damascus, syria

Damascus is by far the most amazing city I’ve been too! Not that I have seen much outside of Jordan. But it is the most beautiful, charming, interesting place! I woke up this morning feeling a LOT better than yesterday, thank goodness, and headed out to get breakfast... A herb bread and pomegranate juice. The tastiest breakfast ever!

At 9am, we all met up outside our hotel and headed off to the national museum. That museum was so incredible! We didn’t have enough time to search through all of it, so I want to go back. There were things dating back to the Bronze Age... And stuff as old as 2000-2500 BC!

After the museum we all met up at the Handicrafts Market. This place was cool...lots of stuff like scarves, jewellery, rugs, woodwork, metalwork... I bought a few presents. And then I stumbled across this shop where the man made all his scarves from his loom! I went in and he showed me how it worked! It was incredible! I filmed some of it so you can see it when I get back! (internet connection will never be fast enough for me to upload photos. I was so stoked to find this place, because sometimes you don’t know if the scarves you’re buying are from China... But I can really tell the difference now.

The Syrian people are so lovely. There is a huge difference in the attitudes between Jordanians and Syrians. Syrians are much nicer. The men don’t harass you in the street like in Amman and I feel much more safer here. There are also a lot more tourists here than in Amman.

So after doing a bit of shopping we headed to Saladin’s Shrine in the Old City. Us girls had to get changed in the “Putting on Special Clothes Room”...haha we looked ridiculous. Kind of like brown penguins, or funny coloured smurfs crossed between a monk. The Shrine is right next to the Ummayed Mosque, which we then entered. That was pretty incredible. The design and architecture and craftwork was exquisite! My photos don’t really do it justice...mainly coz I have a crap camera, and I suck at taking photos... Haha but there was all this old school beautiful artwork and handicraft and marble, and then smack bang in the middle of the beautiful marble courtyard is this new, sleek, modern, floor polisher. It was just so out of place! But I guess the need to keep those marble floors shiny so all the kids that come can have fun sliding and skidding all over the floors... Seriously, there are kids going crazy playing all over the mosque... I guess it’s a pretty awesome playground...

After that we wandered the souq’s and I bought more presents. Molly and Kristy have decided that I suck at bargaining and have ordered me not to buy anything without them nearby. I just feel bad... I feel like these people need the money... Even though they probably do charge double what it’s worth.

Then we had dinner at this really pretty restaurant! I had lentil soup again ‘coz it’s the best new food...falafels and hummus are great...but there is only so much you can eat!