In Damascus

Darlings, it's my last night in Damascus. Bab Touma is party central, and there is a marching band outside along with throngs of people at 8 pm rushing here and there, or hanging out; cool boys in ducktail haircuts, wearing surfer board shorts or 80s style hipster outfits, one guy rollerblading; parents with children in strollers, young women walking together without chaperones, wearing tight pants and headscarves; young women with hair uncovered dressed in cutest L.A. styles; old ladies with crosses around their necks; that marching band... Cafes, restaurants, grill places, coffee and juice bars, internet depots everywhere, a huge open air restaurant called Popay advertising free WIFI! (not in Bab Touma) It's pandemonium, like Hamra Street in the old days. We spent the day with friends who live in Adawy, a leafy 70s era suburb - they took us to Maaloula and the convent of St. Sergius, fed us at home, then drove us to Bab Touma to our hotel. The streets are full of people of all kinds. Damascus is thriving.

On the way to Maaloula as we sped along a super-highway, our hostess said in Arabic to her son - Orlando looks just like this with all the car dealerships. Well it's not just like Orlando but the new car dealerships along the highway are unbelievable - glitzy and enormous.

I am too overwhelmed to write more. We wish we had more time here. I miss my family! Yesterday we were in the souks and Azem Palace... there's way too much to tell. I hope the photos will give a hint of the story. Impossible to describe how welcoming and kind people have been. It helps that I can get along in Arabic so well. Folks are surprised to hear sentences coming out of my mouth with a decent accent... my foreign looks don't match up with the sound of my Arabic. We've had great encounters with people all along. Also I shopped, not my usual practice... Syrian-made textiles and finished goods.

Life is good here in the Levant. Every hotel room in Damascus is full tonight, and we've seen hundreds of European tourists. The world is here. The Americans used to come, they say, and I believe we will be back.

We were lucky to get a room at Dar Al-Yasmin. It's lovely, much quieter than other places but still centrally located.

Have learned all about preserved eggplant. More later.

Comments

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[5 dancing shlomos]

americans return? hopefully by then the syrians will have lowered themselves to treating the americans as americans treat arabs/muslims.