you are welcome here!

Just back from an amazing trip to Syria. Getting the visa was excruciating but the Syrian hospitality started even before we had final arrangements to travel. We only had to mention that we wanted to travel to Syria but it was proving difficult to get a visa and we had multiple offers from Syrians to intervene or accompany us to the embassy. In the end we gave up on the embassy in Abu Dhabi and were officially invited by a friend of a friend who has a company in Damascus. They brought the invitation with our passport numbers to the ministry of the interior and presto changeo we had ourselves a single entry visa (of sorts). It worked like a dream and we were in. (btw, 6 days after our arrival while touring the Ummayad Mosque in old Damascus I received a call from the embassy in AD telling me my visa had arrived :)

The Syrian hospitality started immediately. Just the way hometown folks the world over know a stranger when they see one, we were not blending. The first thing everyone said to us was 'Ahlan wa sahlan' -- You are welcome here. And they meant it. In Arabic and English they'd repeat it. I don't think we've ever experienced so many going so far out of their way for us. We were invited to a sumptuous dinner with a family we had never met before. We also had two people with the most tenuous relationship to us give up whole days to show us around...never allowing us to give back (but we'll find a way to!!). Once we were stopped at a stoplight and the flatbed truck next to us had a huge box of fish on it. We started to take a picture and the driver started shouting that the other side was cleaner. He backed up on a 4-lane road and drove around so we could take a picture of the other side.

Syria sits in the cradle of civilization (or one of them -- there are a few claims to that bed). We travelled from Damascus to the ruins of Palmyra (3rd century) where Queen Zenobia had the audacity to print her own coins--really ticking off Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius who gave her (and her city) a smack down. We climbed the ruins of Krak les Chevaliers -- the most perfectly preserved crusader castle in the world. We ate in the culinary capital of Aleppo to the north and visited the dead cities of Serjilla and Al Bara among many other things. Back in Damascus, the Umayyad Mosque (where John the Baptist's head is supposed to be entombed) was a pagan temple dedicated to Jupiter, then a Cathedral and now a mosque--reminiscent of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

The most amazing experiences though were the processions on Holy Thursday and Good Friday in the Christian Quarter where we were staying. Holy Thursday--after a grueling 3.5 hour mass in Arabic--complete with cotton candy and popcorn sales at the gate of the church...and yes, we availed ourselves of that and even a glass of wine -- we squeezed into the courtyard for a live Passion play. The Jesus character was flogged and paraded through the enormous crowd with his cross until he was finally tied, not nailed--there are limits--to the cross and crucified. I've never seen anything like it.

Because the Christian community is 10% of the otherwise Muslim population--they've organized much of their lives around their churches. Each parish has a scout group with their own unique uniforms (much in evidence over the weekend). They have a marching band and a huge committee to organize the processions. You start in a scout group at 3 or 4 years old and stay with that group into your 20's, thus keeping the community together. On Good Friday the processions of cross carrying-Jesus's and marching bands made their way through thronged streets of families and friends all out for the festivities.

Just one more thing...over all the hotels tend to be a bit dated but there is a new push to renovating the old Syrian homes (huge affairs for multiple generations with an interior courtyard) and using them as restaurants and hotels. These are excellent. We especially liked Narenj Restaurant and Beit Ruman hotel both in Old Damascus.