Afficher 2backpacks – Syria sur une carte plus grande

First of all, I must apologise to everyone who came across 2backpacks.com and doesn’t speak neither french nor portuguese: there isn’t much of the Queen’s language down here lately. Therefore, this post will be straight in English – not a translation – and in English only. I’m here to tell you guys about our journey throught Syria in the past two weeks.

Photos of the Krak des Chevaliers, Apamea and Mysiaf

After a pleasant and rather short stay (4 days) in Damascus we head north to the little town of Hama. Normally, the stop would be Homs – Syria’s third largest city – but advised by a local, we took the bus to this alternative town, known by its noorias, big water wheels in the Orontes river. Hama is well-known as well by the violent reponse given by the president Bassad in 1982, against an islamic uprising in the city which resulted in more than 30 thousands deaths.

The city is pretty much the noorias. And, perhaps, a little walk next to the river and the citadel. We can feel – and see – a much more serious attitude regarding the religion, with no woman without a scarf. The rules of Ramadan here are reinforced too. The good side, a cheap hotel with very good stands. Next day, we took a day tour to three different historical sites: Apamea, Mysiaf and the Krak des Chevaliers. We booked a taxi with a driver throught the hotel and even though it was a bit pricier, we had the opportunity to ride the Mercedez 200D, year 1967, of Abdul.

Apamea was the most scenic of the three places. If we add the fact that we were the only two people in this big ancient roman collonade avenue in a beautiful sunny morning you may understand why I was easily amazed by this site.

Mysiaf wasn’t that striking. A hillrock in the middle of an average town with the remains of a crusader castle. Pretty views from the site but not too much to see inside the place.

Then, Krak des Chevaliers, one of the main tourist spots in Syria. The location is what makes this place so interesting: nearly indefeatable on the top of a mountain, giving a free sight of the valley and the hills nearby. The castle is in very good conditions, built by the french during the Crusades, it remains an middle-age european style of fortress – you can find lots of similarities with the castles at the british or french countryside.

Photos of Palmyra

In our last evening in Hama I got an upset stomach and the next day 3 hours bus ride to Palmyra was a big struggle. Once arrived in the oasis of Palmyra, in the middle of the desert in central Syria, things went better. We got a good hotel for a reasonable price, in a city known as being too pushy for the tourists.This is the main tourist destination in Syria. Palmyra is it’s mainroad with some restaurants and almost all hotels and the archeological site, a ten minutes walk from the town. A big romain ruins with all its collonades, and archs, and temples, and baths, and its theatre. We visited it twice. Once in the early morning – when we were by ourselves – with the unbeatable sunlight against the marbles and rocks, then again to see the sunset on the top of the arabian citadel – a fortress on top of the hill next to the ruins. I did some pretty good shots at both ocasions.

From there we planned to go to Deir-er-Zor at the rives of Euphrates and we indeed went to this city, but once there we changed our minds and we caught the next bus to Aleppo, making a seven hour bus ride throught a schizoprenic route. We got to Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city, in the beginning of the evening.

Photos of Aleppo

Aleppo is a problem when it comes to sleeping: the budget hotels can be a real bargain if you don’t care about confort or cleaning. If you, like us, are looking for some privacy and a bit of confort, the prices jump enormously. As far as we’re staying four days in the town and taking in consideration the hot weather, we decided to put some more money for a nice mid-range hotel.

In terms of things to see, Aleppo is its souq and its citadel. Both worth visiting. The citadel gives you panoramic views of the town in a 360°. The other big must-see is the souq. With streets much narrower than its counterparts of Damascus, the souq of Aleppo as everything of an authentic middle-east bazaar. People, LOTS of people, everything you could imagine to buy, from meat to gold and always, the vendors trying to engage you into haggling for a product. We end up buying only a piece of the Aleppo’s olive soap.

This city lives during the night. We have never seen in other syrian town the same number of people on the streets even after midnight. Shopping, eating, drinking, talking. For us, our favorite spot was the central square of the al-Jazeida quarter. We spend a couple of evenings there sipping a tea and smoking a nargileh.