Arriving in Aleppo, right away I knew I was in a very different place than Turkey. I am not sure how to describe it other than poorer, less modern in thought, and slightly oppressive feeling.
The prices in Syria are silly cheap. Taxis are plentiful and almost free and food is a pittance. The souk, old market, was okay, shop keepers were very aggressive toward me, the rich foreigner of course. I wandered right through without looking at much. On my way out I stumbled upon the Citadel looming over the center of town. This was cool. I sat at a café right in front and had foul
(pronounced fool) which is giant fava beans in a yogurt sauce with ground sesame and olive oil. Seeing that it was only one USD, I made the mistake of ordering some dried yogurt with it. I got so much food there was no way I could eat it all. The yogurt came like hummus on a plate with olive oil, garnish, more pita, tomatoes, mint, onion, lemon, and pickles. The food was good. They have a saying about foul because it has so much protein that it makes all of the blood go to your stomach--so if you are acting stupid--they say you have eaten too much foul.
I wandered the ancient city inside the Citadel and loved the deep underground passages with scary steep steps. I am not sure I was supposed to go in them because they were not lit up, but I had a headlamp. Back up on top I went to possibly the most pathetic pay museum ever. At least it was only about $1.50. All they had were a few column fragments, a cannon, a simple catapult, some tiles, and a bunch of unlabeled crap. The best part of the Citadel, other than the grand entry, was Sharif, a young stone mason who was very happy to talk to me and invited me to eat with him. I regretfully declined eating as I was stuffed with foul. All through Aleppo, I was very pleased with the friendliness of the people.
