Day 107: Krak des Chevaliers, Syria

There are a lot of great reasons to travel.  Travel expands the mind.  You learn about new cultures, history, art and architecture.  It makes you want to learn more, to read books and talk about what you've seen.  Meeting new people challenges your preconceptions of countries and individuals.  It's fair to say that travel makes you a smarter, more well-rounded person.

But then, it doesn't always need to be so serious.  One of the greatest joys of travel are those moments that make you feel like a child again.  As a boy I would pore over books about knights and castles, reading about the Crusades, medieval battles and the famous names of Richard the Lion Heart and Saladin.  To a boy, it's endlessly fascinating, but they might as well be fairy tales- crusader castles in Syria might as well be Narnia.

And then, one day, you are there, standing at the massive gates to the greatest crusader castle in the world, and it makes you feel like a kid again. That feeling of nostalgia, insane happiness and hyperactivity all at once.  Because it's Syria, nothing is fenced off, nothing is out of bounds (and even if it is, you just climb over the fence and noone could care less) and I get to spend 2 hours climbing in and under secret passages, standing on top of ramparts and spying through arrow slits. 

I come back later in the day and watch the sun go down, and sleep on a nearby rooftop within stone's throwing distance of the castle walls. I sleep a contended child's sleep that night.