Posts
3590
Joined
3/2/2009
Location
NO
Edited Date/Time
4/28/2019 6:56am
So, just left Syria this morning. Vital must have US servers, as I wasn’t able to log on from Syria, but Instagram and Facebook worked. Not a big fan of those, and Snapchat and iCloud were blocked too. Anyways...
Just arrived in Beirut, so I will do this from my phone. Bare with me on the typos, too tired to correct them. Better pictures and more stories will follow tonight Beirut time. There are som good ones I reckon. Been on Syrian state TV, talked to all kinds of locals, seen both beauty and low points in human history.
Short story: amazing trip, amazing people, parts of Homs, Aleppo and Ghouta look like German cities in May 1945. But most of the cities are standing and doing well, but Islamist held areas were destroyed in the fighting, and the areas are much bigger than I thought.
SO much history and culture, don’t even know where to begin. Very satsfying and interesting.
Passed through about 100 checkpoints in a week, never any trouble, most lf them very friendly and welcoming.
I will leave the darker stuff for when I have time to explain them better
A few pics for now:
Just arrived in Beirut, so I will do this from my phone. Bare with me on the typos, too tired to correct them. Better pictures and more stories will follow tonight Beirut time. There are som good ones I reckon. Been on Syrian state TV, talked to all kinds of locals, seen both beauty and low points in human history.
Short story: amazing trip, amazing people, parts of Homs, Aleppo and Ghouta look like German cities in May 1945. But most of the cities are standing and doing well, but Islamist held areas were destroyed in the fighting, and the areas are much bigger than I thought.
SO much history and culture, don’t even know where to begin. Very satsfying and interesting.
Passed through about 100 checkpoints in a week, never any trouble, most lf them very friendly and welcoming.
I will leave the darker stuff for when I have time to explain them better
A few pics for now:
It always blows my mind to see photos of these places and see green. Being that we're constantly bombarded with the dusty–dirty–imagery it's hard to remember how pretty it can be. Hell, that photo looks like it's straight from East County San Diego after a rain... sans the castle of course.
The Shop
But it requires a lot of work, and equipment. I am in the process of trying to make a travel documentary riding a motorcycle across all continents though. I have a friend who wants to join, and I reckon it should be possible to get funding from sponsors and TV. There are tons of travel docs on Netflix, but few bring anything new to the table. We would have to hitchhike across the seas on cargo vessels etc. Could be cool.
I flew in to Beirut, where he (Muhammed) picked me up and we drove to Damascus. First thing across the border is a big Tax Free shopping centre where the Lebanese go to buy in bulk for a cheap price. Kind of weird and funny.
Damascus was beautiful, very arab. Chrurches and mosques everywhere, often next to each other. Walked into the biggest and oldest mosque they have, saw remains from a mortar strike which had hit the meosque two years ago, killing many. Very sad and a reminder of what was to come.
Went to Aleppo for two days. The drive was extra long as we have to drive round Hama and Idlib, as that is were the remains of Al Qaida are located.
On the way to Aleppo, we drove past Esst Ghouta and Homs, for my first real taste of destruction. It was surreal to see it. Just wasteland and ruins, but completely quite.
Aleppo has the famous citadell which the terrorists never got into. I was able to go inside it, and also see the city from above. Incredible views of a partially destroyed city.
Palmyra was the highlight of the trip. It was so sad, yet so interesting. IS destroyed parts of the old city, almost all of the newer city, and all of the museum. There where still statues on the floors, and hacked off faces on all relics.
We were taken to a IS bunker which was left as is. I was interviewed by the local state media, before leaving the place together with a general my guide knew. So we basically got a VIP treatment on the way back. He was really nice and friendly, and said I could ask him anything I wanted regarding the war, military etc. He had been involved in the battle for Palmyra, Aleppo and Homs, as he was responsible for the region. Very interesting!
Krac De Chevalliers is an old castle used to protect crusaders. It was held by Al Sham for two tears before it was liberated by the army. Very cool to see.
I am writing this on my phone, so I will start posting some pictures now, and maybe write more later
You’d think they would preserve that castle or actually use it.
The other thing with that castle is. People always dream of living in a. Castle and clearly there was someone living in it. But it sure wasn’t luxiourous for them!
Another amazing story of yours, thank you.
I posted a bunch more pictures and answered «moto-moto’s» questions regarding the castle. It all seems deleted including his post? I dont understand why, is there a mod here who can please explain why it was taken down?
Can I reupload the pictures?
Pit Row
Anyways thanks for all the pictures man. Cool shit we dont get to see otherwise. Post all ya got!
Cool trip, bucket list stuff. I love to see all the history but seeing so much of it being destroyed is a sad site. Not all history is good history, but when it is destroyed and gone, well....it's gone. Keep posting up pics and a story line to go with them.
Stupid question, Why did you go there?
It’s also interesting to see the city with random blown apart buildings and then people just going about there life.
And finally it’s nice seeing the people and kids smiling and giving the camera a wave/thumbs up and a smile. It’s easy to think how all the people “over there” are so different, when really they are just like us just caught in a bad part of time. I’d love to be able to talk to some of these people. Cheers
Will give you more stories along the way.
Some statues and mosaics as you can see are destroyed, and the faces hacked. That`s all IS work. Just thug actions, many of the artifacts weren`t even religious. Very sad
Going to Aleppo we had to make a huge detour to avoid Idlib where the remains of Al Qaida from Homs and Aleppo were bussed. There was a rocket fired from Idlib which hit Aleppo the day I arrived. Could hear it from where I was.
I Google translated the headline and it says: "Palmyra - a Norwegian tourist documenting the devastation left by a terrorist organization in the city"
Anyways, here is the segment:
https://youtu.be/nxaWprpquG0
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