I got up this morning to fly to Damascus. I could have flown nonstop but the only flight was at 11.30pm and I didn't want to get th**e in the middle of the night. So, I flew via Cairo on Egyptair. Not a bad option, I thought. Egyptair is now part of Star Alliance, so I'll get miles on United. But the travel gremlins caught up with me today. My ...

Despite the best efforts of Syrian Immigration and a border crossing seemingly designed by group consensus at 4 am on Rennie's couch we somehow managed to gain entry to Syria. Their tourism motto appears to be "We want your money but we're still going to play hard to get." A straight shot to Damascus after that, though, where we were promptly ri...

Damascus is a layer cake of history, with thousands of years of iceing. Of course, in most places, only the top layer is visible, the others buried or destroyed over time. But even the top layer in Damascus is old, with mosques dating to the eighth century and old souks, where merchants still sell spices, candies, and clothes. The crown jewel of...

Saturday and the end... Today is the last day of this fabulous adventure! I know that there is so much more to go and see but this time was just the Old City adventure. The game plan is to see the Umayyed Mosque and Saladin's tomb right after breakfast. But first was breakfast and loading the bus and not forgetting to get our passports! That wou...

Marhaba everyone! I apologize for not writing sooner but I have had quite a few problems with my internet lately. I now have service restored to the house so I am looking forward to having access more often (although I was enjoying the internet cafe with their wonderful cafeaulait and croissant and trendy music in the background. This particular...

We spent a good part of a day crossing the border from Turkey to Syria. There were no actual problems, they just like to take their time. We camped the first night in someones big garden just over the border. It was also right by a mosque which was really not cool when we got the call to prayer at 3am. From there we headed to Aleppo and had a wa...

Today was a long day. I made my way early to the ruins of Palmyra. They are very impressive. A few parts of it exist as they were built over 2000 years ago. Many others survive from 1800 years ago and others from later times throughout history until a massive earthquake took out most of the place in the 11th century. I thought the stuff I saw in...

As we arrived in Damascus after a long bus journey of approximately 7 hours, we checked into our hotel and decided to go and explore the city. As you walk along the streets and pass the shops you begin to feel you are going though different time zones. Some parts of the city are quite new, yet other parts you can still see the ruins of old archi...

An adventure to the famous Souq for shopping and to pick up an antique rug for Ingrid