Al Amer Hotel
Travel Blogs from Damascus
Hanging out and about
... culture and to connect with its people.
Lovely, lovely Damascus! I hope I will return some time.
And a special thank you to Amjad (Dentistry Student) and Maher (national theatre performer and budding director).
And my room mates for making my time in Damascus such a great one:
Abe (Dutch, IT Manager)
Martin (Swiss, Banker)
Alex (French, Teacher) ...
Becoming a Syrian movie-star
... to socialize in. That same afternoon I went into town with a few other people to walk around the old town, gaze at the Umayyad Mosque (apparently the biggest/most important in the world) and see some other nice sights.
And then, the lovely unexpected happened... After having dinner, I sat down in the courtyard of the hostel, reading a book when a group of people gathered in the other corner. They told me that they were ...
The Road to Damascus
... well preserved structures I visited while in Syria. In fact the castle itself was never directly breached by force. Leaving Damascus for a second day trip I headed down to Bosra to see another old Roman theater. By this time I was getting a bit tired of old Roman ruins but this basalt constructed theater was a bit different than the others I had seen in that it was a completely freestanding structure ...
Dive Dive Dive to Nom Nom Nom
... filling. Before we sat down to eat, we had to pay - cash. We headed to the closest ATM and I try to take money out. Low and behold, the system (not the machine) wouldn't accept my pin (too many digits). So we headed off in search of an international bank. Found one and voila! Moola! So word of the wise, when in a foreign country try ...
Mosque and Churches
In the AM went to the Umayyad Mosque. It was a temple to Jupiter, converted into a basilica, and then converted into a mosque in 708 AD. For 100 years after the Muslim conquest, it was shared between Christians and Muslims with the building split in half.
Non-Muslims enter through a visitor entrance, called the "Putting on Special Clothes Room." Women must be covered from legs to head (scarf ...
Location
TripAdvisor Reviews Al Amer Hotel Damascus
