The border guards did in fact permit. Aside for making us pay yet another $56US for the visa, the whole process took approximately 20 minutes with our taxi driver doing most the talking. So much for the embassies in Canada assuring us that it was impossible to obtain visas at the border. Had I known, I would have saved myself the $60 courier fees to Ottawa, the $73 visa and the $10 in photos. That being said, we did hear about Americans waiting for anywhere between 4 to 12 hours to obtain their visas at the border. I guess sometimes it pays to simply smile and nod and be Canadian.
After all the border formalities, we headed to Homs, our pit stop for the next few days and our next Couch Surfing experience. We had “surfed” a night in Damascus with Sam, whose hospitality by all accounts seemed to surpass his means. A couple nights prior to staying with him he had 11 Couch Surfers sleeping in his bedroom. It goes to show, however, that one does need three guest rooms and fancy apartments to open one’s doors to others. In this particular case all that was needed was a small bit of floor space and a mattress.
That being said, we are not hosted by Lise and her husband Ayoub in a very pleasant flat with a beautiful garden on the outskirts of Homs. Lise is originally from France and Ayoub from
Morocco. She is now working in Homs teaching French and on our first night was also hosting four others (Belgians, French, Tunisian and
Moroccan) all of whom were currently on a study break from their Arabic studies in Cairo.
The afternoon we spent with an excursion to Crac des Chevaliers, an impressive
Crusader fortress just west of Homs. As impressive as it was, I might be getting a bit jaded by all the citadels and fortresses, as it seemed as just yet another massive stone construction.
The evening however, was spent in fantastic company over an absolutely amazing dinner. All eight of us headed out to town with Ayoub leading the way to an adorable restaurant. Once there all menus were set aside as Ayoub started discussions with the waiter, both of whom seemed to be bouncing suggestions off one another and the latter madly scribbling on a notepad. This discourse was only briefly interrupted by what seemed like indignation on Ayoub's part when one of the girls inquired about ordering some French cheese as an appetizer. After again inquiring with all of us whether we wanted a Syrian meal or French one, Ayoub recommenced his ordering and finished it all off with some creative negotiations as to the final price for our meal.
The food was absolutely delicious. We had been getting a bit tired of meet and bread which seemed to be staples here. Most of the meals we had ordered were simply that – no sauces, no vegetables – just meat and bread. As we found out the trick is to order many appetizers, various salads, vegetables etc and one meat dish (which is usually just grilled meat) to go with all those appetizers. The “main meals” as they appear on the menus, do not really work very well on their own.
To finish of the evening you should have seen all eight of us piling into a little taxi, and I do mean LITTLE. It was quite the sight: five girls in the back, three guys in the front passenger seat, and the driver desperately trying to operate the stick shift. For now you will have to take my word for it, but I did manage to film a short clip from the inside of the vehicle and if I ever have a really good internet connection to upload videos, I’ll do my best to add it to the website.
Our second day in Homs was spent with an excursion out to Palmyra. The City of Palms, or Todmor, as it is known in Arabic, dates back to about the 18th century BC. However, it did not become a major hub on the trade routes between Asia and the Mediterranean until the Romans around the 1st century BC. In essence it is an oasis town in the middle of a vast desert: 150 km of desert to its west, 200 km of desert to its east and nothing but desert to its north and south. Once the Romans established their base there, Palmyra prospered and vast temples, agoras, and camps were built. The city unfortunately fell into decline around the 6th century AD and was all but destroyed by an earthquake in 1089. What remains now is sufficient to provided the visitor with an inkling of the splendor that must have existed there two thousand years ago.
However, as magical a place as it must once have been, and as acclaimed as it still is, Palmyra proved to be a bit of a disappointment. Maybe it’s the same as with the various citadels and maybe I simply have seen too many Roman columns to fully appreciate them. For me Palmyra left less of an impression than the town of Jerash in Jordan. By no means am I saying that I regretted the two hour side trip into the Syrian desert. However, I will not rave about it and if someone is pressed for time, needing to pick their destinations wisely, then my recommendation would be to skip Palmyra and on route to Amman stop in Jerash for a couple hours.
One thing that has come out of all these side trips is the realization that Syria is a country of crooked trees. I do not know why nor do I understand the how, but it seems that all trees in Syria are slanted in the easterly direction. Some only by a few degrees, however, others are at more than a 30 degree angle. It is an odd sight to be driving along the highway with a bit of a forest to the side in which every single tree is slanted in the same direction. It’s almost as if there was an unrelenting wind blowing from the coast and these trees were too weak to withstand it. There is, however, one exception. Syria is a massive olive producer and we drove through hectares of olive tree plantations. Seemingly these olive trees are immune to these winds as every single olive tree we passed grew perfectly straight, or as straight as one would expect them to be. Go figure.
We parted company today with Lise and headed north towards Aleppo, the last major city in Syria prior to the Turkish border. Like Damascus, Aleppo has an intricate Old City, one in whose alleys you could lose yourself and probably not find the way out for a good few days. However, unlike Damascus, something here is amiss. We did not feel the same kind of atmosphere as we did in Damascus, nor did we feel content to just merely wander around. Maybe it’s just getting to be too much of the same thing over and over again. However, I really think that there was something special about Damascus that no other town can compare with and it’s something that you have to experience for yourself.
