Ebla Cham Palace Damascus

... br><br> I found Al-Rabi&#8217;e, the hostel recommended to me by friends who had stayed there, in a side alleyway. The sign read &#8220;Al-Rabie&#8221; and under it there was one lonely star. Hey, you get what you pay for (and Al-Rabie had an unbeatable price: 350 S.P.). Unfortunately, I encountered an obstacle I was not expecting: Al-Rabie was full. I went next door to another hostel. It had double room for 1200 SP (about 25 bucks). Way out ...

... play too.<br><br>Unable as I am to resist the call of the meta, I can't help but add that Aghyad also spared me the need to use some tacky play on "The Road to Damascus" as the title of this post.<br><br>Not that I've abandoned Reuben and Cath. We met up for dinner all 3 nights, but a snafu in our attempt to book ahead from Palmyra (read: I couldn't be bothered after our first choice turned out to be full) meant we were staying at different hotels ...

... me that are all over the Old City. People enjoy a cup of brew right there on the sidewalk. The guy bends over and gravity sends a dark stream of this coffee into a tall glass. This glass is communal and just rinsed out with tap water so of course I recommend passing on this because I wouldn't want anyone to get some Allah's Revenge a few hours down the road. But it is nonetheless an interesting glimpse into life over here and that is what ...

<br><br><br><br>Dear Damascus &#8211; I<br>have experienced an eternity within your borders, thank you.<br>Kate<br>meets us at the station bless her, and whisks us away in her little<br>peugeot with a not so small antenna...yes Kate drives here! Kate who<br>lived round the corner from me in our first house, had the best<br>birthday parties, and sat next to me in Maths (and English actually)<br>drives comfortably like a Middle Easterner! She even has road rage in<br>Arabic, and ...

... ankles! How dare you show your hair! Meanwhile Littleman can probably walk naked down the street and no one would care ha ha. We were going to do a couple of day trips from here, but it seems like the prices have been hiked up to prey on people just arriving over the border, so we decided to leave them till we got to Hama. After exploring the very traditional souks (markets) that go for 10s of kilometres and the lovely Christian quarter (awesome dinner) we decided to ...

... at him, and his father insisted I picked up his son and posed for a photo with him. The child didn't seem too convinced mind you! Later at the Cities of the Dead, a group of men in their 20's came over and started talking to us, asking where we were from and what we did. They were so pleased and happy to see us, and asked to have their photos taken with me! I think my Indiana Jones style hat maybe had an imperial feel to it, so they thought I was royalty or something. I ...

... we were pretty shattered so we headed back to the backpackers to lie down and meet up with the Aussies at 5:30 to go and watch a reading in a tea house in the old town. When we got to the old town it was getting darker and the castle was lit up it was really nice and pretty. We grabbed a couple of shwammas which is basically kebabs wrapped up which are dam good, as I said earlier the food here is excellent and I am having a great time in that sense although ...

... mosque. Covering up in a black chador I entered the mosque which is richly decorated with crystal, mosaics and mirrors. There is a separate area for men and woman and upon entering the woman's chamber, many locals were praying, studying and talking theology (or it was a chance for a good gossip session!) Heading down the Straight Street (also known as Via Recta), and yes there were numerous rectal jokes like "We are in the ...

... I didn't know they were still making the spirograph. If you look up, you'll notice numerous bullet holes left by French planes during the Syrian's revolt against the French in the 1920s. The most noticeable difference when walking through the souq is the lack of touting and cajoling here as compared to the rest of the Middle East. Shop owners don't harass passersby as they do in Egypt, Israel and Turkey. In fact they ...