The Syrian coast: Tartus and Lattakia

Crac des Chevaliers

Wednesday 5th

Today we headed off to Tartus, on the coast. it was a long day of travelling because we had to stop off in Homs, change bus stations, and catch another bus to Tartus. Some dudes offered us a taxi ride to Tartus from Homs, the more interested we got, the more the price went up...7 no...800 pounds...no 9 ,eventually we gave up and caught the bus.

The walls of Crac

Me playing medieval castles

Thursday 6th

Today around 11 we left Tartus for a little day trip. We went to see Crac Des Chevalier, a middle ages castle which was a major fortress during the crusades. It was pretty impressive just how much of it was still standing. I guess it helped that it was in use until the 1900's! And now its used by tourists, making music video clips and evidently frequently by people with small bladders judging by the smell of urine throughout!


And now a pictoral tour of the Crac....

The inner walls of the castle


for the shooting of arrows...

people sellin stuff
awesome vaulted ceilings... and a dirty rag
oooh the dungeons....
Looking out of the chapel
Courtyards.. der
I think this is the chapel too, or the kitchen... :)
hmmmm...
someone's wardrobe? actually maybe a storehouse or something?
deep in thought
Nick was actually going down a dark and scary corridor, I ruined it with the flash :)

Cool model of Crac.
The view of Crac from St Georges monestry...

Next we went to a really old church that has a new church and monestry built on top, St Georges. (as in the dragon slayer) Not sure whether this is where St George hung out or what, but they had some cool old paintings of him slaying a dragon.


St George slaying the dragon... but dragons aren't real... right?
St Georges
Pistacio's for sale in Tartus

Next stop was this fabulous tower. Its actually a church as well, not sure what came first. It was very azkerban-esque a cube siting on top of a hill that you can see from miles away. I'd say it was also used in the crusades.
Really cool Tower/ church... can't remember its name though :(Inside the tower...

Friday 7th

We arrived in Lattakia not long after lunch, booked into a hotel owned by the worlds biggest Tin tin fan (sorry Casey). Lattakia is a beach holiday spot for Syrians but we weren't so enamoured with the idea of the trickle of raw sewerage that is supposedly common.

Saturday

Today we had a boring laundry/ organisation day and sat around reading Tintin comics :) this is the life.


Lattakia, a 'Christian' part of Syria... all I noticed was more fashion, more skin, less headscarves and lots of cafes... don't know what this means though....

Sunday

We had planned to see yet another castle ruins but when it came to the crunch we both admitted we weren't really into it so we had another tintin & TV day, interrupted only by brunch and dinner. We are getting seriously lazy in Lattakia!

Monday
Bound for Aleppo in a slightly rickety, stiflingly hot train....