Well, we are here! What a city this is too! We love it. WE spent the first day lonley planetless so had to use our senses to guide us from the airport to the city which I was not not keen on as we had no idea how much the taxis were! Needless to say we got ripped off but we had no other choice because when we got out the airport there was only the budget car rental dudes moonlighting as airport shuttles to take. There was no yellow cabs or white ones which are the ones to take aparantly! THe going rate with these guys was S1200 pounds ( about 25 quid! ) ouch.
Visas are not cheap hey! UK cost 35 quid and the aussie one was $75 usd!! And they only gave us a single entry..ho hum.
Friendly lot tho. I booked our hotel online midnight night before so as we didn't have to deal with looking for somewhere when we arrived and am so glad we did so. The Al Majed is a good place to base yourself and we checked the Al rabie and one next to it which are more than the majed and i believe our hotel is nicer, safer and rooms are better and have hot water! good hot clean showers. Staff are great. Room cost S 1100 pounds anight for 2 people, ensuite, satelite tv, mini bar, air con or fan. We are in the basement tho and have no window.....!
Food on the street is cheap and tasty - pizza like things and other sorts of breadlike dishes ( think we will end up a tad fattened up after this ). Yummy chicken kebabs for 75 pounds are good too. The arabic coffee is not my favorite but Dan loves the bitter, earthy, grainy taste of it...
not tried to nargilehs yet ( sheeshas or hookas as some call them ) which is the apple tobacco things everyone choofs on in the cafes and streets. Lovely smell tho. maybe later after visinting the mosque.
Damascus is cool. The old city is a great place to just wander around. We tend to veer of the busy alleys and into smaller ones to get a real feel for this city. Behind these small, intricate doors that look like nothing there is an amazing openess inside. IT is truly amazing how deceptive it looks. The streets are narrow, windy, kinda dark and light at the same time and look like the house will be small pokey dwellings but are in fact massive open air courtyards inside with balconies, wells, beautiful stonework...amazing. Dan has been to Morrocco and said this is typical of Arabic cities.
So many neat wee cafes hiding behind these doors too. Clean - oh yeah is so clean. WE have spent so much time in Asia and it is so smelly and dirty in most cities but here is really pleasant. ONly smelt one open sewar when we got close to the river buts it. The town is kept really well with people sweeping all the time. And yeah - there is parking metres! Just like the ones you find in Edinburgh ( the really new ones ) and people clamp cars ( but we watched 1 guy kick off his clamps on his car and speed off so take note it can be done - try and kick em off first!!
onwards towards Palmyra i think tomorrow or to HOms - depends when we get to the bus station what bus goes first.
Great place. Syria so far is amazing.
aye
