My Daily Life in Syria (Heart-Breaking Travel Experience)

that’s one of the saddest places you
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know minds on her life man why would
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someone do something like there are so
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many people that shine so much beauty in
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destroy so many buildings cities towns
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villages everything families kidnap
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someone for ransom I obviously don’t
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need to tell you about how crazy and sad
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and heartbreaking the situation in Syria
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after the Civil War really is because
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you know I’m sure you know already but
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some time ago I actually got the chance
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to get inside the country that
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experience was one of the most emotional
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and heartbreaking travel experiences of
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my entire life but at the same time I
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met so many wonderful kind beautiful
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incredible people there that inspired me
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with their belief that you know life
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could get better some day despite all
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the terrible things happening around
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them this is my daily life in Syria
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after the Civil War modern-day Syria is
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one of the most ancient inhabited
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regions on earth as the oldest human
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remains found in Syria date back to
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roughly 700 thousand years ago Newt is
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incredibly lucrative geographical
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location Syria was occupied and ruled by
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many strong empires of the past
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including the Egyptians Assyrians
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Babylonians Phoenicians Persians Greeks
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Romans and Byzantines in 637 ad Muslim
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armies defeated the Byzantine Empire and
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took control of Syria less than a
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thousand years later Syria fell to dance
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of the Ottoman Empire which ruled the
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country for 400 years but finally gained
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its independence in 1946 Syria gradually
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became one of the most touristy places
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in the Middle East due to the country’s
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ancient history famous historical sites
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and great weather it got so popular in
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fact that it was visited by eight and a
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half million tourists from around the
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world in 2010 netting the country over
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eight billion dollars in revenue
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however things changed dramatically in
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early 2011 what started out as peaceful
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protests eventually turned into a
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full-blown Civil War where the
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government forces were fighting the
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rebels called the Free Syrian Army the
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battle became a lot more complicated as
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it progressed new forces including
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various terrorist groups joined the
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fight and ravaged the country in the
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ensuing conflicts numerous cities got
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destroyed hundreds of towns and villages
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were abandoned and millions of people
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fled their homes and their country
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causing one of the largest refugee
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crisis the world had ever seen as he
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resolved the movement of tourists
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declined by more than 99% causing the
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revenues to diminish and the whole
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tourism industry to collapse as hardly
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any foreigners would visit the country
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this is the situation Syria was in when
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I won there as a foreign tourist I’m
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currently in beard the capital of
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Lebanon and right now I’m walking to a
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meeting place with my driver who will
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actually take me to Syria and then I met
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my driver hopped into his truck and
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started my long drive towards Syria
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we’re currently approaching the border
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with Syria it’s still richer than just a
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few kilometers we apparently have some
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sort of a buffer zone between Lebanon
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and Syria which is wearing me out right
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now my first friend inside the country
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was really fascinating as it felt
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completely surreal being there
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I mean it’s Syria you know an hour later
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I finally arrived at the country’s
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ancient capital called the masses
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Damascus is not only a famous UNESCO
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World Heritage Site but also the oldest
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continuously inhabited city in the world
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as over ten thousand years old
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YouTube’s geographical position at the
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crossroads between Africa Europe and
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Asia the city has been Conqueror and
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conquered wealthy and destitute and
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capital of empires and small States
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these days Damascus still retains a lot
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of its ancient beauty with large market
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spread all throughout the city prominent
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churches and mosques old coffee shops
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and traditional hotels museums palaces
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narrow lanes that take you many years
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back in time and of course is inhabited
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by incredibly nice not only that
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Damascus has a few places I honestly
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never expected to find they’re like this
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modern shopping mode what I’m chilling
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at a pretty fancy shopping mall here in
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Syria
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they have many shops actually a lot of
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customers it looks pretty fancy look at
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that even have pawned fees were still
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hardly believing that I was walking
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around his shopping mall in Syria I went
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back to the old town and entered the
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city’s crown jewel the Great Mosque of
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Damascus which is one of the largest and
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oldest mosques in the entire world this
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mosque is so big and so kind of what’s
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crazy there’s so much history all around
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me right now literally thousands of
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years old and
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I’ve seen this place so many times on
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the media and YouTube and Google and
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everywhere and now the spot where the
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mosque now stands used to be a temple
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for the worship of Jupiter then later
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became a Christian Church in the
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Byzantine era and eventually was turned
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into this great mosque legend dating to
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the 6th century holds that the building
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contains the head of John the Baptist
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and the mosque is also believed by
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Muslims to be the place where Jesus will
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return at the end of days literally
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everything looked really beautiful
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inside the mosque but my guy did a hum
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saw the decorations were the best part
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as you can see this mosaic is the only
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one like this in the entire world
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because the style is of Byzantine style
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however the decorations are Islamic
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because they only portray vegetation and
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houses and castles and not humans or
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animals as the the Islamic traditions
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state having visited the mosque
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rahama and I’ve roamed wonderful streets
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of Damascus exploring as much as we
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could we also spend quite a bit of time
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talking about her life in Damascus
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during the civil war that started in
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March of 2011 the hum told me she was
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only 17 years old when the war broke out
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and that all of her student years were
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very different from what she had dreamed
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of growing up you see in 2012 the rebels
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launched a full-scale military attack on
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the city it was the first time the tanks
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and helicopters had been deployed in
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central Damascus and left parts of the
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city as war zones Leehom was in Damascus
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the whole time she told me how she would
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hear gunshots and see smoke in different
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parts of the city while staying home or
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attending her classes she told me that
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everyone felt so much fear at the time
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that many people had to pack their bags
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ready to leave their beloved homes if
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they needed to however a few weeks later
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the fighting ceased as the Syrian army
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regained the control of Damascus as you
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can imagine the situation was still
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unstable for you long
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long time the outskirts kept being a tag
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the city kept being shelled and bombing
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attacks were a regular occurrence
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Nahum told me that lots of her friends
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had left the maskers with their families
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and became refugees and other countries
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mostly in Turkey Lebanon and Western
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Europe but she thought she’d find it
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very difficult to lead her life outside
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of her homeland and thus she and her
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family decided to stay in Syria early
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the next morning I met up with my new
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Syrian guide a wonderful adventurous
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lady by the name of Safa together we
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hopped into a car with her own tribe and
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a very nice fellow some minutes later
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when we left the city center and we’re
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passing by the outskirts I finally
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understood what he had told me about the
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day before hundreds of buildings were
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completely destroyed and abandoned
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everywhere I looked
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[Music]
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[Music]
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credible my driver got taken away man
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just a regular day in the life of Jacob
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assigned you okay yes yes yeah yeah okay
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wonderful
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we also have a passenger as crazy as the
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situation actually was I did all I could
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focus on the task at hand and kept
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driving forward across one of the most
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dangerous roads in Syria the further I
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drove the more clear it became how much
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the war had actually affected that area
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we passed through lots of towns and
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villages that were totally destroyed and
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there were no living soul sir look at
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this town look so bad
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however not every times destiny was the
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same there actually we’re a few that
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still had people living in them just up
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that’s some sort of a random town that
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we were passing through I’m here next to
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the next to the road there’s there’s
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there’s like a shop there a couple of
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kids around me a couple of taxis and
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and it looks sort of abandoned you know
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have destroyed as well on the one hand
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it’s incredibly sad to be here for you
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know their obvious reasons but the same
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time when when you see how friendly the
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people are and how positive a lot of
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them are and how welcoming it just warms
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your heart yes nice sandwich it looks
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bigger than you later that night we
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finally reached our destination of the
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day the city that had been ravaged by
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war the most Aleppo just came to the
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eastern side of Aleppo which is still
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basically an active war zone and most of
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the buildings here seem to be completely
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completely destroyed by bombs and stuff
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look at that for example
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such a big place
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most of aleppo hadn’t fortunately been
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destroyed by war which is why it felt
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really strange to see quite a bit of
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action there in the city centre late at
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night why eunuch Sudan now get a bit the
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one Sam said this is such a beautiful
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place you know what do you think yes yes
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impressive impressive a place every time
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I come here I feel so much proud of that
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castle yes we spent another hour walking
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around the city and interacting with a
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really friendly local people eventually
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we got back to our hotel where sleep
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certainly didn’t come easy it is just
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after 6 a.m. right now
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I couldn’t sleep since 3:00 because of
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all the things that happen yesterday so
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I figured I’ll just go to the balcony
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and enjoy the view that is the Citadel
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right there look at all these houses
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half of them are abandoned see there’s
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people living on the roof here I guess
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man it’s crazy to think how much stuff
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the city has actually seen in the very
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very very recent past and now I’m here
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in this you know hotel meeting all these
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beautiful beautiful people they have so
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much love in their hearts so much so
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which worked all the pain and all the
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suffering caused by it by the war and
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then you see these people’s faces and
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their smiles and
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and their belief that you know things
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could be better when the Sun rose I
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finally left my hotel and this was the
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first thing I saw she’s working here on
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e on E Street and in a level towards the
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citadel and literally the whole district
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all around me is basically this chart as
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you can see
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and it’s so unfortunate seeing visually
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dish look at this lane for example man
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war is so dumb guns are so dumb tanks
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and everything it’s just incredible look
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at this house for example people used to
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live here they even have the satellite
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TV and everything no during the day I
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kept asking stuffs and loads of things
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about what had happened in Aleppo
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because I just couldn’t believe what I
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saw this is what I learned
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similar to Damascus Aleppo is one of the
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oldest continuously inhabited cities in
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the world dating back to ten thousand
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years before Christ known for being a
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very tolerant City for people of all
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ethnicities and religions Aleppo
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gradually became the greatest center of
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trade between Europe and lands farther
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east during the Syrian civil war however
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everything changed you see after the
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unsuccessful assault of Damascus the
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fighters launched an all-out offensive
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on Aleppo in mid 2012 reportedly some of
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the civil wars most devastating bombing
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and fiercest fighting took place in
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Aleppo often in residential areas for
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the remaining months of 2012
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house-to-house fighting between armed
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opposition and government forces
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continued and as of spring of 2013 the
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syrian army has entrenched itself in the
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western part of the level and the armed
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opposition in the eastern part with a
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no-man’s land between them the stalemate
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lasted for four very long years and
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ended in July of 2016 when Syrian
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government troops closed the last supply
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line of the armed opposition in Tooele
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with the support of Russian airstrikes
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and pushed the rebels out of the city
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even the relative peace came back to the
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residents of Aleppo the fighting caused
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severe destruction to the city an
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estimated 33 thousand buildings have
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been either damaged or destroyed this is
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how the city looks these days
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[Music]
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we spend many hours walking around
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Aleppo and eventually came inside one of
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the many destroyed buildings in the area
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and ran into a painter by the name of
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Yasser who’s rebuilding the rooms inside
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the building one by one we just made
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friends with Apple users who is a
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painter and he’s actually repainting one
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of the rooms inside the man it’s so
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incredible to see that even in the most
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dire dire of circumstances you can never
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imagine people still those hope this guy
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comes to work every day to this
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completely The Shard building paints new
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rooms builds tables and chairs and tries
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to make them better one room at a time
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incredible the people here are so strong
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we’ll then we proceeded to the city
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center where we stumbled upon some
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really friendly school kids on their
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annual school trip and then we went
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inside the citadel of aleppo which is
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one of the oldest castles in the world
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is around five thousand years old the
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citadel was badly damaged during the
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Battle of Aleppo in 2001 the rebels
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fought against the government forces to
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gain control over the citadel the Syrian
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army retain the control of the citadel
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and used it as an active military base
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which further damaged the castle however
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when the situation became a little bit
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more stable they began repairing the
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citadel and reopened it to the public in
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2017 not everything’s been repaired yet
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but the castle is certainly an
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incredible sight to visit one that takes
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you thousands of years back in time or
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in my case to the 21st century listen to
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those sounds in the distance it’s it’s a
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machine gun sound dude I can all see
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some smoke
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see there man they’re literally a few
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kilometers away from the Citadel what
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look at that you see this monster
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after this crazy incident Samson told me
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we should leave the city immediately and
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so we opted back into our car and rode
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hundreds of kilometers away from Aleppo
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stopping for a short breaks whenever we
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had the chance
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[Music]
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oh look at that just keep on top of the
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the track it’s really big really big
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super rusty as well wow that’s the road
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we’re taking right here and this is a
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just a random regular attack the next
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day we found ourselves in the second
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most destroyed city in Syria the city of
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Homs
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similar to the other majorly affected
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areas homs saw the battles between the
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government and the rebels as well as
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multiple terrorist groups who are
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fighting for control over the city
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relative stability came back to homs in
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2014 when he cease fire agreement was
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reached but the damage had been done
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over 10,000 buildings have been badly
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damaged or destroyed with thousands of
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civilians having to feed their homes
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even though things are certainly not
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improving too fast what I found really
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interesting about Homs was that I
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encountered quite a few people who are
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doing their best preserving and
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improving their city amidst all the
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chaos around them the first of those
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people was this really strong woman by
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the name of Iman Ahmed who spent the
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last few years of her life managing the
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reconstruction of the largest mosque in
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Homs that was completely destroyed
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during the war so apparently all the
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buildings around it are still completely
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demolished because they were bombing the
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area and blowing everything up and
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burning buildings down
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and you know everything got affected but
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they’re slowly rebuilding you know
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buildings bit by bit and this is
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apparently the first one in the area I
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really hope that you know in a few years
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maybe a few dozen years to hold the
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whole area around it will once again be
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pretty potent then I made friends with
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two awesome cousins called Emir and
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Ibrahim for the only people who had not
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closed their carpet shop in this big new
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marketplace building in central home
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thank you so much thank you
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and finally my guide Sampson took me to
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this fascinating church called alms in
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our armed sonars one of the oldest
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churches in the world built in 95 AD but
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it was also the shard during the war
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however the local Christian community
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raised funds for the reconstruction of
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their holy place and rebuilt it all
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themselves in just a few years very
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evidently there still is a lot of work
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that needs to be done in the city of
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Homs but I was very happy to meet and
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interact with people who don’t sit
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around waiting for someone else to do it
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for them but rather find ways as hard as
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it might be sometimes to make a change
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on their own these people are the real
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heroes it’s incredible how strong the
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Syrian people are I mean this city is
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completely shot basically and they’re
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still smiling running their businesses
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talking to me posing for me and such
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imagine so sad and so it’s boring at the
20:05
same time you know I mean when we hopped
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into the car for our next adventure
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shafts and told me we’ll go see a few
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places that weren’t as affected by the
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war as Aleppo and Homs were and so I
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found myself and one of the most
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important well preserved medieval
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castles in the world called crack the
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chevalier you know in countries like
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Syria and all around the Middle East
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oftentimes you’re surrounded by a lot of
20:28
noise and traffic and you know people
20:30
and stuff and it’s cool but at the same
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time finding a place like this that’s so
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completely peaceful is something
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incredible there’s not a single other
20:38
person here with us
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the views all around are incredibly
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beautiful honestly didn’t expect to see
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this in Syria you are somehow it didn’t
20:46
think a place like this could could
20:47
survive what happened you know alright
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but it did I’m so happy
20:52
having explored the castle we decided to
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visit the famous coast of Syria and made
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our way to the beautiful coastal town of
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patos which felt incredibly different
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from the rest of the country as there
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were never any battles taking place in
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the city there’s absolutely no abandoned
21:07
and discharged buildings there’s quite a
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few young people all around the area
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hugging and holding hands
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there’s people fishing riding bicycles
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such a different City from you know all
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the Syria that I’ve seen so far it’s
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it’s incredible the next morning we took
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a small boat together with dozens of
21:24
friendly locals and eventually landed on
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the only inhabited island in Syria
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called a Darwin
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even though the island itself was never
21:31
touched by war it’s inhabited by only a
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few thousand people these days who are
21:35
mostly fishermen shipbuilders or crew
21:37
sailors however it was first inhabited
21:39
by the Phoenicians of 2,000 years ago
21:41
and less it really does take you many
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years back in time and somehow lets you
21:45
forget the ravages of war you had just
21:47
witnessed at least for a bit local kids
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just join us
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you ahmed muhammed our original name
21:59
speak English thank you bye my secret
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grandchildren having left a beautiful
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coast of Syria will once again went back
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into the mountains to a place that made
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me so emotional it will never leave my
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mind the orthodox christian mountain
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town of maaloula even though only 2,000
22:24
people live in Molalla it’s a very well
22:27
known place in syria because of its
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famous monasteries especially the
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convent of Saint tackle which holds the
22:32
remains of Pecola who was a pupil of
22:34
Paul the Apostle another reason this
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condiment is so famous is because during
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the war the al-nusra front took 12
22:41
Orthodox nuns as hostages the nuns were
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held hostage for over three months until
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finally released back to their convent
22:48
which was also gravely affected by war
22:50
when we left the convent we hiked up
22:53
this beautiful guards entered a building
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that used to be a fancy four-star hotel
22:58
but was very severely affected during
23:00
the war this is the hotel you should be
23:02
really really big everything everything
23:05
is destroyed they still have the rubble
23:07
in here and that must have been the main
23:09
entrance right there these are the
23:11
stairs look at the car door there’s
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probably a few dozen rooms on both sides
23:21
in here this is the roof
23:30
this one of the saddest places you know
23:32
mine’s a high live man why would someone
23:37
do something like there are so many
23:39
people this shines so much beauty and
23:42
destroy so many buildings cities towns
23:45
villages everything families that kidnap
23:49
someone for ransom
23:50
I really hope stuff like this won’t
23:52
happen and ever again in the future
23:55
I really hope people will see that love
23:58
is oh and he did not hate not division
24:01
we’re all the same we’re all beautiful
24:03
we’re all kind we’re all amazing at our
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own rights even if we believe in
24:08
different gods or have different skin
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colors genders beliefs whatever we’re
24:15
all the same let’s be friendly to one
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another let’s respect one another let’s
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love one another let’s spread happiness
24:23
and love and understanding not hate ever
24:27
to prevent something like this from
24:29
happening again
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[Music]
24:39
eventually the Sun set and Sampson and I
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just stood on this roof hardly even
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talking as I was lost in my thoughts
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about everything had seen and
24:48
experienced during my time in Syria the
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obvious thing is the neverending
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destruction you see it everywhere in
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tiny villages beautiful towns in large
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cities being constantly surrounded by so
25:00
many destroyed buildings I felt very
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overwhelmed and emotional I just I just
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couldn’t understand why there’s still so
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much fighting going on in the world at
25:09
the same time the local people
25:10
completely fascinated me despite all the
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terrible things happening around them
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they seemed to have so much positivity
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perseverance and faith that it just blew
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me away I ran into dozens of wonderful
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people from merchants constructors and
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performers to coax drivers and students
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everyone was really friendly people
25:27
greeted me posed for me showed me their
25:30
work and laughed with me as if I was a
25:32
long-lost cousin of theirs thank you to
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the people of Syria for your positivity
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friendliness strength and your belief
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that the future can be brighter I wish I
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could be half as strong as you are in
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these circumstances and I pray that life
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will come back to normal as soon as
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possible
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[Music]
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thank you for caring about the Syrian
25:54
people enough to watch the video until
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the very end those people the beautiful
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wonderful Syrian people they did not
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deserve this to happen and because of
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that I really do think that you and I
26:04
need to do all we can to help them as
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much as possible and so recently I was
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doing the auto research about what
26:10
nonprofit organizations help the Syrian
26:13
refugees the most and I stumbled upon
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this organization called the
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International Rescue Committee that
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helped in displaced families help them
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get visas to other places help them get
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shelter and food and education and you
26:25
know they just do a wonderful job
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helping the millions of people that
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unfortunately had to flee their
26:30
attention and so they don’t know that
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I’m doing this I never talked to them
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they never asked me to do this but I’m
26:35
gonna leave the donation links in the
26:37
description box of this video if you
26:39
want to actually donate to that
26:41
organization and my team and I also
26:43
wanted to do our part so we just
26:44
launched t-shirts that are called people
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are kind that we’re selling on on my
26:48
personal Star once again in the
26:50
description box down below and all the
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profits that we sell from these limited
26:54
edition shirts will also be donated to
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that organization thank you so much for
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caring about the Syrian people and I
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really do think that if you went there
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yourself you would also see how
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beautiful and kind and friendly and nice
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they really are and I really do think
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that right now they really do need our
27:13
help thank you so much see you next
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[Music]