July 2009

The citadel in Aleppo is amazing, a huge fortress that would be close to unattackable (in fact it was never breached, just surrendered after the rest of the city fell).

Crac de Chevaliers is very similar but bigger; since we saw the Citadel first we liked it better.

It's amazing how immediately after crossing the border there is a lot less vegetation, and then a couple hours later it's almost nothing but desert.
Also the desert isn't sand like I expected - it's dry soil and rocks. The soil is really and fine, like dust almost - perhaps clay, but not sand.

We arrived in Aleppo, Syria and were treated well... Sue and I had a double room (first time that happened on the trip), and according to Lonely Planet the room cost about ten dollars. After a thorough examination of the room we concluded we weren't staying in the room mentioned in the guidebook as having peepholes in the shower room.

We went out for dinner, and it was amazing - for most people in our group the falafel stand refused to take their payment, and gave them free food (we weren't so lucky, but they were about 50 cents CAD so that wasn't a big problem... A lot of Syrian kids wanted to talk to us, and one person from our group in particular was surrounded by about 30 people the whole time.
Toward the end an older gentleman shooed away the kids, so we had space.
But it was cool, we were treated like celebrities.

Fresh squeezed fruit juice was great and cheap, 60 cents cad for a big glass. Great way to start a day.

We also bought a bit of clothes in Aleppo, pics to follow.

石头城 - 商店，民居，城堡，作坊，都是白色的石头。连鸽子都有自己的石头居！

许愿树 - 伫立在悬崖边上。树上挂了一个铜铃。摇一摇铜铃，在白色的许愿纸上写上愿望，爬上树，许个心愿，我的虔诚定会让它实现的！

陶器店 - 碗，盘，杯，眼泪瓶，满眼的蓝让我欣喜若狂。

啊！！！！！！！！！
两大桶的汽油桶，可是我们的车子却在距离加油站500米的地方熄火了！停的真是地方，风景不错，大小便也隐蔽！

女生们排成一排站在高速路得中间，竖起大拇指，希望以美色吸引来往车辆的注意。终于，连穆斯林的男人也抵挡不住诱惑。停下车，女生的后面站了一排的男生，拎了几个巨大的汽油桶. "大爷行行好！送我们去汽油站吧！” 半个小时之后，男生们抱着汽油桶凯旋，女生们也在高速公路边准备好了午餐。

开吃！

在土耳其奥林巴斯安营扎寨了1个晚上，在海里扑腾了1整天，在自助餐吃了两大盘之后，于当地时间晚上9点，我们像火焰山进发。
坐上迷你小巴，空调吹的我们飘飘欲仙，上一次什么时候吹过空调已经不记得了，真是奢侈！吹着吹着，我便眯上了眼睛（基本上从旅行的第一天起，我便上车开睡，下车吃饭旅游，一点都不耽误），车子忽左忽右的在盘山公路上摇晃 – 眼不见为净！不往下看也就不觉得恐怖了。等我一觉醒来，车子已经停稳了！当地时间9点45.

从司机的手里拿了手电，我们就开始往山上爬了。中国的火焰山住着牛魔王和红孩儿，不知道这里的山里住着何方神圣？爬山可不是我的强项，5分钟以后，我们还是没有见着一点火惺，我开始后悔了。不就是火吗？犯得着半夜打手电登山还要交钱吗？在家一点煤气罩就可以看到，要多大火有多大的火。不过既然来了，还是拉着Chris的裤腰，借助他往上爬的动力，勉勉强强地托着我臭汗淋漓的身体往山上爬。

火，小的，大的。满地都是。真后悔没有带个鸡蛋来煮煮！