Eid Break Chapter 1: Damascus

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This is the first and will be the longest section of a three-part section covering the Eid Break that I just got back from yesterday. This post will be on Damascus, the next one will be a short section on Aleppo and the final part is going to detail my trip to Aqaba and Wadi Rum. This is going to be a long entry because this was a packed trip and I don't have this amount of free time again so we went all out. Read it in segments or just look at the pictures, but enjoy. So now, onto Damascus...sort of.

Day 1

I started my trip on the Thursday after class and took a taxi up to the Syrian border with three people who I was going to be staying with, one from the US and the other two from the UK. After about an hour we get through the Jordanian section of the border with no problems and then get to the Syrian section. Here is where the waiting began, unless of course, you are not American, then you have no difficulty getting into the country. We started by getting a photocopy of our passport which was then supposedly to the office in Damascus at about 2:30 pm. Then we sat in for what we imagined to be about a 5 hour wait until we got cleared to get our visa. On the bright side we were able to hang out with a group of students from AUC (American University Cairo) for the period of our wait. They were 5 Americans and 1 Canadian who was already cleared but waiting with her friends to see if they got through. We waited with them for the next while until after much waiting the officer told us we would receive an answer after 7pm which is about an hour after everyone eats the Ramadan iftar. So when 7 came around we went up and he didn't even talk to us but just waved us away. The whole time that we were there it was very clear that the only reason we were having so much trouble was because we were American, it was not that we were suspicious or that our passports were problematic, it was that they did everything they possibly could before even trying to deal with our visas. It was really frustrating to be purposefully ignored by someone whose job it is to help you. At 10:30 pm when hope was running out and we were nearly convinced that we were waiting to just get turned away, they let us in. Perhaps that was the point. I guess we should not have called them part of the Axis of Evil...damn. But after we got cleared nothing that had happened that day mattered, only that we had no ride to Damascus. Luckily we were able to work out a plan with a guy from Saudi driving up and the last taxi so that we carried all 9 of us up to the city for only half the price. When we finally made it into our hotel we were greeted by our British friends who had already explored bits of the old city, eaten iftar at the Umayyid Mosque and were wondering what took us so long. Luckily it was all made up for when we strolled down the main market which was still partially filled with people and at dinner at what I am now convinced is the best restaurant in the city. On the whole, the food in Syria is far superior to that of Jordan and much cheaper, a combination that is hard to resist. But after having the best hummus of my life and a mint/lemon drink that assaulted my taste buds with its goodness, we decided it was time to call it a day.

Day 2

That next morning we decided that it was time to explore the old city and started with the Umayyid Mosque. This is a huge building in the heart of the old city and it lives up to everything that I had heard about it. The entire building was covered in the most beautiful art work from the floor up ranging from tile designs to carved calligraphy to murals that were still fairly well preserved through the years. All of the female tourists had to get a funny looking brown gown that covered them completely and was comical to say the least. There was also a large prayer section that was covered with comfy carpet and gradually began to fill as it got closer to the noonday payer. There were groups from every country going through the Mosque and I doubt that few were disappointed. Another point of interest is that the head of John the Baptist is supposedly in a huge shrine in the mosque. Although I head that this is a disputed fact I am going to accept it as true because I have yet to go to any of those other places. Right next to the Mosque is also the tomb of Saladin who is one of the most prominent figures in the crusades because of his stunning victories over numerous Christian armies and he even fought Richard the Lionheart. It was really quite awe inspiring to be in such close proximity to someone who had literally shaped the course of history. The tombs and monuments that I have visited here have really given me a sense of history both because of their age and their prominence.

From there we slowly made our way up to the mosque of Ibn Al-Arabi who is the most famous sufi master. Western scholars regularly interpret his writings to be in support of religious pluralism but this is a heated subject among the Scholars and Sheikhs of the Middle East. His shrine was less impressive than the Umayyid but again it was nice to be in the presence of someone who is so revered. The people around the mosque were also a great example of our experience in Syria. Of every country that I have so far visited in the Middle East, the Syrian people are by far the nicest and most welcoming. Everywhere on the street people would greet us and say welcome to Syria in a really kind hearted manner, the people at the mosque were giving us all sorts of bread to take back to the hotel with us and would not allow us to refuse it. From a female point of view, the girls we were traveling with said that in comparison to Cairo there was no cat-calling and men would greet them normally without hitting on them. Over all we all felt very at home and welcomed by the people of the country. It is just another example where there is a large disconnect between the government (who we consider a state sponsor of terror) and the people. The people who we talked to plainly made that distinction for us and I think that we owe them the same. The suq around the Mosque was also the most vibrant one that I have visited. It was filled with people, most of them Syrians buying anything that you would possibly need and the whole area just had a feeling of thriving life akin to the sense I had from the old city where I lived in Fez, Morocco.

From the suq there we rented this tiny little truck that had a small back bed into which we squeezed 11 people and rode up a huge hill to reach a restaurant at the top. During the ride up we witnessed a gorgeous sunset and at one point actually had to get out and push the little truck because it could not make it up the hill with so many people riding in it. When we finally reached the top however, we were greeted with a spectacular view of the entire city of Damascus. Unlike Aman which is a fairly hilly city, Damascus is flat and this allowed up to view everything from our high vantage point. To top of the view we went to what was probably the fanciest restaurant I have ever eaten at. There were too many courses for me to really count but I estimate it to be 7-9 of which I could only not eat one and they made me a special dish to make up for it. Everything was delicious and in such proportion that we would need twice our number to finish it. The entire mean was about 14 US dollars which I think is quite a bargain. However, because this was still significantly more than we had spent the rest of the trip my table felt justified by taking as much food as we could fit in our bags (after all it's not stealing if you paid for it right?) In the end we not so stealthily took 2 plates of dates, 10 apples, and 3 bunches of grapes. This whole process was about an hour long and was hilarious because of our lack of surreptitiousness. We spent most of that night, which was the end of Ramadan (finally!), at the restaurant smoking Hukka and watching the lights of the town. We ended the night with a short tour of the city in the back of that truck which was so much fun we decided to do it again tomorrow.

Day 3

The next day was the first day of Eid after Ramadan so technically you could now eat and drink during the day which I have never so much appreciated in my life. We ate on the street and then the male portion of the group went to a hamam. If you ever can, the experience of an Arabic hamam is a must have. The one that we went to was just for men, but there are some for women as well. As for some history, the hamams really became popular after the Arab conquest of the middle east and began to spring up in every major city to the point that Baghdad at one point was rumored to have 10,000 of them. This was a great revolution in hygiene because before only the rich could really afford to bathe with any frequency and this opened the practice up to the public. This particular hamam is over 1000 years old and has been wonderfully restored. We went in and got the whole process which was about 6 dollars. It starts out with a sauna where you stay in for as long as you feel like (I had to do it for longer because I started sweating about 5 min after the rest of the people) which is followed by some time in a steam room. This is the most famous part of the hamam where there are stone sinks around the large room with benches between them and a door where steam is bursting forth filling the room to the point where you can only see about 4 feet in front of you. We spend some time in there until one by one we were led out by a short, gruff little man who took something similar to the metal wire brushes you use on dishes and rubs off the first couple layers of your skin. That was fairly painful and I am surprised that I still have the hair on my arms and chest afterwards. He then scrubs you with the soap that Damascus is famous for (it was supposedly invented here). After this treatment you go back in the steam room and await your turn to be massaged by this hulk of a man (and he was the substitute for someone three times his size!). The massage was disappointing to someone who has grown up with a father who ofter resorts to his elbows for more pressure but it was still nice. Afterwards we washed off and were give fresh towels and sat in the main room cooling off and drinking tea. I don't think that I have every been so clean in my life as after the 2 hours at the hamam, it was quite enjoyable.

We then split up and Roger and I met up with the girls and visited the national museum. This was filled with relics from every age to the point where the extras spilled out into the garden in the front. We paid the student price of 35 US cents to get in and then wandered around for about 2 hours which was nice. I wont bore you with any real detail, you can just look at the pictures. But it was nice to be in a place that was not so crowded and we met one of the caretakers who gave us a tour of about 50% of the building in French with about half of us knew and I got about 2/3 of from knowing Spanish and English. I was able to take so many pictures because there were very few staff people watching and it helps that I have a small camera. So the bad quality is from the secrecy. After our trip through history we hopped in the back of that really small truck again and went all over the city waving and taking pictures. There were two high points of our motor tour around the city. The first was that we made a sign from a sheet of paper that read in Arabic "We love Damascus/Syria" and were holding it out the back of the truck. Everyone would take a second, lean in, read it and then their face would light up and they would smile or clap and often tell up that they loved us too. It was the best form of diplomacy that I have every taken part in. I think that US government should say us for our work at improving US-Syrian relations but that is just me. It works better than naming them part of the Axis of Evil anyway. The second highlight was a visit to the Mosque of the Grand daughter of the Prophet (Zynab I think). This was a Shiite mosque and so had a different feel to it than the other mosques. In terms of architecture, it was soooo beautiful especially the inside in which all the walls were covered in a gold material so that they shone. The mosque itself was split into two sections down the middle and from what we heard from the women's section, they were crying, and throwing themselves down upon the ground and crawling to the tomb. Shiite women are famous for their zeal and drama.

That night we tried to see if there was any night life in Damascus and found it in a little cafe on a side street. There was a live band playing and our table was about 3 feet from them so we would just lean forward and suggest songs for them to play. The band was great and what they played spanned both languages and ages. I will list just a few to give you an impression: the Beatles, Hotel California, Guantanamera, Feyruz, Tooti Fruiti (that 50s song) and a whole host of others. During the Feyruz sections the band would just play and the people at the tables would sing and in one occasion a man took the mic who was really talented and had everyone up dancing. It was a great atmosphere and afterwards we just hung out with the band and the main singer played Simon and Garfunkle etc on his guitar as we sang. We also started talking to a couple of Syrians about our age in the table next to them and it was nice to hear what they thought of the region. However it became apparent that we were not going to get any real criticism of Syria from them when we asked about the President and one girl saluted. I think this is a hold over from the last President when there were more secret service agents than pictures of the President. But anyway in was interesting to see that they were not allowing themselves to even think critically of the government even though one was a political writer for a newspaper. We agreed to meet them the next day so that they could show us around the old Jewish quarter of the city. As we were about to leave the cousin of the owner came in with a guitar and we stayed to hear him play what turned out to be one of the most impressive song sections I have heard in a while, a real prodigy or something. At 3am we walked home to catch some shut eye for the next day.

Day 4

The next morning we met the Syrians for coffee and then went off to an old church that is fairly famous. Inside was dedicated to the life of St. Paul with paintings detailing his life. You could tell they were arranged by an Arabic speaker because they went from right to left but it was good to be in a place that felt so old, holy, and peaceful. Then we went to the Jewish quarter which was a bunch of great small streets with little shops and cute houses all over the place. We even talked our way into a synagogue that was under construction but still beautiful and housed numerous huge hand-written copies of the Torah which were really cool to see. At this point in my journey I became ill and spend the rest of the say in bed with my other traveling companion who had a much worse case of Muhammad's Revenge than I did. This was when the girls from AUC left for Petra and the next day my friend and I took a bus to Aleppo.

This is the conclusion to chapter one and I would like to end it by thanking my parents for deciding to let me go to Syria. When I left for Jordan the only thing that I was not allowed to do was go to Syria and this was a very firm and unyielding point. But slowly as Eid approached I asked them to reconsider so that I could go up with my friends and visit Syria. After much deliberation and reading up on the situation they decided to let me make the choice for myself. I chose to go to Syria and I will never regret it. Thank you Mom and Dad for letting me go on this trip against your better instincts. I had the time of my life and I am sure this will be the highlight of my 3 months in Jordan. I appreciate your courage and I hope you enjoy the description and pictures. The pictures for this trip can be found at: http://picasaweb.google.com/luke.bolton514/Syria

Your loving son

Luke

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Photos

Visa
After 9 hours I am freed.

The Umayyid Mosque
The front of the largest section.

Ice Cream
Soooo good!

Post Hamam
We are so clean you have no idea.

Tourist Mobile
Never has so small a truck carried so many people.

Night shot
View from our restaurant at night.

Zaynab Mosque
This is the inside of the Shiite Mosque.