Life in Damascus

Damascus is an amazing city! It has a very unique blend of modern and traditional culture and surroundings :) We have spent the last two days wandering around the old and new parts of town taking in the people, sights and food. I was trying to avoid the salads but the sandwich yesterday came with everything in it and it looked and tasted so good I decided it was worth the risk! So far so good!

We spent some time in the main mosque in the old town yesterday watching the people come and go. It's a very spiritual place and is so peaceful even though there are people streaming in and out all the time. The inside was so simple yet really powerful and the range of people in there and different prayer types was intriguing.

Last night we met up with the guy that we met in Petra and went around to his friends (a fellow American) place which is in the old city. The houses look so drab and uninviting on the outside and when you go into them there is a beautiful open courtyard with the living area off to one side and the rooms all around it. All the windows open inward in the building so none of it can be seen from the outside. We met a number of people from around the world and chatted into the small hours of the night. There were fascinating stories from all directions and we left our kiwi mark by leaving the cute wee kitten that they had just got with the name Scroggin :)

Today we spent the hottest part of the day wandering the old streets so wore ourselves out a bit and recovered this afternoon by sitting in a traditional cafe and watching the city buzz by. The cafe was full of men smoking water pipes and when Beth commented that she was feeling much better now and very relaxed we thought that it was probably time to move on!

It's amazing how quickly you adjust to your environment. I was feeling cold before and looked across to see if I could turn up the aircon and realised that it was set at 28 degrees ...... hmmm it's going to be an extra cold winter when I get back!

We've been learning so much about the history of the Middle East as we explore. It's fascinating to see the way the past has shaped what is around today. I wish I'd taken history at school! I brushed up on my uni chem knowledge on the bus to Irbid :) The girl one row up and across was reading through her study notes (in English - my Arabic isn't that good!) was surprised how much I remember - looks like all those hours of study actually taught me something :)