Seriously Seria

Trip Start Jun 29, 2008
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Trip End Nov 27, 2008

Flag of Syria  ,
Monday, September 22, 2008

We proceeded onwards to the capital city of Damascus, which we found considerably more cosmopolitan than conservative Aleppo. We made our way to the souk once again - Ben liked the wide streets here, however I felt it lacked the atmosphere and charm of the narrow covered passageways of the Aleppo souk. We also visited the Ummayad Mosque, where I got to wear what Ben referred to as my Jedi-knight costume. On our first night in Damascus, we stayed in luxury at the Beit Mamlouka, a wonderfully restored house with central courtyard, while our second night we returned to earth and stayed in the Damascus hostel. The hostel was a characterful place run by friendly staff, and our room was in one of the towers of the old city walls. In the morning, to avoid taking our luggage and ourselves through the old city via convoluted streets, we used the over-the-wall system set up by Raymond, owner of the hostel. He has a plastic telephone system in which to talk to those at the bottom of the wall, a pulley-system for the bags, and a rope ladder for climbing down. Quite a novel way of leaving the hostel.

We had organised a driver to take us across the border into Jordan, visiting Bosra on route, and then Jerash in Jordan (just over the border) before continuing on to Madaba and our hotel for the night. A fellow traveller from the hostel came with us, planning to head next to "the unmentionable place". You are unable to enter Syria is you have an Israeli stamp in your passport, and indeed whenever people ask you where you are going to next, you kind of skip that part of your itinerary. In fact, when we mentioned to our new friends in Aleppo that we were going to Jerusalem, the Christian one of the pair said: "Why would you want to go there?" We briefly mentioned that they had some pretty amazing sites and then quickly changed topics.

Bosra is the location of an impressive Roman theatre which has been well preserved due to the Byzantines subsequently building a fort around the theatre and restoring it, and then the whole lot being covered up by some of that desert sand for many years.
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