aleppo, syria

Asalamu alyakum,

I write to you from my hotel room in Aleppo, or Halab (The arabic name for the city). This is our second night in Halab and our hotel is really, really nice. And only $AU30. But a tad cold. Actually it has been rather winterish here...very cold and very wet. But it’s still a lovely city. We left Damascus at 6am on the 29th for Aleppo. Only just avoided a disaster because Kristy accidentally got left behind...we thought she was in the other taxi, they thought she was in ours.. And none of our phones work here, so we sent the taxi back for her and she eventually got to the bus station. Hakeem has been so fantastic! I don’t know how we would manage without him. He’s looked after us so well. When I get home I’m going to send him a case of wine from work.

The bus ride took 4.5 hours and it was so comfy and professional and we got chocolates and water and we were treated as if we were on an airplane flight! For only $AU6!!!! When we arrived at the bus station in Halab, we took a public transport bus to the Old City. We got chatting to some guy, whose called Ahmed...he is a businessman from Dubai, but Aleppo is his hometown and he’s here on holiday. Anyway, he took us around to all these hotels and recommended this one... And after that he gave us a tour of the city AND took us up to the Citadel which overlooks Halab and gave us tour-guide-quality details!! He was so kind and helpful! Almost all the Syrians are. In the end he spent the whole day with us and he has helped us organise a chartered bus to Crac de Chevaliers tomorrow...Cheap! And he wanted nothing in return! We offered to take him our to dinner, but he needed to go home.

At one stage when we were looking for hotels, we sat down in this square in the Christian quarter of the Old City. I got talking to a boy called Muhammed who was about 12 and his friend Saad. They were so much fun! They couldn’t speak English, so I spoke Arabic to them the whole time and they could understand me! And then this old guy joined in on our conversation...and then an old lady walked past and she decided to talk to me too...but in French!! My mind was working overtime! And I kept using Arabic words when speaking French! But she switched between the two languages. It was so much fun. And then we asked the little boys where we could find hummous...they thought we said khbuz (which is bread in arabic) and they ran off and 5 minutes later they returned with 4 pieces of steaming hot, fresh bread for us! It was so sweet! And we offered to pay him and he said ‘La la la (no no no) It’s a gift’. So we think that the baker must have given it to him for free! Syrian hospitality!!!

Today we got up early and explored the Christian quarter. That was fun, and there were some old Maronite Catholic churches and an Armenian Cathedral from the 15th century that we visited. They were VERY elaborate. Even more so than the Greek Orthodox church I went to in Amman. I would like to learn more about the eastern orthodox churches.

After that we explored the endless souqs which are famous in Aleppo. It was so much fun! And I went a tad over budget, but this is the place that I have done all my present shopping... Mainly coz Syria’s the cheapest place in the Middle East. But they have so much cool stuff! And Halab is famous for it’s olive oil soap which I’m about to use when I have my shower in just a moment! Evidently you can use it for you hair as well as body.

So yeah... Then we went out for dinner... Lentil soup and aleppo kebabs! It was good...and cheap.