Land of friendly people and free falafels

I never thought it would be possible to convince Chris to eat a vegetarian meal without there being some type of whinging session attached. The middle east has turned him into a new man, to the point where he looks forward to having a falafel for lunch and could even follow it up with another at dinner. Syria completed this love affair with the simple sandwich when we got given them for free in Aleppo, and not just the sandwich but drinks as well. What was the catch - none apparently, the falafel guru behind the counter just kept on giving! This was not the only time we experienced such generosity, it seems that the Syrian people are not only incredibly kind with offerings of food but are the friendly people and love to just sit and talk to you. It really is a stark difference to Egypt and Jordan and quite a freshing change.

We didnt have long to spend in this special land, first stop was Damascas where we were overwhelmed by the largest under cover souk in the Middle East. Now I said the people in Syria were friendly, however I wasnt too appreciative of the kind of friendliness I recieved literally 2 minutes after stepping foot in the souk. I wont go into details but my butt was violated and if I had seen the chump that did it he would have got a jandal in his face.


Not being deterred by the incident I pulled myself together and got a delicious icecream rolled in pistachios, things were looking up again.




We spent 2 days in Damascas, shopped a little, visited a glorious mosque and went to see the story teller (a dying art but special to see even though it was in Arabic).


From there we drove onto Palmyra, stunning roman ruins set amongst a desert landscape. For the first time in awhile we were completely alone wandering around the ruins, probably because it was so hot no other fools could handle it, but the serenity was brilliant.



We bush camped that night and took a moonlit walk up to a castle on top of the rocks, not a great idea to do it in jandals but quite an experience.

In the morning we stopped by to visit Syria's most famous castle, Crac de Chevaliers. None of this famed castle is preserved but it is still in a pretty good state. As we started to explore the underground stone stables and cellars we quickly discovered there had now become breeding grounds for mossies and flies. The walls were literally moving and buzzing. Needless to say I was not sticking around to wait for Chris to bang the wall and get them into a frenzy.

Our last stop in Syria was Aleppo, city of free falafels, fresh juices and more free food being fired at you as you walk by a shop or stall. Aleppo has a beautiful citadel perched on the hill overlooking the city. These middle eastern cities would have been huge in the day and major trading points of the ancient middle eastern world.


We didnt want to leave Syria, it was extremely cheap, the people were top notch and the pace of life seemed to have slowed down in comparison to Egypt and Jordan. As our trip continues we just keep getting more and more overwhelmed at what we are seeing and experiencing. You keep thinking it cant get better but are constantly proved wrong.

Turkey is now our last country and we are champing to see what it has to offer...Syria will be hard to beat.