Slow train to Lattakia

There are two types of train from Aleppo to Lattakia, the suburban train and the express, each with first & second class. Second class on the slow train costs less than a euro and takes three & a half hours to arrive in Syria’s main coastal city.

Why pay twice the price to lose an hour of gazing out of the window at the sublime valleys that sit between Aleppo & the coast?

Obtaining a ticket is less simple than the choice of which train to take: once you have explained where you want to go, at what time, and in which class, you then cross the station to register your details from your passport, then back across to get the details validated. Bureaucracy at its best.

Prayer & Thunder

A brief glimpse of sunshine brought us to Aleppo’s citadel. As we emerged from the throne room, a storm rolled in. Taking shelter under the ruins of an arch, the afternoon call to prayer came from the muezzin, echoing off the ancient walls of the citadel as the rain hammered down.

Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar
Ashadu an la llah ila Allah
Ashhadu an Mohammed rasul Allah
Haya ala sa-sala
Haya ala af-fala
Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar
La llah ila Allah

The call was soon followed by a deep, roaring thunder that accompanied the storm.

The best coffee in Aleppo

Serving it up fresh in the souk with his ledger for the store-holders.

The coffee here seems to be infused with cardamom, making it delicious.

Sheltering from the rain in the Aleppo citadel.

(It sounded a little like this.)

Aleppo souq

Getting lost in the city is the way to go; there you find the little souks which provides everything from scrap metal to live chickens to the people living amongst it. Where you share the alley-ways with children delivering shai, motorbikes weaving through women dressed in chador, mini-vans squeezing in-between the stone walls, and the occasional man on a donkey ambling through it all.

They are also the place to eat, paying 0.25€ for a falafel, and washing it down with a fresh local brew.

As the sunlight fades, the streets fill with the sweet smell of narghile tobacco.