Welcome to Syria

We have made it safe and sound into Syria via Antioch in Turkey. I desperately wanted to take a picture of the 'Welcome to Syria' sign at the border, but thought better of it after seeing the arsenal being carried about by the border soldiers. We spent our first few days in Aleppo, which is the newly designated 'Center of Islamic Culture' for 2006. Aleppo is in competition with Damascus to be considered the oldest inhabited city on earth. It is definitely old with a wonderful old town, complete with ancient city wall, souqs, and imposing citadel. Within the old city are numerous 'khans', which are ancient inns used by merchants on the silk and spice road to rest their camels and sleep the night. We decided to do a walking tour on our first morning with a lovely old guy, named Ahmed. He is an agricultural engineer who has retired and stumbled into giving tours to tourist around Aleppo. One day he discovered that he was famous after hearing that he had made it into the Lonely Planet. He gave Leighanne and I a great tour of Aleppo, showing us all the sights and introducing us to some wonderful people in the souqs. We met a family of 9 brothers who all run shops in the souq and spent an hour or so talking with them. They knew about Arncliffe in Sydney, where Nana Ransley lives, because the Syrian Embassy is there. We also met a family in the mosque who were very interested in where we were from and what we did. The picture above is of Leighanne and I with them in the Great Mosque. We had read before arriving that the Syrian people where some of the friendliest on earth, and they are surely living up to it. Many people on the streets welcome you to their country and are happy to walk out of their way to show you the way to a hotel or restaurant.
It's been interesting to talk to the people and get their opinion on how the world is today. The vast majority are bitterly disappointed with how they are portrayed in the media and I totally agree with them. Everyone we have met so far has been very kind. They may not look to favourably on the actions of 'Little Johnny', Tony, or W, but hold nothing against the regular people from Australia, Britian or the US and have been incredibly welcoming. The whole experience so far has been very enjoyable.
Today we traveled from Aleppo to Hama, which will be our base for exploring Krak de Cevaliers tomorrow.