Bureaucracy at Its Best

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Well, I managed to get across the border into Syria. It actually went exactly as I expected so it ended up not being that bad of a day. We woke up at 6:30 am and headed to the bus station. The bus, which cost only about $1 US more than the rest was incredible. We're talking airplane first class status; big, leather seats, tons of legroom. As the driver came took the tickets while we boarded, he ranted in half English something along the lines of, "no visa... USA... I am sure... no chance." I told him I already bought the ticket so I'm testing my luck at the border at this point.

I tried to stay awake to catch the scenery on the way up to the border but it was tough. After about 90 minutes, we got there. Patrick and I were the only ones on the whole bus without visas, so we got out while the rest of the passengers stayed in the air conditioning.

We tried to smile and use as much Arabic as possible to the immigration agents to earn some brownie points and I guess it worked. Due to some language barrier problems, we ran around in circles obtaining Syrian pounds and photocopies of our passports. And I literally mean we "ran" because the driver was waiting for us to get visas on the spot, even though I was pretty sure that wasn't going to happen. They ended up telling me to wait 1, 2, or 4 hours. It was then we got our bags out of the bus and were left stranded in no man's land between Jordan and Syria.

We then met a few people around our age that were coming from a conference in Amman and doing a bit of traveling. One American girl, Stephanie, had to endure the same wait time so she joined up with us. Her non American friends and their quickly issued visas took the bus into Syria. Patrick was going to actually join them but their bus left about 10 minutes before he got his visa. He ended up paying double what I did though. Gotta love bureaucracy. So he stayed and waiting with me and Stephanie.

It was horrendously hot in the immigration office, so we walked to an air conditioned hotel for some lunch. About 4 hours after we initially arrived at the border, we went back to the immigration office and officially got our visas. Then we started haggling with taxi drivers and finally agreed on a price with one. When he took us to his "taxi" though, it was a full sized coach. At first we were apprehensive but he told us he would take us right to our hotel. So the three of us had our own huge, air conditioned bus. Things were too good to be true. I was waiting for the catch but it never came.

We rolled into Damascus about an hour later and the smog was the first notable thing. After a bit of difficulty, but with some help from some very nice Syrians, we found the hotel we planned to meet Stephanie's friends at. But it was full and they left a note for another place. But that ended up being full by the time we got there so we found yet another place just a few doors down.

In the end, all of Stephanie's companions except one, a Canadian girl named Hillary, went on to Lebanon. So the four of us set out for the Old Town, ultimately in search of a shwarama restaurant.

First we went to the Umayyad Mosque, which is one of the biggest sites in the city. I think it was a Byzantine cathedral at some point, then it went back and forth between the Christians and Muslims a bunch of times. Regardless, it's pretty amazing today. Really nice architecture and lighting schemes. I always think it's weird that some of these mosques are so open to tourists, even during the prayer sessions. It's an experience to sit through one for a few minutes.

We then wandered around the markets for a while. I was starving but Old Town was so amazing, I didn't even care. I quickly realized that Damascus is awesome! It's my favorite city I've ever been to aimlessly wander around and get lost. I was excited to turn every corner just to see what was down the next street. Tons of weird food stands, drink stands, really nice people, craft shops, etc. And countless masses of people in every direction. And this was a Wednesday night.

Eventually we taxied over to a shwarama restaurant that the girls' hotel recommended. The menu was super bizarre. I'm talking about sheep brain salad, sheep testicle kabab, things like this. I was so steadfast on shwarama though so I didn't go crazy and I got the chicken shwarama. It was good, but Stephanie's sheep shwarama was better.

After dinner, we walked back to the hotels, realizing that we totally got scammed with our taxi ride to the restaurant. It took us about 10 minutes to walk the same distance as our 10 minute ride. It was only the equivalent of like $3 US anyway though.

We hung out in the courtyard of our hotel for the night since it's awesome. There is a fountain in the middle, tons of cool paintings and vines stretching everywhere, and they have hookahs.

Today, we went back out into the Old Town for some more wandering. It feels like I'm doing it no justice with the lack of explanation. All you really do is walk around and that's it. But I could do it for days. In fact, I think I'm going to stay an extra night or two in Damascus. We'll see. We parted ways with Stephanie and Hillary as they were heading back to Jordan to fly home. But we ran into Andy, who I met in Dahab, and who was with us for the infamous ferry crossing into Jordan. Originally I planned on traveling with him north through Syria and into Turkey, but he said he realized he's completely burned out from traveling. He hasn't had a permanent home in 3 years. So he's bee-lining it to Istanbul and flying back to the states. Damascus is as far north as Patrick is going, so I'll be going north on my own for right now.

For the record, we've heard nonstop about how nice and welcoming the Syrians are. And they are. They have pretty much everyone beat but the Jordanians. Those people are so ridiculously friendly, I don't know why they don't get the credit that Syria gets. All in all though, both countries have most of the world beat.

Tomorrow we're going back to Old City of course and I might try to sort out my bus options to my next stop, which I think is going to be Hama.

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Photos

Souk
The main Souk in Old Town

Drinks
This guys with the weird drink dispensers are everywhere. And the drinks are awesome and cheap!

Mosque
The mosque at dusk

Souk 2
Another souk shot

Hookah
This is nightlife in the Middle East (actually it's morninglife and afternoonlife too)