Al Majed Hotel Damascus

I'll begin my Syria blog entry part one with a fun quote from the U.S. State Department’s travel warning for Syria (putting it with the likes of Haiti, the Gaza Strip, and Burma): "A number of terrorist groups have offices in Syria. Since 1979, the United States has designated Syria a State Sponsor of Terrorism due to its support for organizations such as Hizbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In addition, other extremist groups ...

Going through the old street of Damascus is like if you went back in time hundreds of years .. it make you feel how life was back in the old days. and when you go on the new damascus you feel that you have treveled ...

... the bazaar to the<br>mosque for example. You enter a huge corridor covered by corrugated<br>iron and are still enchanted by the spots of light that shine through<br>the gloom, even after the guide book tells you that they are bullet<br>holes from the 1978 uprising. <br><br><br><br><br>Coming back into full<br>sunlight you look through a Roman temple's archway at a mosque that<br>still resembles the church it once was. Inside the mosque courtyard<br>the ...

... hotel and went into another souk, where we walked and I was drawn to a green scarf and bought it. Then we bought three aluminum hands and one aluminum eye. After that we went to find a taxi. Finally we found one and went to a sweet shop where we bought a lot of sweets. After that we went back to the hotel to wait till 6:10. When it was 6:10 we grabbed all of our luggage and went by the police station for the taxi to pick us up and take us back to ...

... Back on the bus and on the road to the border, it was much quieter as we were reading(love the Vince Flynn stories!!!!!) and listening to our iPods-each in our own little world.  Soon we were at the border and here people shopped. We got back to Amman around 7:00pm and loaded up our cars to head home.  I was ready for bed and didn't need to get up early in the am as we didn't have school.  Tomorrow was still going to be busy!

... Damascus, nights are cold and windy, and during the day the sky is overcast and it often rains. At the hostel's covered courtyard one can hear the tourists coughing after a whole day going up and down the city in such meteorological conditions. But the weather can't be an excuse to spend all day sheltered in such a cosy place, Damascus is a fascinating city, many civilisations have craved for it, it has been conquered and destroyed ...

... driven home when she told me to wait for her when I came out of the toilet because she was going to buy something.. She was lovely though, and helped me with getting my visa and changing money and all of those other things that it helps to have an arabic translator for!! When we arrived, I was befriended by Mr Akouk, a Jordanian business man who was taking a trip to Damascus for Eid rather than spending it with his family back in Amman. He shared (paid for) a ...

... unusual mixture of tradition and modernity. Although there is evidence of Roman and Greek contributions to the Old City's architecture, the Old City's character has remained astonishingly unchanged since medieval Islamic times. Damascus was at its zenith in this era, because it was then the capital of the Muslim world. Within its labyrinth of streets you can easily get lost, look around and only be reminded that you're in the ...