I can't believe we are travelling together again

DAY 27 Local restaurant for dinner on the mountain last night was fantastic. Just as well because we didn’t have any choices, only one restaurant there!! The food was good and the host made us feel like we were visiting with friends instead of at a restaurant. They did the very best charcoal chicken! Now to today, the castle ‘Krak des Chevaliers’ was amazing and the guide really knew his stuff. You really need to have a guide for these things to get the most out of your visit. The photos show different angles and areas of the castle and hopefully they are self explanatory. There was a rush at the bus terminal and we were left with only 5 minutes to get and eat lunch plus a loo stop. On our way to Aleppo the scenery was ever changing: many different shades of green, windblown trees which actually look like they are close to laying down; rows upon rows of olive trees; small towns with unfinished houses surrounded by rubble piled high; makeshift tents on the outskirts of town where people eat, sleep and wash. Aleppo looks amazing, a bustling large city and an older market area. The market (souk) area carries fruit, veg, bread and camel meat as the photos show. The market in Damascus did not appear to cover these items. Tony was over dips and pita bread, so we ducked out of the group dinner thing and found food at a sanky looking hotel called Ramsis. We shared a Caesar salad, and a smoked salmon pizza plus pineapple juice for 525 Syrian pounds ($15- AUD). It was almost silver service and we were even given complimentary bread and DIPS! There was even a violinist playing for the guests. At one stage he started playing ‘Auld Lang Syne’ (I am not sure about the spelling ) I couldn’t help thinking about the small orchestra in the Titanic movie which kept playing as the ship sank. This thought (thank God) was not indicative of the food at this hotel. Dinner was good and we bought an ice cream on the way home for dessert. Wait for it!! 3 scoops of various flavours in a cone for 15 Syrian pounds (approx 45c AUD). I know where I am going tomorrow, mind you just because it’s easy on the purse, doesn’t mean that it is easy on the hips! DAY 28 The citadel, museum etc are closed on Tuesdays and I am not sure why at this stage. We spent the day pottering around the shops and looking for somewhere good to eat. In the main city we saw rows of small shops selling olives, olive oil, and spices. It seemed that there would be a full street of shoe shops, then a full street of sewing machine shops, then a full street of furniture shops. The streets were relatively clean but also very easy to get lost. We found a lovely place for lunch as per photo which served excellent food at very reasonable prices. The souk (market) was fantastic and seemed to go on forever and ever with rows of jewellers, rows of material, rows of clothes and everything in between. Check out the photos of all on offer and check out how narrow the aisles are. People walk huge wooden barrows laden with bread, fruit & veg etc; people ride motor bikes; cars & trucks drive down the centre and just beep their horn to make pedestrians get out of the way. It is a crazy place and you really need to have your wits about you. Mind you some poor old guy needed more than his wits when I decided to be helpful. I had been walking behind this little old man pushing a huge barrow. He was quite frail and stooped and he had this large paper wrapper attached to his shoe and I hade been watching it for some time. I decided to be useful and stand on the wrapper to free it from his shoe. The only problem was that it was really stuck and it took quite an effort to remove, and during this process I nearly toppled this poor old man to the ground. He most surely wondered what the hell was going on. Maybe I should try not to be helpful?? DAY 29 Achmed was our tour guide today for the souk and the citadel still in Alleppo. He was the best, and the tour brought everything to life. There are photos of the guide and the many views from the top of the souk and the citadel. The photos show the old side of Aleppo and the new side. It sounds like there is a lot of competition between Damascus and Aleppo for the business city of Syria. Achmed is written up in the Lonely Planet guide and he is very proud. He tests everyone and gives them ‘bon bons’ as he calls the lollies. He has lots of amusing stories and continually calls us with ‘come! Come! Snapping his fingers like a ring master. We finished the tour and found ourselves at the fruit and veg area, see photos where there ere permanent stands and even some selling their beans etc. from mats on the ground. We were watching the hustle and bustle of the produce sellers when quite suddenly everyone gathered all their wares and started running in all different directions dropping food etc. in their haste to get away. It was like an air raid siren had gone off, quite bizarre! We can only summise that the police were coming and thy did not have appropriate permits?? We took a taxi trip across the border to Antakya in Turkey because there were no buses available today. It was fairly uneventful, thank god! A full day of travelling tomorrow on a bus with a couple of stops for food etc. then few days of hiking.