Traveling in beautiful pre-war Syria (1): Discovering Aleppo

I had no idea Syria was this beautiful. Someone called traveling here a traveling for beginners as Syria was mostly Islamic country but big minorities lived here and people understood that you do not know their culture (which was nice change after some experiences in south Iran few years earlier). I visited the country in August 2009 for three weeks and had no idea that not a two years later the country will be in civil war. Pictures shown here are my own.

Aleppo is big city in the north of country and I got here by bus from Turkey. I planned to stay for two days but it was a week thanks to its beauty and lovely people I met through Couchsurfing.

The first place I visit in a new Arabic town is always a market place, so vivid, so different from the west.

Aleppo had some rather classic scenes.

And some a bit more surprising.

They took much pride in their soup which legend has it was used by Cleopatra herself. The best soup I ever tried.

While roaming the big city...

...through its normal...

...and more exotic streets...

...I came not knowingly to its famous citadel. What a moment for me.

The entrance was just stunning.

Up there old ancient city in ruins. Even with theater.

Another place that always fascinated me are the mosques.

Especially the ritual of washing before praying.

I have learnt how to wash my hand, face, ears, neck and legs in a way similar to what locals do and became to love it.

Just roaming the city you find many hidden treasures

Such as this quiet place in Christian quarters

I enjoyed the coffees much...

But this delicious thing (more expensive than proper two dinners) was something from heaven.

But what is it that makes the traveling the best? The new people. This very religious man (you can tell by the blister on his forehead from praying on a piece of clay in mosques, as they do to not forget they they came from dust of the earth and will return to it) showed me around and some nice places in the citadel.

But those guys, they were the ones for me. Young doctors who hosted me in their flat.

Brilliant people. One memory which I do not have on camera. They were ridiculously poor. They lived in one apartment, six of them but had only five beds. As doctors working in hospital they knew somebody will be working so they didn't need and have six beds. When I opened their fridge it was totally empty except for few pieces of bread and hummus. They had nothing else for the whole time I was there (well I bought something few times).

I hope you enjoyed the story (my first on Steemit), if you want to see more and hear more about what we talked about, about the situation with government at that time, about minorities or relationships, please let me know in comments. Till then you can listen to Joan Baez, who I didn't know before Syria and who I was listening to every morning in Aleppo after most doctors left (album Farewell Angelina, they had no other). Or you can check out Fairuz who everybody else was listening to (really, young, old, in the morning she was everywhere and people said that her voice and coffee can cure every sorrow).