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Sunday 28th November Early next morning, after having our complimentary hotel breakfast we set out to try to push the 100km across the border to Aleppo. We pushed the pace really hard and reached the border encouragingly early. This however gave us little advantage, as on both the Turkish and Syrian sides the border was chaos. We eventually made the crossing, but it took us 3 whole hours by the end of which there was no possibility of us making Aleppo by nightfall. As soon as we entered Syria the scenery dramatically changed from the scrublands of turkey to the rock strewn hills of Syria that almost looked white. Soon after the border, we picked up another motorcyclist who beckoned us into a garage. His name was Ahmed and he sat us down with drinks and chocolate cakes. This time the conversation was extremely difficult as Arabic was definitely not on Kate's list of languages. We asked about camping in the grounds but he said he would rather we sleep in the station with him. We were quite happy to do this until his boss arrived and promptly informed us that we were to be staying at his place that night - no questions asked. A few hours later, after having a little lesson in Arabic from Ahmed's cousin, Abdu, we were picked up and driven to Yasir's (the boss) house. There he introduced us to his huge family of mum, dad, 3 brothers, 4 sisters and about 15 children and then to his Russian wife, Irena. Irena had prepared a wonderful spread of humus, yoghurt, stuffed aubergines and courgettes, olive oil, eggs, cheese, bread and apricot jam. It was all homemade and delicious. We then settled in the huge living room, surrounded by all the children each one trying to get our attention. The older ones were helping each other with the homework, whilst the younger ones continued to play with seemingly boundless energy. Once again, it was wonderful being surrounded by such a close knit happy family, and we slept incredibly soundly in the big comfortable bed that they had offered us. Monday 29th November We rose, expecting to be able to leave early, but were waylaid by a huge breakfast spread that took ages for us to give it our fullest attention. Again, they were keen for us to stay rather than go onto Aleppo but slowly came round to the idea. Upon eventually leaving Irena handed us a large bag of stuffed aubergines and a bag of cakes to keep us going! We were driven back to the petrol station where we picked up our bikes, said goodbye to Ahmed and set off towards Aleppo. The riding was really enjoyable and we only stopped once on the way. This was only meant to be a toilet stop but we ended up in someone's house, drinking coffee and eating more cake and oranges. The lady also wanted us to stay in her house rather than go onto Aleppo but again we had no choice. The road into Aleppo was pretty crazy and very busy and without a guidebook we had no idea where to go. Eventually, we found someone who could direct us to some cheap hotels. Tuesday 30th November The hostel we are staying in, the Spring Flower, is lovely (even if the male staff are a little over attentive with Kate) and is very cheap. Being in a travellers hostel has allowed us to spend proper time in western company again. On Tuesday night we went out for dinner with a kiwi couple, Mike and Mary, and an Aussie couple, Shannon and Phil. we had the meal in a restaurant, in an old Ottoman house, and it was an enormous feast. For Aleppo it was expensive at a whole 3 pounds per person. Everything here is so incredibly cheap; you can get huge falafel wraps on the street for 10p and then a freshly squeezed juice from any fruit to wash it down for a 25p extra. Wonderful - this is more like it.
We were depending on the poste restante, which should have arrived by now and had our Syrian and Jordan guide books. Unfortunately, the parcel still hasn't turned up and so we are using a borrowed guidebook in the meantime. In the hostel we have also met two French cyclist, Agnes and Gerard, who are doing an around the world trip. They have brought their bikes for convenience but have used other forms of transport as well. We're surprised since Agnes is carrying over 45 kilos and Gerard has over 65kilos, whilst we have about 40. Good luck to them and we hope to meet up in Egypt. Wednesday 1st December 3169.1 miles, Aleppo, Syria At the moment, although the weather is bright, it is still really cold, so we definitely have to buy some extra clothing for those cold nights in the tent. We've done little today, as we've been forced to stay in our room due to slightly unforeseen toilet troubles - you know what we mean. A nice little introduction to Syria! Tomorrow we're going to visit the Souk (a covered market) and then we'll hopefully leave on Friday. Thursday 2nd December On Thursday we got up early to see the souks in Aleppo. This fantastic warren of covered markets which easily eclipses the grand bazaar in Istanbul kept us busy all day. We tried to see as many of the souks as possible. Some, you were assaulted by the smells of herbs and spices, coffee beans and tea leaves, others, had you surrounded by hanging carcasses of fresh meat. And then in the slightly tourist oriented souks you were harangued by camp and desperate tablecloth sellers. The later in the day it got the lower the price dropped. And all the while, you were forced to step aside for heavily laden donkeys, and miniature Suzuki vans nipping through the narrow and windy covered streets. We don't know where these tablecloth sellers got their gay banter but it was incredibly amusing and had us in fits of giggles. Yet again, Kate took on the role of agony aunt by helping a local speak French to his newly acquired girlfriend. Friday 3rd December After our final breakfast of hot cheese toasties washed down with a big glass of mixed fresh fruit juice we struggled with our bikes down the hostel stairs, packed up and headed out of town. Being a Friday, the roads weren't quite as crazy as they could have been, and after passing through some beautiful countryside, stopping once for something to eat in a little village with some curious teenagers, we arrived in Idleb in the early afternoon having cycled 40miles. Although we had had an enjoyable morning's riding we had a couple of disappointing encounters with young Syrian kids. One had whipped Paul round the face with an olive branch as he rode past and Kate was stoned by some young boys on the side of the road. These are not the only incidents of harassment that we've had in Syria. Lots of kids seem to find it funny to taunt us and Kate has had a number of uncomfortable situations with some local young men. This is in contrast to the incredible kindness and friendliness that is displayed by the vast majority of Syrian people. As if to make this point, as we sat down on the side of the road in Idleb drinking tea, we got talking to a young man called Jihad. He displayed typical Syrian hospitality by inviting us to stay at his home that night. We accepted his invitation (although we felt that we could have cycled a lot more miles that day), and on his insistence paid the slightly extortionate entrance fee to visit the local museum. This wasn't exactly riveting but the information on the archaeological site of Ebla was quite interesting. Having finished our tour of the museum, and stowed away our bikes in his lock up, he then crammed the pair of us into the passenger seat of his pick up, and drove us to his apartment. They were all there; his wife, Buthena, his daughter, Sarmh, and his two sons, Najib and Kwtayba. Like all the families we have stayed with they were lovely and we soon felt at home. Despite there being a power cut the fish and taboullah salad that Buthena cooked us was delicious if a little tricky to dig out the bones in the dark! We found it quite amusing when Jihad phoned the electricity firm and explained that he had two English guests at his house and so could they please hurry up. Whether this did in fact speed anything up we're not sure as the power cut lasted for quite some time. This reminded Kate of those same moments back in Zambia although then they were a little more prepared! Paul's small bike torch seemed to be the only auxiliary light they had! Kate had made the mistake of telling them that she spoke French and German and was soon made to talk on the phone to various people in both languages. We were then whisked off to the first of the night - to meet Jihad's cousin and his family. The wife spoke good French and so we sat with them, using her and Kate as the mediators, being once again interrogated about our trip and our lives. Time drew on and we were force fed more tea, coffee and food. They had invited more family who were coming down from Aleppo especially to see us - at about 11 o clock the first of these arrived. Nour is a student studying English at university and we were again interrogated with the same old questions about our trip, our lives and our views on Blair and Bush. Luckily, when we didn't think we could take anymore, (we'd been up since 6 o clock that morning and were knackered) Jihad decided it was time to go. Despite the family's protestations, we were quietly relieved when we were allowed to go - it was now midnight and we were now looking forward to getting into bed. So we were slightly alarmed when he pulled up outside an unfamiliar apartment block. This time it was his sister-in-law, who spoke German - Kate seems to be having the hardest time of all being the translator. She had been waiting for us all evening, but thankfully we just stayed for some specially baked cake and some lemonade before heading home. We enjoyed the evening and were touched by the kindness, but we don't think they have any idea how exhausting and stressful these occasions are, especially on top of cycling....we'd probably have preferred to stay at home with the kids and gone to bed at 10 o clock what with the state we were in! Saturday 4th December We were absolutely exhausted when we got up at 8 o clock the next morning, having only had a few hours sleep but were determined to at least make some distance that day, and to find ourselves somewhere to stay that didn't involve exhausting conversation. (Trust us you need some time to yourselves every once in a while, as Syrians don't really understand the idea of personal space!). The only hotel that was marked on the 110km between Idleb and Hama was only 25miles away and in our current state (we were both shattered and Kate was starting to come down with something) was all we felt we could do that day. Unfortunately the hotel in question is the Nile International Resort - the kind of place that under normal circumstances we would never dream of frequenting. It was hideous, tacky and expensive....but they weren't busy so we managed to knock them down to a price which we thought was reasonable. The restaurants on the same strip though would have cost us more than the room, so we just settled for bread and cheese in our bedroom. Paul and Kate x
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Challoner's, Fasiledes, Amersham, Buckinghamshire