End of Aleppo, Train Station and Kids

The morning was a bit of a rush to pack and get out because I didn't know exactly when the train for Lattakia departed, and I had to stop at a place to get food for the day, find the post office and then find the train. Fortunately I knew where the post office was, it was even the first time that a place I needed to find was on my map, made me happy and food was on the way to the Post Office.

At the post office a man decided to help me out as I seemed to have found my way into the wrong post office, the one for sending out mail was next door(silly me thinking mail services could survive with half the bureaucracy!) Mail off my postcards and went in search of the station.
I had a general idea of where it was, but yet again, my destination was off both maps I had, and both gave contradictory directions on how to get there, one said 750 metres west, the other said 500metres north, both were wrong.

This brings me to an interesting point about the Lonely Planet series of guidebooks, they are good, but have some glaring flaws associated with them, I both experienced it first hand and second hand through discussion with other travellers and hotel owners(some went so far as to dub it the Lonely Liar, but I don't think it was quite that bad). Museums that have shut up show years ago, buildings that don't exist, important transportation hubs that aren't located correctly(in Gaziantep, all the minibus station was so poorly marked that I missed the turn off thinking I had another 4 blocks to go, 4 blocks later a local told me I was 4 blocks too far).
My point is thus, if ever it came down to life or death, I would not trust Lonely Planet, it is a good start, but you need to have a good head on your shoulders to interpret/decide what is important/true and what is not. It's a good start, but it should not be the be all and end all of your trip.

So, between Lonely Planet, and the tourist map being wrong, and 3 locals giving me interestingly unintelligible directions, I meandered my way through the main park, which was quite pretty, had statues, monuments, fountains, green grass, some guy going around selling terrible tea. On the other side of the park, there was a street sign telling people that the Train station was to the east, once again, wrong it was to the west. Eventually after almost 2 hours of searching I found the train station.

Once I got there the silliness had only just begun. I have previously mentioned the incredible layers of bureaucracy, much like an Onion, which also has layers and makes people cry. To buy your ticket you were required to purchase it, then go to the ID check booth, and because I was a foreigner I had to go see security, but was directed to the wrong security, then I got escorted to the right security desk, who looked at my passport+ticket nodded and sent me back to some other desk that I never did figure out what it was for, and then back to the ID desk only for them to simply put a check mark on my ticket. It was infuriating.

It was also at the train station that I saw the first white people on my trip since leaving Istanbul, and later on would get to know the two guys who looked suspiciously like brothers.
I had a bit of a wait in the station so I walked around a bit, explored the surrounding area. One thing in the station however caught my attention, a mural, with burning tanks, and triumphant Syrian soldiers rallying a charge with the Syrian flag proudly flying, the burning tanks had Stars of David on them. Now I may or may not have focused my IR studies upon the Middle East and Israel and it's wars, but I don't recall any war in which Syria, or any other Arab power was triumphant(minor successes, but usually followed up with incompetent decision making and massive errors, see: not bringing a long enough extension cord to plug in your anti-aircraft missiles)
Eventually the train left, and off I went, for those planning on taking the Aleppo-Lattakia train any time soon, let me say, the extra for first class is worth is. My tray table had no lock, and thus kept falling on me. Eventually I jerry rigged it to prevent it falling, and I was able to fall asleep.
When I woke up I was surrounded by about 6 children, all staring at me, something which I had almost gotten used to, and yet this was different, I woke up and there were a bunch of eyes there staring at me. They were fun, did a few fun tricks made something come out of one of their ears, magically make a finger transfer over to the other hand and other simply yet fun things that kids enjoy.
Some got scared off by my desire to interact with them, but one kid kept coming back with questions to ask me(I later discovered that he had a relative near the front of the car who spoke english and was feeding him the tranlations for his questions) Standard questions, where are you from, what do you do, why are you here etc.. but it was different because it wasn't an immigration control officer asking the questions. Because of him, my train journey turned out to be quite fun.

Eventually the train stopped in Lattakia, and off I got, the city on the coast seemed to have been under invasion by the sea, but by air (it was raining, alot, like I haven't seen in a long time, perhaps since Nicaragua). So I put on my rain gear and off I went to find my hotel where I would spend my time in Lattakia.

Aleppo

I shared a cab all the way to Aleppo, with the driver and a guy in the back seat who was suspiciously quiet. But eventually the cab got to the city and found a spot close to my hotel to drop me off.

My first impressions of Syria were twofold: They must love Bashar here(he's the president), and Crossing the street is a deathtrap.
Near my hotel there was a large boulevard park with a statue of Bashar, and one of his father, as well as numerous massive banners down the sides of some buildings with his face on it. His face was on everything, I really wanted to get a "I love Bashar" T-shirts, but low on cash and low on space in my bag I had to resist the temptation. He may not be as bad as Stalin or Saddam for personality cult, but the people genuinely like him. Many of them "adore him", a local in Homs attested, "but it's the people around him who are corrupt and we hate them".

There was an "intersection" near my hotel that I had to cross. First of all it varied between 5 and 10 lanes depending on how impatient drivers were at the time. A map of said intersection can be found here, with the highlighted location being my hotel. I ended up crossing it upwards of 20 times, and by about the fifth time I decided enough was enough and I was just going to pick a local crossing farther up the traffic from me and follow him. Crossing was stressful, having to stop halfway and have to wait in between lanes was worse.

Aleppo is a very old city, is among the oldest in human history, dating back to before we started recording the passing of time. Cities have been built upon cities, it has seen civilizations come and go, withstood sieges, and been conquered. Basically it's seen it all, the current "Old City" dates back to the early-ottoman era. It's not just an Old city on display like many places. The Old city is still lived in, some buildings have their foundations over a thousand years ago, and they are still being lived in. I popped into a couple courtyards to take a peek and they look as if they were taken out of the Crusades, it was pretty cool.

Aleppo also has things called Souqs, basically a market, where everything is traded, you name it someone there either buys it or sells it. Aleppo's Souq was my favorite of all the Middle East, it was massive, authentic, not like a tourist trap like Istanbul's Grand Bazaar. It was a place where everybody did their shopping, did business, it is a part of everyday life.

I entered the main Souq at the butchers area, it gave a whole new meaning to Meat market. And then I got hit in the back of the head by what I suspect was formerly the Leg of a Lamb, delicious to eat, not so delicious to get hit in the head with.

The rest of the Souq was impressively sprawling, branching off in tons of different ways, I feel the best way of taking on Souqs, Bazaars, Markets and other such things is to simply get lost, thus far it has never failed me, in Istanbul's Grand Bazaar I found the Mannequin district and got offered Hash. In Aleppo I found a Medresa with class in session in the courtyard, a Taxi losing it's side mirror trying to get through an arch that was just about big enough, I got held up having to follow a donkey down an narrow alleyway, and I found the Grand Mosque.

The Grand Mosque is almost 1000 years old, and is magnificent, beautiful and thoroughly earning the title "Grand". The courtyard had children running around, playing games, old men sitting in a corned debating the Koran, women scolding children, and pilgrims washing before prayer. I decided to check out the prayer room and stay and watch the 2:24 prayer. It was unlike anything I have seen before(except maybe every other prayer system I have seen, but different), the call for prayer rang out, the study group in the corner packed up, Korans were shelved, and people began to file into the room and line up. They did their prayers and then went on their day.

I had a bit of a conversation with a man who wanted to know where I was from about prayer and how it's a relaxing break to the day. 5 times a day these people took time out of their day for something other than themselves, taking time to reflect, think, and maintain discipline. And almost everyone in the city did it, the streets were noticeably less crowded at prayer time.

After the Mosque I ventured towards the Citadel, but before I could get there a woman stopped me and asked me if I spoke French, I replied in the affirmative, and she called her son over because she wanted him to practice his French, the second time someone asked for a language other than English, second time it was French.
I then got to the Citadel, at this point I stopped caring exactly how old everything was, I did however take note that the mound the Citadel stands upon was man made and was thousands of years old, which was pretty cool.
Because of no sun and the pollution of a city of 5 million the view's weren't all that great but it gave a good view of the Old City from above.
It had a great Amphitheater which incidentally has great acoustics, I could hear almost everything the people on the stage were saying, it was pretty cool.



Another fun thing was that there was only one place that had railing, about 10 metres of it. other than that you could basically wander and climb wherever you wanted on it, right up to the edge, at one point I saw a group of boys climbing trying to climb up the side of it.

At that point security then came by and told me the place was closing, so off I went. I didn't go far, the plaza in front of the Citadel in fact to sit drink tea and write some post cards home while the sun set.

The day was almost over, just enough time to go eat some food, and head to the Baron Hotel for a quick drink, where TE Lawrence(Lawrence of Arabia) stayed while he was in town. Dinner consisted of donair wrap, 50cents, from a stall on the street, more than enough to fill me up.
At the Baron Hotel I got there, and a guy sitting in the corner calls me over, turns out this is the local haunt of the owner of my hotel. So he invited me over, we drank overpriced beer($2.75 for a half litre, highway robbery!) and swapped stories he gave me some places to see in Damascus, Palmyra and Latakia. In the end he had no money, I paid his tab and he cleared my hotel bill, which gave me a nice discount on my stay.
That night I called home for the first time from the hotel, and my mother the person who had been beckoning me to call home since I left wasn't even home.

All in all I really enjoyed Aleppo it was a bit chilly, but manageable, it rained a bit. The Souqs remain a highlight, as does the Grand Mosque. It is a place I defiantly need to get back to, and a place I highly recommend, sooner rather than later.

Into Syria

Schoolwork done now, expect more regular updates for now.

It took a bit of searching because once again the place I was going was just off all the maps of the city, but I did eventually find it, and was immediately whisked onto a minibus and found a stool to sit on as all the seats were taken. The trip wasn't that bad, the scenery was nice, but the windows were too dirty to make a photo worth while.

I got to Kilis(the border town) and started searching for a way to the border, and just like everywhere else the taxi drivers found me. A few found me at the same time, I picked one, and he took my passport and ran off, which worried me, but I was offerd a seat, tea and a cigarette while I waited.
While I waited a guy went by a few times, not walking, or riding a bike or car, but atop a donkey, there are people in the world who's primary means of transportation is still the donkey, in the 21st century. I found that interesting.

Eventually the Cab driver showed up again with my passport, and off we went, drove to the border, where we picked up another guy(again can't cross on foot).

Getting out of Turkey was pretty easy, get an exit stamp(they seem to care an awful lot less who they let out of the country than they let in), go get checked out by the military checkpoint and then off to the Syrian side.

Holy crap, I thought the bureaucracy at the Syrian Consulate in Istanbul was bad, this was worse. There were 3 buildings all of which I needed to enter at least twice at different times.
First into Immigration, who looked at my passport asked me some stern questions, I replied in French and immediately got better treatment(it wasn't room service at the Ritz, but it was better), asked me about my travel plans, where I was leaving from, if I had ever been or planned to go to Occupied Palestine(Israel), it was the first and I expect only time I lied to a government official with the consent of my government.
The immigration officer apparently liked me enough to tell me to go across the street to buy a visa, he could authorize it, but not sell it to me.
So off to the commercial bank where a gaggle of men were busy yelling things at a couple guys behind a counter, I got to cut the line. It took 15 mins to get a visa, and back to the immigration office. Now they had more serious questions for me(actually the same ones as before, just in a more serious tone), and asked more about where I was leaving from, I told them Amman Jordan which was reasonable, he asked why no time for Egypt or "other" places in the Middle East(implying Israel), gotta get back to school you see, that got me through.
But I was not done, I had to go back to the commercial bank to change my money, which was semi-mandatory. The rules say you have to bring a certain amount of cash into the country with you, so they made me change it into local currency.
Off to the Security checkpoint to get patted down and off into Syria.

I stopped in Aleppo where I was staying a couple days, and boy oh boy, Aleppo was cool(temperature wise too, it shocked me) busy city streets, the best souq in the middle east, and a lived in old city.
All things which you can catch up on in my next post
(a picture will be added once blogger isn't incredibly slow)