We left Alepo around 9 am. The traffic was quite bad and it took some time to find the way out of the city. My oil tank was almost empty. I run 3500 km on used oil and it looks like it will be dificult to find used oil here. We stopped at the 1st gas station to take some diesel, but they were out. The second gas station had diesel but we had to wait in line for 45 minutes. The diesel in Syria is very cheap. One liter is only 7 SP. For 1 Euro you can get 10 liters. This is the reason why I had to pay 100 USD to drive my diesel car in Syria. Most of the cars run on benzene and it is more expensive than diesel, it costs 30 SP (40 cents). Since we missed the road to St ? we decided to go directly to Sergilla, but it was not on the map and knowbody knew where it is. We found some other dead cities. We took the freeway which was mostly 2 lines but sometimes cars and motorcycles run in the opposite direction. There was not much traffic and driving was safe. We were happy to find out that the biggest dead city Sergilla is nearby the dead cities we found on our map. We took one Syrian guy and he showed us the way. After few stops we have arrive to Sergilla. It is dead city which was build at around the year 200 AD by early Christians. There were no tourist and the light was very good for making pictures. After some time walking and making pictures of the old houses and churches a young guy appeared and brought us small flower. He did not look very arabic. I gave him some change and he told me that he lives here with his family. He has 2 brothers and 2 sisters and they moved into one of the old houses. They have 6 sheeps and they have been living here for 5 years. I asked if I can make few pictures at his house but his father did not want to. I took one picture with his brother. Outside we met his sister. She went for water. I also made few pictures of her. She had amazing eyes. They liked taking pictures so I took more. They all looked very different from the people we met in Allepo. They walked with us to our car and I have printed few pictures and gave it to them. They were very happy. As we were leaving a young guy came on the motorcycle and we had to pay the standard 150 SP each for visiting the site. It was getting dark and our next stop was the Aphilia a roman city. Since there were not too many signs we asked few people for directions. One guy spoke very good English. He was very happy to find out that Im from Czech Republic and he told us that one of his relatives lives in Prague. He invited us for a tea to his house. We sad down in a big room. In the middle there was a small chimney and it used the diesel (mazut) for heating. Soon it was warm and I have discovered that this is the standard way of heating Syrian houses. This is also why the diesel fuel is so cheap and sometimes harder to get during winter. They brought in the traditional black tea and a lot of food. He told us that he is a farmer. He has 10 acres and grows olives and figs. They brought some and they were very good. The food was very good and his mother show us how to eat it. All girls were sitting by the wall and after we finished the food they took Agnieszka to another room. Since we already had similar experience in Turkey it was not so strange. It was very nice to have a possibility to talk about life in Syria. Mafrih was very nice and a his Engish was very good. He told me that he has learned English at school. He was about my age and had only 2 kids He lives together with his parents, grandparents and brothers and sisters. He has ??? sisters and ??? brothers. We find out that syrian family with 8 kids is quite normal. Mafrih told us If family has more kids than it is problem for the education. He told me that it is normal that family members live together in one big house, but they all have separate rooms, kitchen and bathrooms. It is still very strange for me to see how the social life of man and woman is separated. The man play every night cards and stay up quite late. As it was getting late he invited us t o stay at his place. Agnieszka was sleeping with two girls in their room and I preferred to stay in my van which I park in the garage.
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