Kiara's Amazing Travels

Ok so I have been majorly slacking off on the journal and blog front which I mean to rectify so you all know what I've been up to in the past few months. After Jordan we jumped back on our big yellow truck and set off for Damascus, Syria. I absolutely loved Syria and plan to travel there again on my own one day. I should add that it was so safe and the people relatively friendly and accommodating. We were camping out of the city so just caught cabs in to explore. There are two parts of Damascus, the old and new city. This is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world and the old city is gorgeous. Walking through the souk (marketplace) was an experience and was probably one of the best places to shop so far on the trip. I'll just describe walking through for you guys. Its a huge space undercover with bullet holes riddled in the roof allowing rays of light to hit the stone floor. You walk past shops with gorgeous lamps, middle eastern souvenirs and local perfumes.. People eating huge ice creams covered with pistachio flakes, mmmmmmmm!!! Lots of local wares, korans and clothes for sale from little stalls. The highlight for me was the huge mosque in the centre square. I've discovered I love visiting churches and mosques! Watching the local people and just experiencing the tranquility and culture. Traveling through Syria we also visited the ancient ruins of Palmyra and Crac De Chavalier (which incited many stupid jokes lol). The 'Crac' is a huge castle from the time of the Crusaders and is still in pretty good nick. During one of our random bush camps under the stars, I saw a nice, big, juicy looking scorpion crawling around lol!!! Needless to say I still slept outside for the experience and lived to tell the tale. We slept on rooftop dorms again and smoked copious amounts of sheesha pipes :) In Aleppo, another of the main cities, we visited more souks and just chilled out in some of the parks and local restaurants. Overall Syria was an awesome but very short experience as we were only there for about 5-6 days. A truly cultural experience chatting over tea and sheeshas with some of the local guys. I found it more relaxed and a bit more chilled out in comparison to Jordan and Egypt. Then off to Turkey........