When we travelled around the country, the last place for us to visit before we returned to Damascus was Palmyra. The place is amazing and something everyone should get to experience. We werw incredibly happy that we had saved this place to last, because if we had seen this earlier on the trip, we would probably end up disappointed with a few other sights, like the abandoned Byzantine cities outside Aleppo; the dead cities. This is why I will show you the photos in the same order we saw these two places. And I sincerely hope our pictures will make Palmyra justice. It is an amazing place.

The dead cities have been abandoned a long long time, but were well preserved. There are quite a few of them, but we only visited the two closest to Aleppo. When we were there, it was just Christopher and I and our driver who stayed with the car. At least that was what I thought, until I ended up walking into a farm situated just behind the city. They even used the ruins as stables for their sheep.

Palmyra was founded in ancient times, and had Roman influences although it was its own empire with their own mythology. I believe the city was discovered as late as the 1970s and it was only a few years ago that a team of Japanese archeologists discovered some tombs a bit further away. Palmyra is a vast city and very well preserved. It feels like you have travelled back in time when you walk around these magnificient old buildings and columns. The small (modern) town that exists today only live off turism, and before the old Palmyra was discovered there was nothing here apart from sand. Quite a lot of sand we noticed when we got caught up in a small sandstorm the last day.

Most of our time in Syria we stayed at cheaper backpacker hotels, although nice and clean ones. Most of these hotels served the breakfast on a metal tray (charming, I imagine that is what you get in prison) with freshly baked bread, hardboiled egg, olives, butter, jam and a fruit. And tea or coffee with that. One of the hotels, which was a little bit more lika a B&B, served breakfast in the family dining room, and without the metal trays. Instead we had fresh smoothies, a few different kinds of Syrian pastries, baguettes and lots of different toppings. And hardboiled eggs of course.

B&B style brekkie

When we stayed at Beit Zafran, the nice hotel, the breakfast was amazing. My stomach was not great so I only had a little, but Christopher ate and ate.  

We sat on the rooftop terrace, that was covered, but the sun was still shining on us. It was only us and another two people having breakfast late, and the service was outstanding. Outstanding. The freshly squeezed orange juice was served in champagne flutes, and we had the choice of tea or coffee. We chose tea, and as soon as we had a sip or two the cup was refilled. They probably refilled our teacups six times in half an hour. The bread basket was filled with sliced baguettes and croissants straight from the oven. We had a croissant each and then new fresh ones appeared.

Apart from lots of different cheeses, vegetarian paté and jams, there was fruit slad, Syrian semolina, olives, dips and sauces, and probably a lot more. I forgot the camera in the room, and my sunglasses, but I hope the description will do. It was lovely!

The chef who we had cooked with a week before came to say hello and chat a little. A nice touch, and all of the staff seemed genuinely nice. 

When we didn’t order mezze in nice restaurants, we went crazy for the schwarma. So tasty! The crispy outside is the best bit. The best schwarma place we found in the otherwise quite boring town of Hama. We just stumbled upon it, saw how popular it was and were not disappointed! Second best was a place behind the Umayyad mosque in Damascus. They recognised us in the end and let us pay after we’ve eaten instead of before, because it was quite likely that Christopher would have a second one.

Some days we planned poorly and couldn’t find lunch when we were somewhere remote, so we always tried to have some snacks in our bags.

We also tried Western food. When my stomach was really bad I thought food I was more used to would upset my stomach less. We found a nice Italian restaurant that was recommended on a blog, so we had pizza. It was really nice, but a bit too cheesy.

This is the last blog post about Syrian food. For now. I’ll come back when I have started cooking Middle Eastern food myself. 

Christopher was excited about Krak des Chevalier already when we were home in London. It is a grand crusader castle from the Middle Ages, and just the type of thing boys love.

I had an upset stomach at this part of the trip as well, but there were lots of big old rocks where I could sit down and rest, so it went well. The place is majestic and I am happy to have seen it. It is well worth a visit.

After a few days in Damascus, we travelled up north to Syria’s second city – Aleppo. We both loved the city, that oozes more history than Damascus. It was easy to find our way around, apart from maybe the oldest part of the town, which was a bit of a maze. We loved just walking around without aim, and that was how we stumpled upon the best icecream parlour in the city. It was packed with Arabs, so we joined the queue.

In Syria (and probably all over the Middle East) they use ground orchid root as a thickener, and I could taste it in this icecream too (as well as the strange icecream in Damascus). It has a sweet flowery flavour, actually, and although it tastes nice, I prefer regular icecream.

One of the main things to do in Aleppo is to visit the souq. It is busy busy and have lots of different isles with different things on sale. It is older and more authentic than the one in Damascus, and in the food isles, you got to see some interesting things.

The market was a maze, and it is suppose to be the most authentic souq in the Middle East. I think that is probably true, it was everything but glamorous!

Another must see is the grand citadel. It was huge and really interesting to see.

The grand entrance.

And the spectacular view from the top.

We visited some restaurants as well of course, but I think they deserve a post each. To be continued…

The second day in Damascus we had signed up for a culinary tour. I had found the company, Damascus Fork, on the internet when I was researching restaurant, and what they offered was exactly what I (and Christopher) would enjoy doing. It involved a guided tour in Damascus, and to cook authentic Middle Eastern food with a Syrian chef.

The ‘group’ consisted only of me and Christopher, and we had two tour guides. One was the girl who started the company, and the other one her assistant. They both loved food, and what they showed us was amazing. They picked us up outside our hotel in the morning, and we took a cab to the Old City and the souq. Even though we had spent hours here the day before, we learned lots of new things with our personal guides.  

The first stop on the tour was at Bakdash, an icecream parlour in the souq, which has existed in the same spot since 1890. The place is extremely popular in the Middle East even though they only have one flavour on the icecream. The icecream is made by hand and some pretty strong guys beats the icecream into the required consistency with a wodden club. It has a peculiar taste because it contains ground orchid root, which is used as a thickener. The icecream was nice, but quite different from the type we’re used to. 

What tasted even better than the icecream, was this hot drink that tasted a bit like thin hot custard. It was lovely and soothing, and would be perfect to drink at night if you’re cold or before you go to bed.

Three types of za'atar

Next stop on our walk was at a spice whole saler, where we got to smell and taste typical Syrian spices. The place had such a strong smell of different spices it nearly made you dizzy, and that really tells you something about the punch of the spices and the good quality. It was a great experience, and we got to try three different blends of za’atar, and just as we were deciding which mix we liked the most, they told us that they had a house mix, which mixed the three together, and that one blew all the others away. Za’atar is a spice blend mainly consisting of dried thyme and sesame seeds, and it is very versatile. You can mix it with olive oil as a dip or use it to cook fish and meat.  

Next up was a stop in a basement where they made sugared almonds in something that looked like a cement mixer. The sugar coating is white and sweet, and later on we bought some to take back to our offices. They disappeared very quickly!

Before we got to cook ourselves, we got to watch this man cook some very nice savoury pastries. He was the local chef in a neighborhood kitchen, which means that he would cater for all main events in the residential area he works in. And I would love to hire this guy, his pastries were so nice. We ordered them in many restaurants, but no restaurant could top his. 

The filling for the pastries

Deep-frying

And ready to eat! Crisp puff pastry filled with a melted cheese and parsley mixture. YUM!

He basically made a Syrian version of puff pastry, making a dough of flour, water and salt, and brushing it with butter several times as he was rolling it out. He then rolled it out very thin and placed balls of the cheese and parsley mixture on. He then covered it with another layer of the dough, and cut out little squares around the filling, like ravioli. These were then deep fried until colden and crisp on the outside and the cheese mixture had melted on the inside. They were amazing when they came straight from the pan!

On the way to the hotel and our cooking session we made a pit stop at a street food vendor who cooked something similar to a pizza or quesadilla on a big metal barrel that had a fire inside. The top of the barrel was rounded and he placed a thin round of dough on it, spread some tomato sauce on it and sprinkled some cheese, let it cook until the dough was cooked through and crisp and rolled it up. This was really tasty too! But melted cheese is like bacon, isn’t it – hard to resist?! 

When we finally reached the hotel we each got a nice warm towel to refresh us with and a lovely glass of juice. After a few minutes in their covered courtyard we were ready to cook. The kitchen was on the top floor, with a rooftop terrace outside, and we got to meet the very charismatic chef.  

Cooking is fun!

Chicken parcel with rise inside

With our meal we got to try two Syrian wines, a white and a red. I didn’t particular like the white wine, as it was rather sour, but it was fun to try local wine. The red wine was much nicer and was nice to drink with our meal. We also got to try the local spirit arak, it tastes of aniseed and is served the same way as French pastis, with water and ice. But the arak was too strong for me. Both the aniseed flavour and the alcohol flavour were strong even when diluted. Fun to try though.  

The desserts

Our culinary tour started around 10am and we had finished eating around 4pm. It was a lovely day and well worth the $65 we spent each. I felt that I got closer to the local cuisine, and seeing what spices and ingredients the chef used was valuable knowledge.

You find more information on the website: Damascus Fork.

We started and ended our holiday in Syria in the capital Damascus. When we got off the plane and proceeded into the airport I wondered for a quick moment, if maybe we had landed somewhere else, as it looked like a tiny airport like the one outside my hometown of Malmö, Sweden. But no, we had landed in Syria. The passport control was interesting, as it took each passenger about 10 minutes to go through. We were asked lots of questions and they checked our passports very thoroughly for Israely stamps, which would mean you’d be refused to enter the country.

We arrived at 11pm and just took a taxi to our hotel and said goodnight. The nexy day we started by changing hotels (don’t believe everything in Lonely Planet!) and went for a wander. Already at this initial stage we noticed lots of differences to the Western world. There is so much more life on the streets. People selling snacks, fresh produce or something manufactured, and there are so many more people out. All day it felt like the London rush hour on the busiest streets.

We started our tour of the city by ticking off the big things like the souqs, the grand mosque,Azam’s palace and the rest of the old city. I don’t want to write a lot about the sights, but will show you the pictures.

Azam's Palace

The Umayyad mosque

The second day in Damascus we did a food tour, which I will write about in its own post) and when we were done with that, we took a cab to the new city, and that looked exactly as I had pictured the Middle East in my head: multi-lane roads lined with palm trees.

The hotel!

When we had travelled around the country for a week we returned to Damascus, and stayed in a fantastic boutique hotel for a night. It was lovely, the best service I have ever experienced, and I so wish we could have afford to stay there longer, but it was a lovely treat to stay there one night. Especially when we had experienced a minor sand storm earlier in the day. We basically looked liked tramps when we checked in, but after a nice long soak we looked like ourselves again.