"There is always a Syria when you need... " a Damascus Travel Page by malasli

I loved it. Every minute. Cozy, safe, beautiful, old, real. Lovely people, make you feel at home, not your usual tourist touting. Great pastry, icecream parlours, fresh juice joint shops. Legends, old stones, desert, mountains, and one of the most beautiful big mosques where you can just hang out and watch the stars form the courtyard. Or pray. Or collect the obligatory pigeon sh*t on your clothes.

Learn Arabic, feast on mezze (appetizers) great for veggies. Budget prices, too. Have some clothes made by local tailors for very little, some people have wedding dresses made here.

At the end of my first ca. 10 day stay I felt just like this one travelor I had met there: He had overstayed his visa, maxed out his bacnk account and was now being nourished and housed by locals. I too wanted to glue myself to the stone steps of the Old town Bab Touma. I wanted to pick up a few of those sincerely friendly and helpful generous people who invited me to share their meals with them, patiently showed me the way each time I got lost, gave me presents, company, great conversations with a great sense of humor, education, insight and total lack of arrogance, and position them in strategic places in my own current city of residence to liven gloom and grump up a bit. I heard ahlan-welcome wherever I went. Nothing else. No annoying tradersthey are still human there. No harrassment for me save two occasions--one at 3 a.m. when I got stupid.

Great people, lots of tea invites, humbleness is not just a word and where have I wasted my life? Even the few Americans hanging around there, and that was during the Iraq war, felt safe, were welcome and those I met (save one who caused a lot of trouble for everyone) aren't exactly the worst sort.

And so I came right back to stay some months longer.

After having been to Damscus--I had a hard time getting my butt up to see other places in the country--I tend to compare and whine quite a bit about the hospitality there wherever else I go...

Too much to tell here, but don't miss it. It's my favorite place so far, even if the traffic is really bad (stink) in the city.