A tečka.: března 2012

We arrived on the 11th March 2010. The travel from Palmyra (Tadmur) was not very difficult - if we forget on difficulty of bargain with taxi/minibus driver. We were quite lucky he was waiting for last passengers. When we left the station to demonstrate that his requested price is too high, one of the fellow passengers soon came with a compromise suggestion a we at last agreed. The bus broken down only once during the trip. We helped the driver to hold the bonnet and were rewarded by coffee. One lady was (quite surprisingly) holding one of our bags during the travel. We surprised her too - we did not agreed to throw plastic cups out of the car's window. Clash of cultures in its essence, isn't it? :-) The trip was quite boring - we were coming from the desert to obviously more fertile lands. We were trying to shorten it a bit by trying to learn some Arabic letters from our Lonely Planet travel guide (that is The Book for all tourist travelling on their own - there are not many books about Syria). Our co-travellers were helping a bit, but they did speak English probably as much as we spoke Arabic. OK, most of the people usually shouted just "How are you? Where are you from?" - we heard these sentences about thousand times:-)

When we at last came to our destination, we didn't like the idea to go and meet another taxi drivers. So we decided to walk to the centre. It should be 7 km on the main street, Lonely Planet said. The walk was quite nice, it was not possible to be lost. And we saw University campus. And the hill where Citadel used to be. And we bought something small in local bakery.

As we were close to the city centre, three boys suddenly came to us. Well, it was not so sudden as they were following us for some time before. They asked us if we are ... scouts. They said we have bags as scouts. We replied that unfortunately we are not. They were disappointed (as it was evident they WERE scouts :-) but not discouraged. After I while they came back to us. They want to give us something. A badge. Scout lilly. But what can we give them back in return? At last they got Czech 50CZK coin - it was the best souvenir I could find on me. They were quite impressed by bi-metal coin with image of Prague Castle on it.

View from "Citadel". (1)

We started to search any hotel on the main square (the one with clock tower). The first one was accessible only by lift (operated by a lift-boy) and quite expensive. After some time we found another (cheaper) one in a small street nearby - it was situated in an old french-style house. It was worst hotel I have been in my life but it was quite enough for two nights. In fact this city was not very interesting for tourist. We came there because my desire to see Krak des Chevaliers - according to Lawrence of Arabia most beautiful castle on the Middle East. It was one day trip from this city.

View from "Citadel". (2)

But it was still to early in the day so we decided to go explore the city a bit more. We went through the market, much smaller than the one in Damascus. We climbed up on the hill where was Citadel long time ago. It is not there any more but it was possible to enjoy nice view from that hill.

Then we looked for Church of Virgin Mary's Belt. It is interesting how many churches you can find in Syria. On the other hand it does not mean thay you can find them very easily;-) After some time wandering in the old city we decided to ask one of boys playing on the street. He definitely was not most typical guide, but he was very interested in our camera with swivel display. I let him to make picture of himself...

Surprisingly, we at last somehow understood each other and he took us to the church. When he started to show us what everything you can do in a church with candles it was time to take him back out the church, reward him with some coins, thank him and say goodbye.

Our guide

A local man took care of us almost immediately and started to tell us a story of the church and the belt. Belt was given by Virgin Mary to St. Thomas. It travelled a bit and after St.Thomas dead it was to be returned to Palestine. But bishop who was carrying the belt felt ill and died in this city. Belt remained here and locals hide it. To be honest, I think there is much more than one such belt in the world but never mind - in Umayyad Mosque in Damascus is also buried one of John the Babtist's heads.

Church of Virgin Mary's Belt

We started our search for main bus station - it was the place from which minibuses to Krak should be departing. According to guide it should be about next 3 km to the north. After previous good experience we were not afraid to ask for directions. Man we spoke to did not speak English but a) we knew at the time how to say "Hello" in Arabic b) we were quite lucky that buses were in whole Syria called "Pullman". Instead of trying to explain us where we should go, he took us to a bus stop and after bus arrived he helped us to buy the ticket. So we found the bus station (in fact we walked through the whole city from south to north border) and then returned to the city centre to find some place for a dinner.

On way back we had a small stop in the city's biggest mosque - Khalid ibn Al-Walid's mosque. He was a companion of Mohammed and commander of his army. Mosque is not only named after him but is also place of his grave. However, we did not see it because we did not wanted to be too intrusive. So we were fine with listening to muezzin in the mosque's garden.

Chalid ibn al-Walida Mosque

On the main street we found a restaurant called Beirut - obviously with tradition from 50ies. Of course we risked to have local (ok, Lebanese ;-) food and of course it was again very good (and of course, change of cuisine had later some side effects ;-). There were not many people in the restaurant - in the same time as we there was just one older American couple. They had hamburgers - probably to be safe:-)

We walked a bit in the city centre. It looked quite different than Damascus (we saw just historical Old City there) and Palmyra (which was just too big village build next to incredible historical complex). This city reminded me Europe. On the street where even displayed photos from the exhibition "Earth from Above" which was not too long before displayed in Prague. The only difference was more photos from Syria in this version;-)

"Earth from Above"

Then we got thirsty and wanted to buy some water. Unfortunately we pointed on a bottle that was not probably for sale - maybe it was salesman's own. He gave it a quick thought and just gave it to us. By which he made us some problems because for over-sensitive tourists it is wiser to drink only bottled water.

Next thing we managed to do was buying some sweets. The shopkeeper did not spoke English at all and we still had some problems with Indo-Arabic numbers. He tried to convince one young woman in the shop to translate for us, but she was obviously too shy. We make the deal after all even without translation and got a box full of (very sweet ;-) sweets. Young woman we met in the shop found some courage after all and came to us on the street to try some of basic phrases (like "How do you like it here?").

It was time to go for bed so we returned to the hotel. Next day we went to Krak des Chevaliers... then we returned and stayed in the city for another night. Next day we continued by bus through Tartus to Lattakia.

Two days in Homs. It was quite different compared to the rest of Syria. People were not obviously looking on tourists like on someone to be ripped off (rest of the country seemed in this more similar to Prague city centre). They were really very nice and friendly. We were interesting for them, the window to the world they know about but likely have no big chance to see. Damascus looked a bit pseudo historic, Palmyra was open-air museum. Homs seemed to be modern and open city. Nice place to visit, another of our views of Syria.

Not so two years later. Homs became centre of humanitarian catastrophe. There are tanks crossing streets, artillery shelling houses. UN Security council resolutions are created just to be vetoed by Russia and China. Bashar al-Asad overcomes his father - infamous for Hama Massacre. I do not know how many of people I've met is still alive. I do not know on which side they are standing now. The only thing I know is that fascinating and friendly Homs does not exist any more...

MJ. :-(