So these may be slow because I have a lot of catching up to do, but I am finally trying to report on all of my adventures...
Travel companions: Alex and Dionne, two girls from my program - they're staying in Amman all year and decided to travel instead of going home over the break
We left Amman (later than hoped) around 1 pm on the 19th. It's just a few hours by cab to the Syrian border, and Damascus is only a few hours beyond that, but if you happen to be traveling on an American passport without a Syrian visa obtained in advance (which will cost you at least a hundred dollars, plus a great deal of hassle if you are not in the US when trying to get one) you are required to wait at the border until a copy of your passport has been faxed to Damascus and Damascus has responded to approve your entry. This may take anywhere from a couple hours to the rest of your day, so never make plans for the day you're trying to enter Syria. We ended up waiting at the border (which fortunately has a hotel with nice couches in the lobby, plus a duty free and decent shish tawouk) for nine hours - ie, until midnight - and then had to pay an extortionate amount to get to Damascus and then to our hotel. Fortunately for us, we had joined forces at the border with another American traveler. He had been working in the red zone (ie outside the Green Zone) in Baghdad - that should make you feel better about my choice of residences, mum and grandma - so he had cash to spare and insisted on paying for most of the taxis and the entire first night at the hotel, since he had somewhat inadvertently (it's hard to say anything is really planned out at 2 in the morning) ended staying in our room and left before we got up in the morning - we didn't find out he'd paid for the whole thing until we checked out several days later. Thanks, dude.
Our first day in Damascus, we (not too surprisingly) slept in pretty late, then woke up to admire the fabulousness that was our hotel. Located in a legitimate vintage house, it had high ceilings, big rooms, and a lovely covered courtyard with a fountain (dry in the winter), Christmas tree, and argeelahs - plus free Arabic breakfast. After we'd gotten over our wonder, we set out to see the sights. In Damascus, the main things to do are 1) visit the Ummayyad mosque and 2) browse the souq. Fortunately, the mosque is located right at the edge of the Old City where the souq is found, and both were within walking distance of the hotel (yet another point in its favor). The mosque is pretty spectacular, and nearby is the tomb of Saladdin, of defeating-the-Crusaders fame. Let me just say that I was duly impressed by both (despite the small size of the tomb, it was very very cool to be there) and if you desire to know more, I'm sure both have been photographed and lauded to death on the internet, and at this point (writing five weeks later) I really have nothing constructive to add. Dinner was in another of the vintage houses. We got a few traditional mezze dishes to share - which I recommend as the best way to eat at Arabic restaurants - all of which were much enjoyed. Aside from the usual hummus and such, we got two more Syrian dishes, kibbeh (meatballs wrapped in bulghar) and fattah with chicken (chickpeas, pita, oil, and I'm still not sure what else).
The next day, we decided to make the trek to Palmyra, about three hours by bus from Damascus. Typically, we got started later than intended and didn't arrive in Palmyra until around 3 (which had something to do with us, but also something to do with the lateness and rarity of buses), leaving us in the end only an hour to explore the ruins. Being there at sunset, however, was well worth the drive, and we did get to see more of Syria - mostly mile after mile of desert.
Our final day in Damascus was much the same as the first. We'd wanted to go to the Historic Museum, but finding it was closed on Tuesdays, had to settle for the National Museum instead, which was essentially another vintage house filled with vintage objects, mostly without signs. We had some trouble finding the building - sorry guys - and once we were there it wasn't particularly impressive. Fortunately, even full-price admittance to most Syrian museums isn't more than a few dollars - I believe this one was a dollar and a half. After that we did more souq-wandering and actually did some purchasing this time. We went back to the ice cream shop in the souq, which is famous and we'd visited on our first trip. You can watch them making the ice cream, which is made with sahbel, whatever that is (also the name of a yummy hot drink made of the same thing), and there is pudding as well. Between our two trips, we sampled all three - I recommend only getting one at a time, because they are all very filling. In the evening, we went to the Christian Quarter to split a bottle of sweet Syrian red wine. Late in the evening, we were joined at our hotel by (girl) Kris, also from our program, who had previously been in (!) Yemen (!!).
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