Dead Cities – Aleppo

Yesterday we met up with our dapper driver, Abdul, again and set off on another day trip. Our first stop was Serjilla, one of Syria’s Dead Cities. There are approximately 600 sites in the Dead Cities and while the remains look like ghost towns, it is easy to envision how the villages thrived 15 centuries ago. Our next stop was another village in the Dead Cities, Al-Bara, and then we headed north to Aleppo.
I was pretty excited to see Aleppo as my guide book made it sound like a very interesting city with many areas to explore. Commentary such as “Aleppo retains the air of an Arabian bazaar city” with “the most vibrant and most authentic souq (market) in the whole middle east” excited me to check out such a unique city. Aleppo and Damascus both claim to be the oldest continually inhabited city in the world. I don’t really care which city is actually entitled to make that claim – I was just excited to experience a place with so much history.
Our driver dropped us off and pointed us in the direction of the Citadel and market. The Citadel was a massive fortress that was used to protect the city and ward off intruders. We hiked up the stairs and crossed the bridge. In the past, invading forces were subject to being shot with arrows, having boiling oil poured on them and fire shot at them while attempting to cross the bridge. We wandered around the Citadel and admired the panoramic views of the city offered from the top.
It was a nice sunny day and I was finally starting to feel better… Until I fell down the cobble stone stairs when leaving the Citadel. Nope, it was not a very graceful exit at all. If I wasn’t in so much pain I might think it was funny. I rolled my left ankle on one of the uneven stones and fell- down the stairs. My right knee slammed into the corner of a stair to break my fall and jamming my palm on the next stair and jarring my shoulder brought me to a halt. To make things better I managed to land in what seemed to be the only mud puddle in the city. So now my right ankle is swelling while my right knee is bruising and I now have two bad legs and can barely walk. My shoulder made out the least scathed and fortunately it only hurts when I move my arm. The old man next to me said I am lucky to be young as that fall would have broken many bones in his body. He is probably right. I have been searching for an explanation for my sickness and mishaps. Have I been naughty and have bad Karma? Are these signs that I should exit Syria ASAP? If someone knows something I don’t, please tell me.
Due to my inability to walk, we cut our time in Aleppo short and headed back to Hama. Normally, I would ice my knee to prevent and minimize swelling. Unfortunately, ice and other things that are readily available at home are completely unavailable here. There aren’t grocery stores. Meat and dairy products aren’t always refrigerated. I am not sure if it is due to a lack of freezers or what but ice doesn’t seem to exist here.