Rose City

Today takes me 1000 years back and about 200km East of Crac des Chevaliers. Now it's all Greeks and Romans and an ambitious local queen called Zenobia. She managed to get rid of an unwanted husband by dubious means, but then foolishly tried to take on the Roman empire, and if you've read your history books you'll know who won that one.

Yup, it's Palmyra, the Rose City. Situated in a dry sandy plain circled by pink mountains, the setting is probably the most impressive part of the setup, since, let's face it: old Greek and Roman temples - seen ten, you've seen them all... But not to get too blase about it, Palmyra is rather impressive and it does give an exceptionally good idea of the scale of the city with impressively long pillar colonnades and many temples, some of them very well preserved. I am also very impressed with the perfectly preserved carvings in some of the stones - now how did they manage to remain so pristine after two milleniums of sand being blown on them? (Okay, so the answer is probably: under the sand).

There is also a red castle perched on the mountain overlooking the ruins, which is a nice spot for admiring the surrounding mountains at sunset. So all in all Palmyra has been worth the excursion. Why, I've even managed to have some decent food here!

Now the Lonely Planet (the Holy Planet as I heard it appropriately called) will have you believe the food in Syria is the piece de resistance of the country. Well, ask any traveller I've ran into and they will heartily disagree! Especially after the delights of Turkey, Syria is a big fat slap in the face. Lovely fresh vegetables and fruit are sold at the markets, but they all end up in private homes. The only things that make it to the restaurants seem to be mediocre kebabs, greasy falafels, fried chicken, french fries (they lurk everywhere, even inside a lamb kebab roll) and a raw tomato, cucumber and parsley salad. In fact in Hama, where I was staying to visit Crac des Chevaliers there simply were practically NO restaurants - a falafel bar and one "restaurant", which served only one portion - half a fried chicken with chips and Hummus. Yum? I am, however, hoping for better culinary action in Damascus, where I head tomorrow.

Now it's off to look for dinner - hopefully with no complimentary massage action this time