Omayad Damascus

... to wait as long as it takes to 'get processed'. The real barb is to not-so-subtly insinuate you are quite prepared to wait quite a lot longer than that.<br><br>Passing from Turkey to Syria is multi-layered: from central Europe into greater Arabia, European language to Arab, First(-ish) World to Third, pastures to parch-lands, from possible EU partner to a state "beyond the axis of evil".<br><br>Bussing along, you need a taxi to take you across the few kilometres of no-man's land ...

... in Syria.<br><br>By the way for anyone interested this call to prayer is called the adhan and takes place at sunrise, after sunset and three times in between. Now I definitely wouldn't want to listen to that at home where I am looking for peace and quiet and no one telling me I need to pray, but over here I want to do as the Syrians do and just enjoy a scene straight out of another world.<br><br>The pictures I have put on here are just ...

... the middle of the street while<br>valet guys on almost every street corner get in and park for them.<br>Here is one of the best examples of Syria's self-sufficiency.<br>Basically after the US/UK embargo Syria had to learn to produce and<br>provide its entire infrastructure, still today they only import IT<br>and heavy metal (not the music but parts). As an extension of that<br>they are proud to say that the infrastructure is made up of Syrians<br>from top to bottom &#8211; in ...

Thursday: <br>Adib, DeVan, and I headed out to Automatic for breakfast again...yum...everytime we go I get a smoothie with mango (mango kiwi, mango banana, mango pomegranate, etc). Don't hate the player, hate the game. Once the whole group got together we decided to walk to the Umayyad Mosque. We took our time and explored along the way. When you are walking somewhere with six people you tend to stop a lot since this person wants to see that and that person wants to see ...

... with a colonnade of 1200 columns). All for less than half the price they wanted from Aleppo &#8211; O for awesome.<br><br>We said goodbye to Henry (wink wink), after travelling with him for the last few days and jumped on another train to Damascus. While it was extremely slow &#8211; it&#8217;s guaranteed comfort.<br><br>We didn&#8217;t explore Damascus much as we&#8217;ll be back here to hang out with Stevo. We did a quick walk through the old city and dumped half of ...

... city, one Mosque began its call, then the next one began in parallel, then the next and the next before every Mosque was singing in Arabic a call to prayer from the top of their minarets. They combined as the mesmerizing note bending calls intertwined and reverberated through the streets and the skies! In the afternoon of our second night in Aleppo we drove to St Simeon's Monastery, almost an hour's drive outside of Aleppo. Simeon was the son of a shepherd who devoted his life ...

... patch. I don't think he knew what it was at first and then after looking at it he asked about the wording. We found our way into the old city and through a long dark covered walkway. All the shops are closed as today is their holy day. It is nice, but we will stay one more day to come back here when the shops are open and we get to experience all the hustle and bustle and atmosphere of the shops and shoppers. We walk down the covered street until we come to ...

... the head of John the Baptist is laid to rest. The Middle East is so steeped in religious history it is mind boggling - many buildings date back thousands of years; in fact Damascus is one of the oldest cities in the world. Back in Kamloops if a building is still standing after a hundred years we call it a heritage building and get public funds to restore it. Canada is as new as the Middle East is old. Take Care Teresa

... sunlight into the dark interior handicapped my ability to see what to expect. Oh well, I would soon be in the presence of the icon so all ailments could be cured. After visiting the icon, we visited the church and then the roof. Since this was Sunday, the village was quiet but the convent and church were active. From the roof of the convent, you can sit in quiet contemplation or just enjoy the magnificent views across the ...