Ghazal Hotel Damascus

... don't allow a visitor to veer too far down the 'all seems fine' path.

In 1967, Israel niggled its way into the Golan Heights and taunted Syria into what became known as the 6-Day War.

Jordan was expelled from the west bank of the Dead Sea, and Israel overran the strategically crucial Golan hills, around 70km southwest of Damascus.

A UN buffer zone was drawn up, with Israel ceding 450sq/km back to Syria, now a Syrian-maintained UN buffer zone between the two ...

... just to decorate it.

However, our favourite place is simply the Old City itself, wandering aimlessly, getting lost in the narrow lanes and locals from every doorway shouting "Welcome!" If there is an award for friendliest capital city in the world, Damascus may well win it. We loved the place so much we ended up staying there for ten days.

For health reasons, in truth it is probably just as well that we did leave, the pastries were just too good!

... heads. I commonly saw them cruising around alone in cars or shopping along. That goes against the stereotypes we have for this part of the world. If anyone is expecting Saudi Arabia style oppression, on the surface at least I didn't see it.

In the poorer areas such as the Old City the women were much more traditional and I wish I knew what the various degrees of covering up mean. Some women wore these cloak like jackets that went all the way to their feet ...

... it a toast to Faygo that I drank Master Cola. We checked out the Convent of Saint Thecla- she was a disciple of St. Paul and martyr. We visited the church and her tomb which was half inside the mountain and had a very similar set up to the chapel at Our Lady of Seidnaya. This was again a Greek Orthodox place although the visitors really ranged from Greek Orthodox peeps, to other Christians, to Muslims, to whoever...like just interested tourists. The sites ...

... you to 'the cradle of
civilisation' and even the handicrafts markets next to the national
museum is credited with providing some of its more vaunted
neighbours' exhibits! Most interestingly though, its best sites are
makers for turning points in world history.




The rise and fall of Palmyra under the
reign of Queen Zenobia (she used the wealth and power of the
semi-autonomous town to challenge its ultimate masters in Rome,
Damascus, Syria adamandmandana

... and lastly tabouli which is parsely, vulgar, tomatoes and lemon.

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 ...

... lots of table clothes-they were also on my list. :-)  Tiffany, Anita and I poured through all the table clothes-I found one and then a bunch of scarves.  Liam had a great time there and was loved by all the workers and we ended up with a free gift again because of him. The stroller was now full of our purchases while Liam rode with Tiffany.  On our way to Dadboud's, we stopped at a nut shop that has been in business since the 1820's.  I bought pistachios freshly roasted with salt ...

... restaurants, etc. are in the Christian and Jewish quarters because they can serve alcohol. All three groups seem to co-exist and mingle between each other without any issues and have been for centuries. Very impressive. There are also quite a few tourists from Saudi Arabia so it makes for good people-watching. At my hotel I met a mother and daughter traveling together from Ireland and London, respectively ...

... of the shops in the souqs (markets) were closed, but people had set up little tout juice stalls or pizza stands, which was lovely. There was a real hustle and bustle about the mosque, a lot of life with kids running around (with toy guns), inbetweenagers smoking cigarettes and others bustling to get into the mosque for the next prayer. I found a wee café that was popular with the locals, just around the corner of the mosque, in the land of old damascus. I ...

... houses, mosques, madrassas (Koranic schools), mausoleums and shops. Kamal did make the point of showing the interiors of several restaurants (at 9am) and a hotel in the old city owned by his friend. I think he (Kamal) was taken aback when I didn't want to take a brochure of the hotel. The restaurants and the hotel were interesting because they were converted from old Damascene houses, many of which had fallen into disrepair ...