Sheraton Aleppo Hotel & Towers

Destination 392

km193'632

At Lattakia it was very difficult to find a cheap accommodation as well as any of those beautiful beach streches described at guide books. There was just too much rubbish all around the place everywhere, a reason to leave very quickly...
Our short trip to Aleppo has lead ...

... beckons us in the distance. We decide
to make our way to the citadel through the souk. The Souk of Aleppo
is dates from the 16th century and has remained unchanged
since then. It is celebrated as the most medieval of all Souks in the
Middle East. It covers 12 hectares, and the longest section is 12km.
It employs 35,000 people, and is still the place where Aleppans come
to shop for anything and everything. Thus it the traditional
structure of ...

... by what I found there. I wont bore you with the grizzly details of it's significant but it was pretty much the Dubai of ancient Rome so you can imagine the sort of stuff they tried to build there- for more information consult your nearest Classicist.

This said best part about Syria wasn't even the history. Walking down the street you will be welcomed openly and in most cases genuinely by every other person you meet. 'Where are you from?' Call out ...

... but not nearly as good as what we had in Damascus. However we did enjoy the pizza and soups at a restaurant called Cantara. Excellent (semi)Italian food. We did enjoy catching up on our journals and planning our future itnerary (details in a moment) at some outdoor cafes by the Citadel in Aleppo. If we could avoid the large tour groups, the ...

... a un altre segle (a mes de ser l'unic lloc on es pot disfrutar d'una cervesa). El millor es visitar-lo pel mati, quan no hi ha ni una anima, ni turistes ni locals. Porto gairebe una setmana de viatge. Pel que diu tothom, la primera setmana, el primer mes son els mes durs. Realment no em dona encara la sensacio d'estar en un viatge de 9 mesos. No m'ho acabo de creure ni d'acabar d'entrar en la dinamica. Sembla mes aviat que hagi de tornar a la feina en un parell ...

... to them that some of us did purchase.... We popped out the other end of the souq at the Citadel, which is surrounded by a moat. As the sunset set it turned the walls a pinky hue. After a stop for tea and shisha we headed to the hotel to meet the rest of the group for a group dinner at a local restaurant. Starting with a selection of mezzah, labneh, moutabel, hommous, red paste with walnuts, fattoush and tabouli, followed ...

... some cash from my credit card. They sent me to the exchange place in the building where I tried to get the visa. I found out that they did exchange Turkish Lira for US dollars so I pulled out all the remaining Turkish money I had to see how much American money I could get. The man handed me a $50 bill. I pulled out all the Turkish coins I had to see if they would change them as well. At first they said no, but then a man who worked there took them and gave me a $5 ...

... with cute buildings tucked in everywhere. We didn't have aour cameras with us soe were going to go back today and take photos. That was until I got sick!!! Started off sleeping quite well until 4am!! Obviously don't need to go into details but it is the usual symptoms that you hear about - that's right symptomS. So unfortunately I missed out on the tour Aleppo today as I stayed in bed all day ...

... When I got onto this mini bus, there were 2 empty seats right next to each other. I put my backpack on one seat and sat in the other. A few bus stops later, 2 people boarded the bus and there were no seats available. Before they got on the bus, I got off of my seat as I didn't ant to look like a bad foreigner by having 2 seats to myself. A young lady ended up taking the seat I just vacated. An old Kurdish woman sitting at the back of the bus noticed what I did and you ...