive in 10 minutes on foot. Latakia is very different to the rest of Syria, not all the women go covered up, is a lot less traditional; as Bani, the guy of HC, with a European mentality. He took us to his house in the mountains, where we pass 4 days of storms, rain... the lightnings falling just in front of the house, something very impressive. They were some disconnect days of the world, which have been very good to stop a little our travel, besides with the peculiar way of life of Bani we learned so much, we went to places hidden among the undergrowth, making bonfire... it was sad that we couldn’t see the fauna here, anyway we listened to the jackals and the hyenas at night.

We make use of the first sunny days, and we went towards the south by the coast, and again towards Homs stopping on the way to see one of the best preserved castles, a castle very important during the Crusades, the “Crac des Chevarlies”. The fort is very, very well preserved and we could pass days investigating its tunnels and secret doors.

Up to Maalula, we went by hitchhike, a town excavated and build in the mountain. The place is sacred for the Christians; mosques and churches are seen here sharing ground, and its inhabitants keep the tradition of speak in Aramaic. The night that we arrived we found a hollow among the rocks that it served to us to shelter in these cold nights.

ALEPPO

To do many kilometers in a day, even crossing a border, is a lot of time and very tired, because of that we left very early in the morning; but here the people is too hospitality, they always want to pick you up, the guy that picked up us, before to continue, he took us with him to buy some staff for at least 1 hour.
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…