Ben arrived Friday evening (alas, sans suitcase) and Saturday morning we were off to Damascus, visa confirmations in hand. [First photo is Cam and Ben on Beirut's corniche]
Border formalities took time—exiting Lebanon, entering Syria, through numerous checkpoints and under concrete archways festooned with large pictures of Bashir Assad, President of Syria (and son of former President Hafez Assad). We got great stamps in our passports—five actual paper stamps stamped with rubber stamps on top. We have only 24 hours in Syria, out of Ben’s 3 ½ days in the Levant… We leave for Egypt Tuesday!
Immediately the scenery is different from Lebanon: incredibly rocky and almost lunar. Much less green. It seems poorer than Lebanon, less modern and way less cosmopolitan. But, as in Lebanon, people are outstandingly friendly and hospitable, which is truly a wonderful thing.
Ben went into an Internet café and sat down at a computer that said “this computer has been blacklisted.” An hour of internet use was $1. When he tried to get into Facebook he got a
message saying the site could not be found. The café worker noticed his difficulty and came over to help. I remembered that Syria had banned Facebook... The worker came to Ben’s machine and tapped into an Asian (Chinese?) program that broke the encryption and allowed it to run. That’s life in Syria.
We spent most of our short visit in the Old City, especially the extensive souk. It is a lovely place, with high vaulted ceilings and chandeliers, several mosques, Roman ruins, a church or two, and lots and lots of things to buy and to eat. One mosque is the marvelous Umayyad Mosque, the third most holy site of Islam after Mecca and Medina.
Worship at this location dates back to the 9th century. The existing building was previously a temple to Baal and then Jupiter, and then a Christian church. It is said to hold John the Baptist’s head, as well as that of Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed. It is popular with Iranian visitors, as it is a Shia mosque. A sweet Iranian lady in black started talking to me and asked why Bush hates Iran? She said she loved American people. I cried. Her mother blessed me and kissed me; she smelled of rose water. 
A billboard advertises: Sham Wings Airlines. (I think Sham is another name for Syria).
A fine adventure, but we were happy to get back to Lebanon.
Tom and I will come back to Syria someday, but to the north—Aleppo and Krak de Chevaliers—as we had hoped to over Thanksgiving break.
Border formalities took time—exiting Lebanon, entering Syria, through numerous checkpoints and under concrete archways festooned with large pictures of Bashir Assad, President of Syria (and son of former President Hafez Assad). We got great stamps in our passports—five actual paper stamps stamped with rubber stamps on top. We have only 24 hours in Syria, out of Ben’s 3 ½ days in the Levant… We leave for Egypt Tuesday!
Immediately the scenery is different from Lebanon: incredibly rocky and almost lunar. Much less green. It seems poorer than Lebanon, less modern and way less cosmopolitan. But, as in Lebanon, people are outstandingly friendly and hospitable, which is truly a wonderful thing.
Ben went into an Internet café and sat down at a computer that said “this computer has been blacklisted.” An hour of internet use was $1. When he tried to get into Facebook he got a
message saying the site could not be found. The café worker noticed his difficulty and came over to help. I remembered that Syria had banned Facebook... The worker came to Ben’s machine and tapped into an Asian (Chinese?) program that broke the encryption and allowed it to run. That’s life in Syria.We spent most of our short visit in the Old City, especially the extensive souk. It is a lovely place, with high vaulted ceilings and chandeliers, several mosques, Roman ruins, a church or two, and lots and lots of things to buy and to eat. One mosque is the marvelous Umayyad Mosque, the third most holy site of Islam after Mecca and Medina.
Worship at this location dates back to the 9th century. The existing building was previously a temple to Baal and then Jupiter, and then a Christian church. It is said to hold John the Baptist’s head, as well as that of Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed. It is popular with Iranian visitors, as it is a Shia mosque. A sweet Iranian lady in black started talking to me and asked why Bush hates Iran? She said she loved American people. I cried. Her mother blessed me and kissed me; she smelled of rose water. A billboard advertises: Sham Wings Airlines. (I think Sham is another name for Syria).
A fine adventure, but we were happy to get back to Lebanon.
Tom and I will come back to Syria someday, but to the north—Aleppo and Krak de Chevaliers—as we had hoped to over Thanksgiving break.
1 comment:
Sham is actually the common name for Damascus!!
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