Day 8
Woke up to a sandstorm, with a capital ‘S’. Could smell the dirt before we looked outside. There was/is a thin layer of dust over everything – inside and out. Brought laundry down to be washed and met Mr. Walid’s son, Mohammed, who drove us to St. Simeon and Ain Dara. St. Simeon, only about 30-45 minutes from Aleppo is in the foothills. With purple and yellow wildflowers peeking out from behind monumental stone churches, it was hard not to be impressed. The rest of the seemingly bucolic landscape was obscured by the sand, but the churches were fantastic. The story goes that Simeon found monastic life too frivolous, so he went to go live in a cave (party animal). People heard about his lifestyle and piety and came to get his blessing, at which time – sick of people – he moved onto a column. Yep. Up on top. His columns got increasingly taller over the years (40) until his death. The monastery he shunned for the cave became a popular pilgrim spot and two churches were built (one for the pilgrims and one for the monks) and later the churches were fortified. Beautiful remains inspired by a total wack-job, I mean, saint.
Hit some traffic on the way to Ain Dara – there was a donkey in the middle of the road. Literally, the middle. And he wasn’t hurrying or picking a lane. Ain Dara is a site with an amazing Neo-Hittite basalt temple still visible. Again – the landscape probably would have been fantastic – if it was visible. When you’re ¾ of the way up the tell, you’re greeted by a huge, basalt lion, “sticking his tongue out and saying, ‘BLAH’ just like Toad.” (of Frog and Toad. That was Noah’s commentary, not Aaron’s.) The temple is just beyond. The basalt blocks with a few ‘claw’ carving still intact were impressive. Best were the footprints of the deity entering the temple. Fantastic. Thoroughly pig-pen-ed (sandstorm), we headed back to the Baron where Noah is being read, “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” for the 400th time today.
Had a couple of false starts in our evening outing. The computer network was down at the internet café, but Noah enjoyed a cherry jello there. A few attempts at ATMs made us realize that we need a Maestro-compatible machine and most ATMs in Aleppo are not. The one in the Sheraton is, but it was out of service (today is a holiday.) We’ll try again tomorrow evening. Headed off to dinner at Beit Sissi, a restaurant in a beautiful old home. We had an early dinner in a balcony overlooking the courtyard. Noah was relatively well behaved (WAHOOO!) except for putting the admittedly crown-shaped folded napkin on his head. Who can blame him? The two guidebook-recommended dishes weren’t available, so we had a delicious ‘Armenian salad’ which tasted like the suq smells (the spice part of the suq, not the meat part). Had amazing spinach, good fried cheese, toshka (the grilled meat and cheese pitas), and pretty good shish tawook. Stopped by to get more bananas, chocolate (I’m big on cocoa bribery now, since I can’t use cartoons), wine (bribery for me), and happened to download photos in the internet café. Came back to find laundry done and arranged to see Ebla and Apamea tomorrow. Our big splurge is to take a private taxi from Aleppo to Damascus stopping at Krak le Chevalier along the way.
This sandstorm is wild. Still hazy, foggy, and everything is covered in dust. Hope I get a chance to see Aleppo….excavated.