Apilia

We got up earlier and took a walk in the city. It is called Kafir Nabil and had about 26 thousand people. It was clear that we are strangers and and as we walked we have received a lot of welcomes and few invitations for tea. Before we left we had a very nice breakfast at our host. I took few more pictures of Mafrih family and printed few for them. It was a very nice experience and I wish we could stay longer. Our next stop was Aphilia was onyl 35 km and t was quite easy to find. We stopped our van near to the museum and walked up the hill to the castle. Soon we were approached by few men trying to sell us some antiques they found in the ruins - old coins, stamps, vases. The looked quite nice but I was afraid to by anything antique and travel with it. One guy on motorcycle appeared few times showing more and more antiques. He spoke good English and gave us a short tour of the citadel and took us on his motorcycle the the ancient site which was about 500m away. After some recitation I have bought a small stamp that he found. It is supposed to be almost 2000 years, but since it cost only 5 USD it is probably not, but I like it anyway. After we the ticket for 150 SP we walked the 1.3 km Roman colonnade which was build around 100 BC. It was used as a market for selling goods. It was quite impressive and well preserved. At the end of the colonnade we met again our "guide" and he took us the the old church and invited us again to his home for tea and to see his antique museum. We visited his house and he told us that he is 33 years old and he has been selling antiques for 15 years. He also has a small vegetable store which is run by his brother. He married 5 years ago and has two daughters - 1 year and 4 years old and his wife his now pregnant. His wish is to have a san. He wants to have a big family and wants to build bigger house across the street. He showed us more antiques and told us about his job. I was quite happy with my one stamp and we did not by more things.
We missed the museum it was open only until 3 pm, but we met the guide. He has a small shop across the museum and he also invited us for coffee. He show postcards of the mosaics which are in the museum. He was very happy to find out that Agnieszka is form Poland and told us about Polish archeologists which come every summer and stay at his place and invited us to sty there over night. He has ?? kids ?
Since we were runing out of time we diceded to leave at night and drive to Palmyra. We left around 11 pm and I drove until 12:30 am. The road vas good no traffic. We stayed over night next to a police station 160 km from Palmyra