Royal (Suites) Damascus

... Eventually though, times change and the church was bought and yadda yadda and now it is one grand mosque...literally...it's also known as the Grand Mosque of Damascus. The one thing I didn't like was that DeVan and I went to great lengths to dress appropriately, pants, long sleeves, nice clothes, scarves for our hair, etc...and they still made us wear these horrible (and probably dirty) Harry Potter secret society robes with hoods. Foreign dudes were fine (as long ...

Dino has been in desperate need of a haircut. There is a little old barber man down the end of our street that he has been eying him up since the last time we were in town. For Dino getting a hair cut is a big deal as for the last 10 years only one person has ever been aloud to touch his hair. He doesn't really trust anyone. He finally worked up the courage on the last night in Damascus.
While Dino was sitting in the shop waiting for the old man to finish shaving another guy the ...

... rundt i kaoset. Plutselig bestemte vi oss for å hoppe på, og la oss rive med. Der satt vi, i en minibuss med tre familier og noen ekstra menn, og lot oss drive langs veiene med døren oppe, slik at vinden slo løs håret og tvang øynene til å anstrenge seg for å se ALT! Da vi tilslutt forstod at minibussen var på vei til "suburbia", måtte vi ut - vi ville ikke dra dit, ble vi fortalt av våre nye venner. Da det til slutt var på tide å peke nesa hjemover var vi fullstendig ...

... There was also a separate room where you pray. In this room men and woman were separated into two sections of the room. There were also many large stone pillars and a red carpet was spread on the floor. Also in this room was a shrine for John the Baptist. In this shrine was a large coffin that had John the Baptist's head inside.

After the mosque we were all very hungry and decided to look for a place to eat lunch. After much ...

... At the end of the Souk is the Umayyad Mosque. This is one of the world's most amazing religious experiences. The Mosque is one of the holiest sites in Islam and one of the nicest to visit. We walked through the "Putting on Special Clothes" section for the women and the men ended ...

... crowded with cars parked on both sides so only room enough for one car to get through. We get to the hotel and Len stays with the packs on the sidewalk while I go up. Quite a shock, the hotel is listed in Lonely Planet $22-30 per night with breakfast. It is now $60 per night. We check out a couple of other hotels and they are all $60, a few more stops and we find one for $50, then 43, then a very nice room at the Tower Hotel for $45 with breakfast so this is where we stop.

... as it was about 3pm. What followed was rather comical. Our driver's command of English is at the level of single words e.g. "eat? Come". We say to the waiter and to our driver "Menu?". They both say "No" and then nothing happens! We try "buffet?" "set menu?" and get blank looks in return. OK we are REALLY hungry - where do we go from here? Finally the waiter takes us to another guests table and shows us what they are eating and puts $500SP ...

... clips identiques aux notres, le côté "biatch" en moins (les syriens n'ont pas leur Pussycat Dolls, par exemple) ; avant que le patron ne change pour un concert de musique trad, à la Oum Khalsoum (une chanteuse avec les ouds derrière et le public devant). La transition, cependant, s'était faite sans heurts : l'exemple restera probablement pertinent, lorsqu'il s'agira d'invoquer mes jolis souvenirs de Damas.

... 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 ...

... ikke saa godt, saa nu er man igang med et restaurations arbejde, som nok tager et stykke tid, det er trods alt en stor kuppel. Resten af dagen blev brugt paa at se Topkapi Paladset og Den Blaa Moske. Topkapi var da ok, men mit favorit palads er og bliver nu Grand Palace i Bangkok, det er saa farvestraalende. Den Blaa Moske var det sidste jeg saa den dag, stort rum, paenere indrettet en Hagia Sophia, men en forfaerdeligt lugt af sure sokker. Det hostel jeg boede paa var et meget lille ...