Hi All.
Managed to find our way around despite not knowing which way was north, being unable to read the signs or speak arabic. Took a map rotation of 90 deg to get us going in the right direction.
Visited the citidel. A very old fortress that dominates the old city area and gives impressive views of the cream coloured city. It sits perched about 40m above the street level.
Below are the souqs (markets) which were great as they were actually being used by the locals rather than selling tourist junk to the tourists. Seems that there have been plenty of Australian tourists in the past as there were lots of gdays coming out of the stalls. Met an interesting fellow who had some command of english but may have picked up a few words from watching porn movies so his language was quite colourful. The markets are much better than those found in Istanbul.
Today is friday which is the same as sunday in the western world so most shops are closed. We went to the museum and I got quickily shown around by an enthusiastic museum worker who obviously wanted a tip and figured he would get it quicker by whipping me around the museum. Too bad for him. I didnt enjoy the experience and didnt ask for the tour so he got nothing.
Havent found many food shops with anything to stock up for bus trips. No such thing as supermarkets that I can find at the moment. Run out of bread and biscuits and have found a kebab shop who feed us but otherwise it could be a slimmers paradise for us. Not quite that bad. We fed up on pistachio desert and have lots of bananas from the market.
Can now read arabic numbers so that is helpful.
Heading to Hama tomorrow.
Bye.
Vanessa & David
