Aleppo Souks, Aleppo, Syria in April 2009

Since Roman time,

 the Alleppo souk has been an important trading market in a place that bridges the east and the west.

Even everyday item such as scale is so beautiful at the same time as doing the job is was made for.

Surely the markets full of tourists are quite different to this one.

The Allepo souk has something special to offer, which is to have a glimpse of locals.

There is a butcher who is using an old door to hang meats up before cutting into pieces for customers.

As much as it is a rare view to see this, the butcher in smart suit is another exciting sight.

Despite the scenery of huge red and raw meat everywhere, which we are not quite used to, 

the impression of this place is very well run and nicely managed market.

I guess you will be able to find pretty much everything here.

A juice seller on the street is as exotic as the taste of the juice itself.

Including  just right sized to manoeuvre around narrow alleyways,

There are full of interesting things to look at.

Sometimes you can't help but wonder what some of the objects are for.

Even with tiny toddlers on tow, 

it's still easy enough to wander around for a few hours.

More often than not, 

we are left alone to look around freely without having to endure persistent tout.

Various aromatic herbs are inviting too.

One of the souvenirs tourists can pick up from Aleppo is Olive soap.

The shop keeper had to ask another shopkeeper to help with English to sell them to us, then the translator shopkeeper take us over to invite to his shop.

We were not interest in his silver shop so he let us go without much fuss.

There is abundance of pistachio nut in Syria.

The shop keepers in Aleppo souk are very relaxed when doing business.

They are never pushy at all and always offer us some when we stop to have a look.

From the experience of hard sale world,

 it makes us nervous a bit, 

but they don't mind if we decide to give it a pass after trying their goods.

The shopkeepers of sweets hardly let our children walk pass 

without giving them some in their tiny hands.

We don't intend to buy children sweets, so we will walk pass leaving thanks 'Shukran!' behind us. 

Then it's still fine by them too.

A little mystery of the reason for praising Syrian people is now solved.

The Syrians are genuinely affectionate and caring people.

-----

This trip was back in 2009 before all the trouble started in Syria.

It makes us terribly sad to see the pain those people, 

who were amazingly warm towards strangers like us, 

have to go through at the moment.

I can only hope that it will end quickly. 

I miss the smiles of the Syrians...