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Peter and Ahmed in the “Lunatic Asylum”
Ahmed then took us to a Turkish Bath House or Hamam, where the baths were organized
in the same principle as the ancient Roman baths with cold, warm and hot rooms. It was
impressive, but it was not the time yet for a bath and I was worried about my camera lenses
steaming up, so we cut the visit to the steam rooms short. While at the baths, we were
told about Ahmed's famous father, a singer, who was well known to the older inhabitants
of Aleppo and we eventually found a CD of his. Ahmed, himself, seemed to be very well
known everywhere and we were certainly in good hands with him acting as our guide.
We thanked Ahmed, returned to our hotel briefly to freshen-up and then went out together
for a meal at a rooftop restaurant not too far away. The food was good and the local beer
was very palatable.
We then asked Ahmed to if he could find us a music shop. He did better. He found a luth-
ier's workshop with samples of the craftwork in progress alongside some beautiful fin-
ished articles. While we were there, two famous bouzouki players dropped in and gave im-
promptu concerts. Peter had a small digital camera and was able to record some extracts of
the music, which I still have. One of the musicians had just returned from a tour in Paris
and he was very good. The quality of the workmanship on the instruments was impressive
as was the playing of the musicians. It was a great way to finish our first day.
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