Damascus Rooms

... hopes of trying back at Al-Rabie. I felt sick when I saw my bedspread; under the comforter were brown sheets with visible stains, holes, and burn marks. They looked as if they hadn't been washed in weeks. No wonder the room was so cheap. Yuck.

Even more determined to find another place to stay (no way I was going back there…they also had no hot water), I grabbed some falafel for breakfast and then went on to Al-Rabie to find out that there ...

... Brotherhood, seeking Shariah (Islamic) law in Syria. Tensions slowly rose over 50 years, until the Brotherhood declared Hama, a central Syrian city, as "liberated" under their own control.

In 1982, the Syrian government laid siege, shelling the city at length, killing 20,000 of their own, and destroying mosques, churches and archeological sites.

Razing is a local past-time of the millennia, an area gripped in the clichéd 'history repeats itself'. Yet, yet, when will we ever learn?

... it was 126+ degrees with high humidity. I would strip that thing off in a second!! But in the end it's not my place to say what other cultures should or shouldn't do. I live my life the way I want and they live theirs how they see fit. Simple as that.

As for the men a few wore traditional clothes that have me curious about as well. Some had those red tablecloth like wraps on their heads and others wore long white robes that went to their sandals. But I'd say ...

... on my shoulder for a bit. It was pretty funny.

Back in Damascus we found a small internet place to check in with our families and check out email. There was another American having a hilarious conversation with his mom where she was forbidding him to go to Lebanon even though he apparently had just been traveling in Iraq with her full blessing. M3a allena. I chatted with my popsopolis a bit and then 5ellas. since our hosts were still away in other city we ...

... of a town that looks like it was abandoned in a
hurry. Huge monuments like the fantastically intact Temple of Bel
and the central colonnade mean that it does not take much imagination
to envisage how the city would have looked 1,800 years ago.




Even the excavation of this place marks
an important point in history. After retaking Damascus during the
First World War, with the help and encouragement of Laurence of
Arabia, Prince ...

... to go back to the hotel and let Noor sleep because she was exhausted from all the walking. After her nap it was dinner time and we decided to go to a restaurant where they had twirling durvishes. Twirling durvishes are sufis who connect with god by spinning in circles with long white robes that twirl around in a large arc. At the restaurant we ordered meat pies, puffed dough filled cheese things, puffed dough filled meat things, kebabs ...

The Road to Damascus began the evening before my scheduled departure when I decided to check whether flight BD497 was on time and still expected to depart London Heathrow on Saturday 18th April at 12pm. Bad news. It was cancelled! Cue a major 30 minute panic and several grey hairs before finding out that I had been transferred onto the rescheduled flight to Damascus, which was to leave later in the day at 4.15pm. Phew! Bloody hell! What a great start to my first world exploration ...

... yesterday to see the "Crac des Chevaliers", one of the best preserved Crusader castles. In the afternoon we went to see Palmyra, a sprawling set of ruins that was just beautiful at sunset. It made for a very long day since we didn't get back to the hotel at midnight but it was well worth it. Today I'm taking the train up to Aleppo, Syria's other main city, and will park myself there for a few days. More later!

... when I wasn't expecting it, and got the people in the café involved with chanting and making all manner of noises, it was wonderful! Aparently story telling in cafes is an old tradition that is dying out, the guy I saw is I think the last man in Syria who is still a satory teller.. talk about special J I was taken one evening to the house 'where all of the miracles happened'. At age 18, a woman had the virgin Mary appear to her and she started to ooze oil from ...

... renovated homes look very much like the Riads of Marrakech. The star attraction of the Old City is the Umayyad Mosque. This is one of the most famous mosques in Islam because of its unique engineering, architecture and decoration. The mosque, converted from a Byzantine cathedral in the 8th Century, is on the site of the Roman temple to Jupiter. So this has been a sacred site for well over 3000 years. The construction of ...