Aleppo

In “Seer-ian” sun, we walked to the Old City in the morning to start our self-directed walking tour. We saw the “Inshallah glide” as we watched two women in chadors cross rush hour traffic without looking.

As we walked into the souk of the Old City, we looked down to see a plate of fresh sheep heads (complete with eyes, a delicacy we’d heard). The old souk was straight out of the movies….men in Arab and Palestinian headgear, women in chadors, little boys riding donkeys through the narrow alleys. Our good fortune led us to Omar, a local shopkeeper with a degree in English, who also trained as a tour guide. After asking for directions, he walked us to the site, then invited us into his shop for tea and offered his services for a two-hour city tour. He left his shop in the hands of a fellow shopkeeper and we headed off into the alleys and back streets of the souk.

He took us up an old staircase to the old French consulate residence, which now was a factory for burlap bags. The bags were piled to the ceilings and young boys and old men sat at antiquated sewing machines stitching the bags together.

We headed to the roof of the building for wonderful views over the city. Then it was on to the Citadel, a collection of Byzantine, Crusader, Moslem and Mammeluke architecture. The defensive position of the fort was amazing- hidden staircases, triple entries. The guide enthusiastically showed us his city and at 2 hours was still going strong.

Our last stop was an old hospital for the insane. It had three stages of “cure”, starting with being put in a small cell with almost total darkness. After a few weeks there, you were taken to level 2 where you got some minimal amount of light and the sound of a water fountain outside your cell. From there, you graduated to the third level where you were still in a cell, but could see outside.

Dropped off in the gold souk, we searched in vain for a charm, but did meet some very charming Lebanese vendors, with great English and good selling skills. One of them told us the story of sending one email and the government slapped a $600 fine on him, in addition to pulling out his telephone line.

After a full day of shopping/touring in the heat, we headed to the Cham Palace Hotel for ice-cold beers and rest from the heat.

We got a ride to dinner in a ’55 Studebaker Commander taxi. The city is filled with old

American cars from the 50’s, a lot of them in excellent condition. We got dropped off in the Christian Quarter- filled with beautiful old houses and winding alleyways. The restaurant we found had just opened its’ doors, so we were one of their first customers. It was a bit like Figs in Charlestown- brick oven pizza and great lasagna.