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Alluring Aleppo
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Travelling through Syria, as yet not on the 'to do list' of large numbers of tourists, could be daunting if not for the friendliness of its people. Tourism infrastructure is still in its infancy, and tourists remain a novelty to the locals. Unlike in Egypt, which heavily relies on the tourist dollar, there is not a reliance on tourism and, as such, the constant 'requests' for you to come and look at goods or use the services of the people that occurs in Egypt (and similarly in Turkey, from prior experience) does not occur here in Syria. If you are stopped in the street, it is usually to welcome you to Syria, ask where you are from and, after a brief chat (practising their English), wish you a good time in Syria.
We commenced our time in Syria in Aleppo, flying directly there from Cairo. On arriving at the airport, we told the taxi driver we wished to go to the 'Tourist Hotel' (yes, it is actually called that) and he said 'Madam Olga?'. Ben was all prepared to say 'no', but having an eye for details and having read the whole blurb about the hotel, I knew that it was indeed owned by the elderly Madam Olga (she is 98 years old). She is well known and liked, and runs the best budget option in Aleppo, with reliably clean rooms and friendly staff. Aleppo appears very conservative and not used to tourists. I found it a little off-putting that I was clearly stared at wherever I went. Initially, I thought my mode of dress may have been a problem (I had ¾ pants on and a short-sleeved T-shirt), but even with full-length pants and long-sleeved shirt, I was still of major interest to the locals. Essentially, it seems they are interested simply in the fact that we are here as tourists, and probably also, it appears, my fair hair (with the vast majority of the local population having dark hair). About 85% of the population are Muslim, so the majority of women wear a head scarf as well as their full-length robes. We have even seen something more extreme than ever before - some women wearing veils that cover their whole face (that's right, not even having a slit for the eyes)!! To be honest, this seems like taking things a little to the extreme.
The main sites of interest to us in Aleppo were in the old city, with the souk and the citadel. The souk is a major shopping place for the locals and full of all sorts of items. We loved the spices and local handicrafts, but found the butchers' shops with all body parts on sale and without refrigeration a little unpleasant to both the eyes and the nose. Despite the passageways being narrow and clearly not designed for vehicles, later in the day many vehicles did indeed try to make their way through the wider passages and there were some impressive little traffic jams created! While outside the citadel, a local approached us for a chat. After chatting with his friend, he then came and found us within the citadel to invite us out to a club that night - to see modern Aleppo, apparently. We took him up on his offer, and others from our hotel (which was really more like a hostel) were interested and subsequently joined us. It was quite an interesting evening, with a wedding also going on there. Wedding parties are very late here - the bride and groom arrived at the reception at midnight with fireworks and fanfare. This was followed by entertainment in the form of dancers wielding swords. In addition to enjoying quite a feast, I shared a nargileh (from the Persian word for water-pipe; also referred to as a hubble-bubble or hookah pipe). We tried the grape and cherry flavours. We finally stumbled into bed about 2am.
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