to the desert

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On Friday, we headed to Palmyra, passing up a tour offered by our hotel and taking a bus instead. As usual, our tour book made it sound much more difficult to reach than it actually was - we just walked about 20 minutes to a bus station and then grabbed the next bus, leaving 15 minutes later, directly to Palmyra, for about $6 total. Our hotel in Hama was charging people about $100 for a day trip to Palmyra, making a few stops at sites along the way - which is something we're getting tired of anyway after 2 days being driven around by Ibrahim.

Palmyra is gorgeous, pink sandstone Roman ruins nestled in the desert. Some of the ruins have been restored, so you can really get a sense of how the city looked in ancient times when Queen Zenobia ruled the very properous area. There is a main colonnade, which connects the various buildings. In the center (this is so cool), there is a tetrapylon, four columns together in a square, which functioned as none other than.... an ancient roundabout... I swear that is what the sign said!

After our tour, we had lunch at a place near the ruins, which completely demonstrates our experience with people in Syria so far. We sat down and they told us they have no menus. Not a good sign, but we pressed on and ordered just a few mezes, a soda and a water. There was a large group next to us with a ton of food, and after just a little while one of the women came over with a big plate of food she had made for her family, to share with us. They had too much, she said, so she gave us these amazing breads and sandwiches, which were delicious. Then another woman brought us a big plate of different deserts to try - they were super nice and we chatted for a while before finishing our meal. Then we went to pay and the restaurant completely ripped us off. After such great hospitality from our neighbor table, we didn't want to make a big deal of it - but it is the stressful thing about traveling in Syria. Most people are incredibly welcoming, generous and honest - sharing food and being incredibly hospitable. But then almost as if on cue, someone comes along and charges 5 times the correct rate for something. Taking advantage of tourists is definitely not unique to Syria, but the juxtoposition makes it difficult to trust people and leads us to turn down a lot of offers for fear we'll get stuck paying a lot of money for something that is being offered as a gift.

After a lazy afternoon, we rode on some motorbikes up to the top of a hill where the town's Arab citadel gives really nice views of the ruins and the surrounding desert, a very popular spot at sunset. We walked back down to town so Ryan could check in with work then grabbed dinner at a place called the pancake house which served crepes as well as syrian dinners, and spent the rest of the evening chilling out and watching BBC. I'm reading a great book I picked up from a girl who's been traveling for 3 months in northern India and Pakistan, called the Bookseller of Kabul. Highly recommended.

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