Syria – 9 to 13 May 2010

The Syrian Pound – the Aussie Dollar is AWESOME against it!!!

Getting from Lebanon to Syria was another service taxi and passing through many border control areas. It’s so weird, just driving into another country.

We stayed in Damascus, with a day trip to Bosra. Bosra has this huge Roman theatre that has been well preserved and is really awesome to walk around in, there are so many rooms everywhere. The best theatre we’ve been to so far. We then walked around some ruins just near the theatre, which I think was the old town. There were people living there in these little brick houses, so simple.

In Damascus we walked around the Old City quite a bit, there are so many alleyways and streets to explore. There are many shops also. What I like about Damascus is it isn’t an overly touristy town. Not all the shops aren’t set up for just tourists and most of them are there for the locals to shop at also. There isn’t (that I saw) a huge shopping centre so you basically shop where the locals shop. The Syrian Pound was great value against our Aussie dollar. The food at restaurants was cheap and if you barter enough you can get material stuff cheap too, I kinda felt bad to though because they already started at a good price, comparing to our dollar. Public transport is cheap and so are the taxi’s – those with meters. Having said that we jumped into a taxi to get back from the bus station after visiting Bosra and it seemed to be a “special” meter. It jumped quite a bit – it was still cheap to us though. It’s hard to argue and weight it up.

The food in Syria is pretty tasty, although we got a bit “belly” from it. They love their chickpeas! We were in a restaurant one arvo and ate a few plates of appetizers. We were pretty full after that and were thinking of getting a main to share as they were huge. There were two Lebanese couples sitting on a table next to us and they offered to pay for a main meal. We were stunned and so blessed. After the meal the restaurant gave a huge bowl of fruit, and a plate of biscuits and jelly type sweets on the house. We were belly-aching full! I had to go back to the hotel for a sleep! I told Dan to take a couple of pieces of fruit and told him to do it inconspicuously… so in true Dan style he took all the fruit and left a smiley face in the bowl – what a stealth!

We visited a mosque in the old city, which was really beautiful. Of all the places we’ve visited where Islam is practiced, this is the first mosque I actually visited. Boy did it challenge me though. I had to wear this long, hooded robe because women must cover their heads…and arms and legs. It felt so demeaning and ridiculous. It’s such a different culture. While I was in Syria, I read a book on the basics of Islamic belief, it confused me and for ages (and still now) I would imagine the type of conversation I would have with a Muslim. It would be an interesting one. It seems…incomplete. Anywho, I could go on.

I got sick the last two days we were there. It started off as a kind of hayfever, then into a flu. I’ve just gotten over it today (15th) after battling against it turning to a migraine. I’ve done really good at eliminating coffee, I haven’t had one since Easter. I’ve pretty much not had anything that I thought might trigger them – caffeine, excess sugar and wine. This one I think was muscular, which is the next investigation…time to pull out my knowledge from the fitness training…yikes!

When we left Syria, I had a feeling of tiredness from being in the Arab culture. It has started draining me…or it could be all the travelling. We’ve been on the road for some time now and I’m still fighting the thoughts of going back to a routine life. It’s difficult in another culture as I’m continually aware of it’s differences and I don’t wan to upset anyone and be a “typical tourist” who doesn’t care about the culture I’m visiting. So it’s taking a lot out of me to be conscious of what I wear and how I behave (maybe too much).

Oh well, must press on to Jordan.

Liz
xoxo