"travel journal 2002" a Syria Travel Page by call_me_rhia

Palmyra is my first sight of Syria: landed in Damascus in the middle of the night, and after a few hours of sleep (saw nothing of the city) I took a bus to Palmyra. Arrived in the late morning to find grey plumby skies, sadly, but it's not too cold so I can spend the afternoon visiting some minor temples and the colonnade, keeping the best for the following day. The ruins are truly breathtaking, yet what i like best are the intricate decorations that can be found all around... especially those on the broken columns. On the way back to my hotel I am stopped by an overfriendly Husein at his date shop: I dislike dates, so I get invited for a delicious chai and meet all his friends and family. lovely wonderful people... Impossible to pay for the tea, I'm afraid, and actually I am even gived a keffiyeh as a thank you present for my visit. Go figure. Lovely friendly people, I am charmed already - but such kindness can at times be embarassing. The evening is spent cheerfully at my hotel lobby, talking life, music and politics with the young charming owner - khaled - who gives me a CD of Egyptian music as a present. I have the feeling i belong... we share the same ideas, the same political views, the same hopes for the future. I am asked to stay... it has been very tempting.
More visits, the following morning: the museum, the incredible Temple of Bel, and the unexpected Valley of the Tombs. I visit one tower tomb (Elahbel) and an underground tomb (the three brothers). Amazing frescoes. The Arab fortress is m last stop. It's hazy.... Palmyra in the mist is something else.. eerie... speactacular.. magic. I head many people telling magnificent stories about the famed sunsets: I am not regretting not being able to see any. This mysterious Palmyra suits me a lot better.

A fun ride to Hama. The first bus is driven by a crazy driver - and drops me off at Homs. Then on to Hama onboard a microbus, which is not quite going to Hama, but the driver assures me he'll get me there - somehow... in the meantime i sit surrounded by tins of paint and friendly men who dont speak a word of english. Somewhere, in the middle of nowere, the driver decides that off i go - drags me off the minibus and places me into another one... and eventually reach hama... price? Unknown.. the driver refused to be paid. Hama is the place I meet my first Syrian VTer - maen 31 - in the evening we go for a walk to see the norias and the old town, eat a yummy falafel sandwich, drink some tea, and talk a lot.
As there's nothing in Hama except the norias, the following day I decide to rent a taxi with others staying at my hotel and off we go to visit the wonderful bicoloured castle of Ibn Wardan - which ends up being on of my Syrian highlights. Then we stop to see some traditional beehive huts and get invited by a bedouin family for tea and cakes/bread - here's where i meet the cutest Syrian donkey - and it's love at first sight. On to Afamia (apamea) for more ruins... not as varied as those in Palmyra, but the long colonnade is really more impressive - much longer, and better reconstructed. Once again there's no other tourist in sight... lovely, but somewhat lonely, too.
In the afternoon I end up in Suqeiliybyya, the village where Maen31 lives, and where I get to meet his wonderful family and eat a wonderful delicious homemade meal. Once again I have a brilliant time: laughters, conversation, and an interesting walk at night with his sister Gadeer - who shows me the feminine sight of Syria. Enlightning!
There's one wrong note about the Hama area: the stunning Crac de Chevaliers castle - wonderful, incredible - and infested by people who try to force their guiding services upon you. It took a verbal fight to be left alone, and this spoiled my visit a bit. Sad!

After Hama my road continues northbound towards aleppo, with 3 strategic stops: The incredible mosaic museum at Ma'arat an-Nu'aman the enchanting dead bizantine cities of Al-Bara and Sejilla, and finally the Monastery of Saint Simeon. All three very different, all three incredibly fascinating. Finally I head into Aleppo, the main city in the north. Aleppo is where I meet my second VTer, Fouads, his wife Danya, his friends and his family. Lovely charming people who have been incredibly friendly, fun, and filling. Filling especially in the sense of food: never before have I eaten so much, and so many delicious things. Forced to eat sometimes - but, did anyone ever hear me complain? Nope... By the way, this particular Vter thinks it's normal to eat dinner after midnight, and to visit relatives at 2 am (said relatives thought it normal ,too). No comment, ok?

Aleppo is a truly great city: charming lively and non-touristis souqs, impressive madrasses, healthy hammams, an impressive citadel, and lovely mosques - all closed for restoration. Slightly annoying, I have to admit. Then again, it's a good excuse to go back there in a few years time. One sight to behold, and never forget, is the citadel... imposing at night... and during the day, even more imposing and charming: one of the best examples of architecture I have ever seen. The second sight I'll never forget is the chance to see a performance, on new years eve, of whirling dervishes inside an abandoned medieval mental hospital. My camera crashed, but my memory is still filled with incredible music and dancing.

Back in Damascus I ended up spending my very first day away from it. The evening before, at sunset, I had admored it from mount kassious - and was shocked at the size of it... shocked and scared... I needed out so off I went: took a minibus and went to Maalula, a tiny chistian town perched on the anti-lebanon range just 50 km away from the capital.

Maalula is fresh, chilly mountain air; it's awonderful charming little colourful village. I really enjoyed the sight: houses pained and pale blue colours, so different from the usual grey concrete of towns ald cities in the middle east. Here I walked through the siq to the convent of Saint Sergius and Bacchus and drank delicious wine offered to me by a priest... then visited saint tecla monastery, and drank only plain water from the well. Too late I remembered that this well is supposed to make women pregnant... Clearly I had forgotten about such detail. Uff!

bosra is well, the place I should not have gone. The day I decided to go, I missed the bus shamefully by 2 minutes - and maybe I should have thought it destiny and forgotten about visiting there. But no, I decided to persevere - I went back to the bus station the following morning, and off I went, to the most uninteresting sight of all my trip. it was also a dark cloudy day and the town was spectral - in a negative way - and ghostly - once again in a negative way.

it's hard to describe what i felt... the roman theatre inside the arab fortress is truly stunning - really really impressive. But then, as i moved on to explore the other ruins scattered abot the rest of the village, I felt I was wasting my time. Both ruins and village are built in black basalt stone.. both are, well... let's say crumbling down and falling apart. All about lay scattered zillions and zillions of archaeological artifacts. Sadly no efforts of reconstruction have been carried out: it's clear that bosra has the potential of becoming another afamia or palmyra, but right now, it's just stones and mud - and hard to make out what everything used to be or looked like.

damascus, in spite of the fist negative bad impression, turned out to be my favourite place in Syria. First of all the weather got slightly warmer (oh, heaven!) and the people, after a first impression of coldness, also turned out to be as charming as all other syrian people I had previously met. All Damascus, well the centre at last, is a gathering place for old wonderful palaces, a great mosque, and a huge souq... and what else??? a lovely museum, and some nice shrines to visit, and lotso and lots of little lanes, narrow and quaint. Scenic.

Damnascus is the place where I met my 3rd local VTer: Albateh. First we met in the evening and went for a little walk in the centre, just to see the most impressive buildings at night.... poetic is the way I would describe them. Then we went to a restaurant for tea and some chats/laughs, then out for more night-explorations. I met Albateh a secon time the day after his surgery, this time at his home, with his incredible friendly family (why are all syrian families so friendly?): again we talked a lot, laughed a lot and made a lot of future plans, including the one of robbing a bank with one of his sisters. Just before flying home I found my partner in crime: one day I shall be back