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I'm in Syria - Damascus, to be precise. There were lots of unnecessary panics on the way (had I forgotten my purse? Was the ash going to get in the way? etc etc.) but Rescue Remedy helped, and I arrived at the hotel soon after midnight last night. I wanted to leave again straight away when I saw the room and the sanitary facilities, but it was too late at night. I slept very little, and was woken by the slightest things - rain (which I really didn't expect - I thought someone was having a shower at a silly time), mosquitoes and eventually, birds! But I've swopped rooms, which also means a better class of loo, and I now have a window that opens over the courtyard, with a huge grapevine just outside. Surprisingly, breakfast was great - olives, falafel, hot flatbread, a hot hardboiled egg (swopped for more falafel), cheese (abandoned) and fig jam, all for a bargain basement price.
I've spent the day wandering around the Old City, taking loads of photographs of the souk, the most important mosque, and an 18th century palace, and I'm going to attempt to upload them when I've finished writing. I loved the souk: street after street of stalls and little shops selling all kinds of things including clothes and fabric, handicrafts (jewellery, brasswork, rugs and so on), colourful spices, perfumes that they make up for you from a range of oils. No women work in the souk; men even sell the ladies' underwear, which really surprised me. Most of them are sitting with others, chatting and playing mobile phone games, but a few of the older men looked rather bored and lonely (one or two were asleep!). The younger men and teenaged boys all had heavily vaselined hair, and there were big tubs of it for sale on the hairdressing stalls along with wigs.I was often told I must go in to one or other shop to look, but I resisted buying anything. I'm planning to buy spices, soap and maybe a silk scarf I coveted, just before I come home. A lot of the stallholders were very friendly and wanted to know where I'm from and how long I'm staying, and welcomed me to Damascus. One even recognized me when I passed him a second time a few hours later, and stopped me to chat again.There's a fair bit of English spoken, and if that fails I can get by in French, which is more the second language here because of the French occupation during WW2. A number of the stallholders keep pet birds in horribly small cages (canaries, goldfinches and a couple of parrots - one of which miaowed, whistled and barked, which was surprising as I haven't seen a dog here, but there are several grubby cats around the place).
The palace was lovely, with striped walls of limestone, sandstone and black basalt. It has courtyards with pools in which white flowers and petals are floating, and its own Turkish bath, no longer used (a Turkish bath is on my to-do list, though).
The Umayyad Mosqe is vast and cool with a marble courtyard, where lots of local people were sitting chatting, reading, doing crosswords or sleeping. The temperature inside it was 30, so the torpor was justified! I had to wear a long khaki hooded cloak, which was sweltering. The prayer hall is enormous. I'm afraid I struggle with the fact that only men are allowed into the main part of the hall, while the women and girls have to pray around the edge. I saw a shrine that is one of about 12 around the world said to contain the head of John the Baptist, and the tomb of Saladin (actually 2 tombs, one labelled the "real tomb" and the other an empty marble affair given by King Wilhelm of Germany when he visited Syria). You're not supposed to take photos in the mausoleum, but the attendant was asleep outside so I got a sneaky one of a niche I liked!
After all the problems I had in Peru, typing long missives straight on to the blog site and being timed out and having to do them again (and sometimes 3 times), I've written this in Word, so hope I'll be able to paste it in easily. The pictures should follow quite quickly. Too tired to give them titles, sorry!You have to click on the image in order to make it he right way round.
I'm in Damascus until Friday morning, so I'll probably write again before I leave, as there might not be an internet café in the next couple of places on the itinerary - Palmyra, Mama and Aleppo.
- comments
Dorothy Hello Jill, It's great to hear from you. Your blog has made me want to visit Syria despite your description of the toilet! Look forward to reading more. Love, Dorothy.
Jaqki Hi Jill Good to know you've arrived safely. Wonderful photos and blog, I'm looking forward to the next installment. Take care, Jaqki