Palmyra, Crac des Chavliers and Aleppo

Palmyra:

Rome's got nothing on this place. While the modern town of Palmyra isn't much to write home about, the ruins of the ancient city of Palmyra are outstanding. We spent the (very hot) Thursday morning exploring the area, learning from our guide the history of the place. Afterwards, we had a few hours to kill before our bus arrived to take us to Crac des Chevaliers (more on that later). Michael wanted to write in his journal, so I set off on my own to do some shopping. I didn't get very far, though: at the second shop I went into, the shopkeeper, Mohammed, struck up a conversation with me and offered me tea ("Syrian hospitality"). It was quiet in the shop (tourism is low right now), Mohammed seemed to genuinely want to converse and I had time. Over the course of about 5 cups of tea (he just kept pouring it and even went back to make a second pot after I insisted he shouldn't), we talked about his family, life in America and Syria, why Americans are nervous to travel to Syria (he insisted they shouldn't be and I agreed wholeheartedly) and exchanged lessons in English and Arabic (I learned how to say "nice to meet you" and "cheers"). It was a really wonderful way to spend an hour.

We did make a fun little find, too. At a restaurant we ate at, the owner was selling old Iraqi money--we landed a Iraqi bill with Saddam's pictures on it for $6. Creepy and cool all at the same time.

Crac des Chavliers:

That afternoon, we departed for what Lawrence of Arabia has called the finest castle in all the world. I'm guessing he'd seen a lot of castles and being that this castle *was* pretty cool, he's probably right. We arrived in the evening and got treated to one of our better meals here--cooked eggplant and zucchini, french fries, grilled chicken, pita with hummus and other yummy dips, fresh fruit and tea. Yum.

The next morning, Michael and I rose early to catch the sunrise, then we met up with the group to do a tour of the castle. The castle wasn't the only amazing thing; equally amazing is how laxed they were about safety there. We could climb on top of the outer walls that stood about 100 feet from the ground without a guardrail or rope in sight and scamper down long dark, damp hallways without any lights to speak of. Just as well--it meant we really got to explore and imagine ourselves as knights and kings/queens for a day.

One interesting thing to note: the climate and landscape really changed from Palmyra to the castle. Palmyra was pure desert with a dry heat; the area surrounding the castle was actually green (albiet not like Wisconsin) and was still hot, but humid. It wasn't what I expected of Syria at all--I had expected it to be all desert like, since that's what we'd been experiencing up until that point. But, I stand corrected.

Aleppo:

We stayed in Aleppo, Syria for two days, left this morning. Aleppo competes with Damascus for the "oldest continously inhabited city in the world" title, apparently, but according to Lonely Planet, Damascus wins. Who knows. In any event, Aleppo is like a smaller version of Damascus--smaller population and smaller souqs (markets) to be sure. But it's nice to be in one place for more than a day. We did end up having the best shwarma yet, though, in Aleppo. Fresh pork, fresh veggies and some sort of yogurt sauce that made it lip smacking delicious. Not to mention that it cost us about two dollars each for a shwarma and a can of soda. Yummy.

We crossed the border into Turkey this afternoon where we've been promised the food gets even better and we'll see more and more carpet stores. :) Ciao!