Into Syria

Trip Start Sep 04, 2008

Trip End Ongoing

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Where I stayed

Spring Flower Hostel

(Aleppo hotels)

Flag of Syria Aleppo, Syria
Sunday, September 21, 2008

So after one day in Antakya, I said goodbye to Turkey. Great country and friendly people. Because Ataturk was the man and understood that a secular government was essential, Turkey has a chance. Some of you may remember secular government from years past, when America used to have one.

Anyways, when I arrived in Antakya, I stupidly bought a ticket to Aleppo for ten Turkish lira. However, the bus station was quite a way out of town, and getting a ride the next morning back out there proved fruitless. Up pulls a car and the driver asks if I'm going to Aleppo. I hop in and we speed towards Aleppo, I thought. Turns out, he's giving the other two passengers a quick ride to catch up with a bus. So, I again pay ten Turkish lira ($8) and think this time I'm on my way.

Officially, Americans are supposed to have a visa before arriving at the border, but as this was $131 in America, I thought I'd take my chance

Aleppo

. I have heard that it sometimes takes six hours for them to fax the info to Damascus, but in all, only took me three hours and $16. It would have taken less time, but Arabic isn't quite like English. In the meantime, I went to the duty-free shop and picked up a bottle of Bordeaux. Note that the shop and all visa payments were made in US currency.

Well, my bus was long gone by the time I had my visa, and I wasn't going to pay again, as I was already 0 for 2. I tried to walk across the border, but was told to go through customs. As I couldn't find customs, I found a small passage out the back of the building, and a way around the fence. I began walking, hoping to find a minibus to take me. Car honks, they're going to Aleppo, I hop in and it smells like fish. Caught on the Turkish coast for sale back in Syria. They take me about 5 km, and then tell me they have to go somewhere else. Taxis cost $20 he says (yeah right).

I start walking on the highway and in less than a minute, I have another ride. These three guys are actually going to Aleppo, but first we stop on the roadside for coffee, and they get me a tea. Driving into Aleppo on the 2 (4, 6, 10)? lane highway, I notice that littering isn't quite frowned upon. We get into Syria, and I offer to buy them a drink. After, two of them walk me down to the hotel district.

I end up walking down to Old Aleppo to check out the souq. See a cabbie and his passenger in a fistfight while driving, which was broken up by pedestrians in the middle of the craziest traffic I've ever seen. The souq is not as commercial and cleaned up as the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. Very friendly people, they love Americans, but hate Bush. Always nice to find common ground.