Beit Al Mamlouka Damascus

... After dropping them off, he started searching around for my destination. Just like in Cairo, he pretended when I asked to know exactly what I was talking about, repeating the name of the hostel and nodding. He had no idea where it was. After driving through some dark, dirty slums (JUST THE PLACE I WANTED TO BE IN SYRIA!), we made our way back to the town center. When we finally got close (someone told him it was 'in that area’), he got ...

... This time he followed me, literally begging me to use him. Again I said no but he was very persistent. Before I know it, he quicken his pace abit and dropped down in front of me. In a blink of an eye he dabbed a spot of shoe polish on my stub of my shoe and basically meant that I have to use him now since the colours are now uneven. There was a car parked on the path at that spot and the other side was a wall, so I had little room to manouver around him and so my way was ...

By now you've figured out what makes a place a good travel experience for me...it needs to be something I can't experience back home and it needs to shock my senses. It doesn't have to be as pretty as Paris or as full of history as Rome. I just need something that will keep my attention and that is full of life and energy. Would you believe Syria meets all my requirements and then some?<br><br>I will start by saying the people here are some ...

... of Syria went to the conference where the<br>victors divided the spoils expecting to be given control of Greater<br>Syria. Instead he was turned into a puppet ruler. One clear example<br>of his emasculation was the eviction of local Syrians who were living<br>inside the Palmyra ruins by French archeologists at the beginning of<br>the mandate. <br><br><br><br><br>The same is true of the Krac des<br>Chevaliers, where an entire village was living until the European<br ...

... and lastly tabouli which is parsely, vulgar, tomatoes and lemon.<br><br>After lunch we went exploring the souk even more. Now in this part of the souk was mostly food and you could smell all the spices and sweets in the air. We still were just exploring and weren't buying anything yet. We were all fascinated by all the different sweets in each sweet shop as well as the spices. In the sweet shops were Jordan almonds, which are ...

... almonds that I will enjoy later.  Next up was table clothes!!!!!!!!!!  Last year I bought them as gifts but didn't get one for myself-this was the time to remedy this problem.  I ended up with 3 table clothes and 12 napkins plus a wood box.  Not to bad!  Dadboud's also would send our stuff back to the hotel so I added an extra bag or two with it.  Now it was time for spices and goodies. We trekked back through the rest of the Souk and headed back to the hotel with all of our loot.  

... the daughter was my age, the mom was retired. We ended up having dinner together on a few nights and at one of the restaurants they had "whilring dervishes" perform for entertainment. A dervish is from the Sufi mystic religious group, and they spin in hopes of going into a trance. Pretty cool to see the white long dress that they wear spin around and around and I was dizzy just watching. I also took a day ...

... this café late one afternoon, and was lucky enough to bare witness to a storyteller, which was just great. Granted, I didn't understand a word of it, but this man sat on his elevated seat in the café, and read allowed a story (I don't know wehter it was one of his, one about lawrence of arabia, one including current news or d, all of the above) but he read with such enthusiasm, slamming his sqord down on a copper table every now and then to scare the heck out of ...

... by going inside can you appreciate the beauty of Islamic homes because Islamic tradition dictates that exteriors of homes should not be overly decorative or ostentatious. This even applies to mosques. But inside different rules apply: lovely courtyards are extensively decorated with fountains, inlaid wood paneling and elaborate tile work. This explains why every house looks, more or less, like every other house on the street ...