Grand Bloudan

... Jesuit priests started the vineyards, and after some time, they discovered a series of underground tunnels dating back to the Roman times. They started using the tunnels for maturing the wine. We were able to tour around the winery, and the tunnels, then finished off by wine tasting (for the adults) and having icecream (for the kids).

... extension visa rather than a re-entry, he had been talking to some other travelers. Shona once again pushed her way through to the front while everyone patiently waited for me to asked my question. "Are we getting the extension or the re-entry visa?"<br>"When did you enter Syria?" "Maybe about 11 days ago." "Hmmm, Hmmm, Hmmm," he flicked through the pages of our passport and just started at our visas, "Hmmm, Hmmm," a couple of minutes passed, "You should be OK to ...

On the third day in Damascus we ate our breakfast in the hotel and then decided to go shopping in the souk. We made our way out of the the hotel and walked to Hammadiyya the most famous souk in Damascus. There were people everywhere, and I kept looking back to see if Hope was still holding Noor's hand. We all stayed very close together, making sure we wouldn't get lost. My mom wanted to buy a dress for Noor so we went into all these shops, but none ...

The second day in Syria we wanted to go exploring. So after our breakfast at our hotel of hummus, labaneh, bread, fruit and cereal we went out onto the streets of Damascus. We mostly wandered around the souk and found even more interesting shops in the daylight. There were shops just for handcrafted cooking ware. Shops loaded with every kind of nut and people selling fresh fruits and vegetables along the streets. We decided to go shopping ...

And it was ****ing dull.<br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><b r><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br>But seriously, no getting drunk, no doing anything they deem inappropriate.<br><br>Worst country ever.<br><br>I tell a lie. The Krak De Chevaliers in Syria was ****ing awesome. It's<br>like this big castle thing. So immense in size and overwhelming as<br>well. The views out were pretty cool. The ...

... tomb that has protected Salahuddin for nearly 1000 years. It was quite a privilege to be allowed this close to one of history's great warriors. The final stop for the day was the palace of the Pasha from 1749. This was supposedly a luxurious Ottoman palace, but to me it just ...

... ATM has also proved a little difficult as in we simply can't do it. Out of 100 trys we have only had 1 successful retrieval of cash. And that's it - really.... Syria has delivered quite an opening to us and needless to day we are impressed. In our days to come we plan to visit places like Palmyra, Chec des Chevaliers, Aleppo, and possibly a couple of others. In the meantime, we are going to look for an "I [heart] Damascus" T-shirt.

... that one of the girls on our trip was involved in putting this exhibition together). Stopped by Bab Tomas (Tomas Gate) and walked along the outside wall of the old city. Back into the narrow laneways, dodging trucks, donkeys and locals on bikes. Past the pastries shops, we were enticed by the many varieties of pistashio pastries.....mmmmmmmmmmmm Meeting up with our tour group and going through the paperwork and formalities we were looking forward to our trip around Syria....

... buildings, traffic noise and the old city. However, Damascus is a long way away from becoming as developed as Istanbul. In addition, the population of Damascus is only a third of that of Istanbul, which makes Istanbul's achievement that much valuable. The Turkish bus company Has has services all the way from Damascus to Istanbul. I have met 3 backpacers here. The Irish one is 28. He started off in Athens and came down to Damascus in 5 weeks. Plans to move to Australia and ...

... in some of these neighborhood. I later walked back to the Internet Café near my hostel to see if it was open. I was told that it would open shortly. With that answer, I decided to just sit by the sidewalk and read my book. As I was reading my book, I could see a gang of kids walking towards me. I knew they were trouble. I didn't have much luck with Syrian kids in Aleppo so I was expecting more nonsense from this gang of young punks. As expected, they ...