Thu 29 Jul 2010
I got to the bus station to wait for the bus taking me to the border with Syria. I met a Korean doctor-in-training there preparing to make the same trip. She was in the same boat - hoping to get her visa at the border. The next morning, we arrived at the border. The process was a breeze and it took us all of 15 minutes to get the visa. That said, the border people for some reason flipped through all 131 pages of my passport before settling on stamping the page with the Cuban stamp. Birds of a feather flock together perhaps.
We were victims of a quick bait and switch at the border. Admittedly, we were shocked at the cheap cost of our nice big air-conditioned bus which had a total of three people. Once across the border, we were told to get off and wait for a small van that would take us to Aleppo. While having breakfast at Aleppo, we ran into an American who became our travel companion for the next couple of days in Syria.
The three of us made our way to the Ummayid mosque in Aleppo. What I like about the mosques here is that they create a common space that has such different meaning to its different constituents. The mosques in this area have a huge space in the center. To the adults at the mosque, the inner sanctum is meant for their dutiful prayers. To the kids, the open space is a playground. They kept coming up to us to have their photos taken. And after prayers, the space becomes a place for worshipping pilgrims to capture photographic evidence of their semi-touristic journey.



