Where are you from?
Aleppo, Syria
"Where are you from?" is quite possibly the most asked question here in Aleppo. In Istanbul, you get asked that as well, but you're always on guard because you know it's just an opening line for a salesman. Here in Aleppo, you can actually stop and acknowledge the person without the fear of walking away with a 50 pound carpet. Not taking my recent bout of illness into account, the past few days in Aleppo have been a real treat.
After arriving on the overnight bus from Goreme and clearing Syrian customs, I arrived at the international bus station around noon time on Tuesday. After quickly getting my bag I be-lined it across the street so that I could orient myself on the map without being approached by hounding taxi drivers. Turns out the tourist office is right across the street and while I didn't actually go in it, some nice man who was lingering outside pointed me in the right direction to find my hostel, which turned out to be about 500 meters away. Turns out it was good that he showed me because the Lonely Planet shows several different bus stations on it's map and I had though that I had arrived at the "Luxury Bus Station" where as in fact I had arrived at the "International Bus Station", which was much closer to the hostel then I had figured.
Hostel Zahrat ar Rabie, or "SpringFlower" in English, was listed in the Lonely Planet as "the backpacker joint in Aleppo" and since I'm not one of those anti Lonely Planet snobs I figured I'd check them out first. (Anti Lonely Planet snobs are other travelers who role their eyes when they learn you're basically just following travel advice from a Lonely Planet guide book. Perhaps in the busy season you'd be better off getting 'off the beaten path', but in the off season, so far, the Lonely Planet advice has proven quite useful.)
I had two choices for rooms. The dorm room, which was for beds crammed into a rather small room for 180 SP (Syrian Pounds) or a double room all to myself for 350 SP. Since the exchange rate is 55 to 1 for US dollars and I had just come off a 12+ hour overnight bus from Goreme where I had spent a week in a 6 bed dorm, I decided to be a high roller and go for the double, negotiated down to 325 SP (about 6$ US/night) which included a private western style bathroom.
After checking in, I headed out to explore the area around the hostel. The first thing that struck me was that Aleppo had worse drivers and traffic then Bucharest. I realize it's kind of sad to compare towns based on traffic, but it really is one of the first things that you notice while walking around. Here in Aleppo, the use of the horn is non stop, there are no lane markings, merges seem to have no order to them and by shear guesstimate I'd say that around 80% of the cars on the road are yellow taxis. Taxis, taxis, taxis, everywhere... All honking their horns at each other.
One skill that one learns very quickly is how to jaywalk with authority. You see, jaywalking is just common place. Women holding babies jaywalk, business-looking men jaywalk, everywhere you look there is someone trying to cross the street and somehow no one seems to get hit. It's really quite amazing. I think the only people who get hit are westerns who don't cross with authority. Let me explain.
When you need to cross the street, standing on the side waiting for a break in traffic is somewhat pointless because there is rarely a break. If there is a break, then you're probably close to an intersection so you might as well cross there. Thinking a car is going to notice you standing on the sidewalk and then slowdown to let you cross is thinking in western ways, and remember, you're not in the west any more. Instead, the correct approach is to just start walking across. You can't half-ass it either, no two steps forward to wait to see if the car will slow down stuff, because that will get you hit. You just have to go. Sure you make a few speed and angle corrections as you cross each lane, but generally speaking you just go for it. And the reason this seems to work is because each driver is assuming that you're not going to stop moving across the street, so they "calculate" their speed and angle based on that assumption. If you stop, then they have to stop and that's what causes accidents. The irony is all of this is that it happens non stop in front of the "Traffic Police", who really just seem to lounge around intersections while aimlessly blowing their whistle and waving their traffic-baton with the same sort of accuracy that a flight attendant displays when pointing out the emergency exits on a plane.
So anyways, it doesn't take long before I'm a jaywalking champion and after the initial "I'm not so sure about this" feelings, I quickly learn to enjoy it and make a bit of personal contest for myself to see just how close you really can cut it before either a) you get honked at and b) the taxi has to make significant speed and course corrections. The results are a) not very close, you get honked at from at least 25 meters away, but seemingly less then if I were a local? and b) actually quite close, probably to close for any change in speed or course to actually prevent an accident from happening.
After doing nothing more then just wandering around the streets of Aleppo, I head over to a somewhat "famous" felafel stand not far from the hostel for a 10 SP dinner. (Yes, as in 35 US cents). Across the street is the local cinema district showing a decent collection of western movies, all with hand painted bill boards out front advertising the current showing. There's nothing like a hand painted bill board of Tom Cruise advertising Mission Impossible 2... I guess that's a "new release". Every other movie is most likely a Jackie Chan or Jackie Chan inspired "kung fu" movie. For some reason, the Syrians love Jackie Chan...
Heading back to the hostel, I stopped at a local food stand to sample some Syrian sweat drink, which was milky/gelatin based drink served hot with a cinnamon sprinkled on top. Thanks to the Syrian hospitality I got the drink for free which turned out to be a blessing in disguise since I didn't like the drink at all and only had a few sips. (Though of course in the presence of the vendor I thought it was "excellent, very good" and thanked him profusely for his warm hospitality and friendship. (He wasn't the only vendor to offer me some free food or a free sampler that day, at the previously mentioned felafel stand I got some free felafel samplers as well.) Apparently the trick to getting something for free, at least in the food department, is to simply look or point at something with an inquisitive expression on your face. If that alone doesn't serve up a free sample, then just ask what it is, which will almost surely reward you with a tasting.
Since the hostel was rather quiet that night and I was pretty tired after not having slept all that much on the bus ride from Turkey, I decided to take advantage of my double room and get a good nights sleep.
Free felafel sampler, free sweat drink, plenty of "Hello's" and "Where are you from?" and tons of smiles. Not bad for just half a day in a country that just barely missed out on being apart of the Axis of Evil...
Kenny
"Where are you from?" is quite possibly the most asked question here in Aleppo. In Istanbul, you get asked that as well, but you're always on guard because you know it's just an opening line for a salesman. Here in Aleppo, you can actually stop and acknowledge the person without the fear of walking away with a 50 pound carpet. Not taking my recent bout of illness into account, the past few days in Aleppo have been a real treat.
After arriving on the overnight bus from Goreme and clearing Syrian customs, I arrived at the international bus station around noon time on Tuesday. After quickly getting my bag I be-lined it across the street so that I could orient myself on the map without being approached by hounding taxi drivers. Turns out the tourist office is right across the street and while I didn't actually go in it, some nice man who was lingering outside pointed me in the right direction to find my hostel, which turned out to be about 500 meters away. Turns out it was good that he showed me because the Lonely Planet shows several different bus stations on it's map and I had though that I had arrived at the "Luxury Bus Station" where as in fact I had arrived at the "International Bus Station", which was much closer to the hostel then I had figured.
Hostel Zahrat ar Rabie, or "SpringFlower" in English, was listed in the Lonely Planet as "the backpacker joint in Aleppo" and since I'm not one of those anti Lonely Planet snobs I figured I'd check them out first. (Anti Lonely Planet snobs are other travelers who role their eyes when they learn you're basically just following travel advice from a Lonely Planet guide book. Perhaps in the busy season you'd be better off getting 'off the beaten path', but in the off season, so far, the Lonely Planet advice has proven quite useful.)
I had two choices for rooms. The dorm room, which was for beds crammed into a rather small room for 180 SP (Syrian Pounds) or a double room all to myself for 350 SP. Since the exchange rate is 55 to 1 for US dollars and I had just come off a 12+ hour overnight bus from Goreme where I had spent a week in a 6 bed dorm, I decided to be a high roller and go for the double, negotiated down to 325 SP (about 6$ US/night) which included a private western style bathroom.
After checking in, I headed out to explore the area around the hostel. The first thing that struck me was that Aleppo had worse drivers and traffic then Bucharest. I realize it's kind of sad to compare towns based on traffic, but it really is one of the first things that you notice while walking around. Here in Aleppo, the use of the horn is non stop, there are no lane markings, merges seem to have no order to them and by shear guesstimate I'd say that around 80% of the cars on the road are yellow taxis. Taxis, taxis, taxis, everywhere... All honking their horns at each other.
One skill that one learns very quickly is how to jaywalk with authority. You see, jaywalking is just common place. Women holding babies jaywalk, business-looking men jaywalk, everywhere you look there is someone trying to cross the street and somehow no one seems to get hit. It's really quite amazing. I think the only people who get hit are westerns who don't cross with authority. Let me explain.
When you need to cross the street, standing on the side waiting for a break in traffic is somewhat pointless because there is rarely a break. If there is a break, then you're probably close to an intersection so you might as well cross there. Thinking a car is going to notice you standing on the sidewalk and then slowdown to let you cross is thinking in western ways, and remember, you're not in the west any more. Instead, the correct approach is to just start walking across. You can't half-ass it either, no two steps forward to wait to see if the car will slow down stuff, because that will get you hit. You just have to go. Sure you make a few speed and angle corrections as you cross each lane, but generally speaking you just go for it. And the reason this seems to work is because each driver is assuming that you're not going to stop moving across the street, so they "calculate" their speed and angle based on that assumption. If you stop, then they have to stop and that's what causes accidents. The irony is all of this is that it happens non stop in front of the "Traffic Police", who really just seem to lounge around intersections while aimlessly blowing their whistle and waving their traffic-baton with the same sort of accuracy that a flight attendant displays when pointing out the emergency exits on a plane.
So anyways, it doesn't take long before I'm a jaywalking champion and after the initial "I'm not so sure about this" feelings, I quickly learn to enjoy it and make a bit of personal contest for myself to see just how close you really can cut it before either a) you get honked at and b) the taxi has to make significant speed and course corrections. The results are a) not very close, you get honked at from at least 25 meters away, but seemingly less then if I were a local? and b) actually quite close, probably to close for any change in speed or course to actually prevent an accident from happening.
After doing nothing more then just wandering around the streets of Aleppo, I head over to a somewhat "famous" felafel stand not far from the hostel for a 10 SP dinner. (Yes, as in 35 US cents). Across the street is the local cinema district showing a decent collection of western movies, all with hand painted bill boards out front advertising the current showing. There's nothing like a hand painted bill board of Tom Cruise advertising Mission Impossible 2... I guess that's a "new release". Every other movie is most likely a Jackie Chan or Jackie Chan inspired "kung fu" movie. For some reason, the Syrians love Jackie Chan...
Heading back to the hostel, I stopped at a local food stand to sample some Syrian sweat drink, which was milky/gelatin based drink served hot with a cinnamon sprinkled on top. Thanks to the Syrian hospitality I got the drink for free which turned out to be a blessing in disguise since I didn't like the drink at all and only had a few sips. (Though of course in the presence of the vendor I thought it was "excellent, very good" and thanked him profusely for his warm hospitality and friendship. (He wasn't the only vendor to offer me some free food or a free sampler that day, at the previously mentioned felafel stand I got some free felafel samplers as well.) Apparently the trick to getting something for free, at least in the food department, is to simply look or point at something with an inquisitive expression on your face. If that alone doesn't serve up a free sample, then just ask what it is, which will almost surely reward you with a tasting.
Since the hostel was rather quiet that night and I was pretty tired after not having slept all that much on the bus ride from Turkey, I decided to take advantage of my double room and get a good nights sleep.
Free felafel sampler, free sweat drink, plenty of "Hello's" and "Where are you from?" and tons of smiles. Not bad for just half a day in a country that just barely missed out on being apart of the Axis of Evil...
Kenny
posted by Kenny Carruthers at 11/27/2005 12:22:00 PM
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