You are now entering Syria...

We spent Sunday in Amman, Jordan visiting the Roman Ampitheater, getting lost in the city and trying to get into mosques. I say trying, because at the first one we were scolded and told "no women" and at the second, there was a sign at the entrance reading "tourists welcome from 11am to 3:30pm". It was 4:30pm. Oh well. The shining jewel of our day was spending 2 hours or so lounging about at The Blue Fig, a restaurant in what seemed to be the hoity-toity neighborhood of Amman. The food was delicious, the ambiance was spectacular and the prices were cheap. Can't get much better than that.

The next day we left for Syria and arrived in Damascus at about 4pm. We've been hearing all along that Damascus is awesome and we weren't disappointed. This city is amazing. It's bustling, but not chaotic like Cairo. When you get inside the old city walls, it's like getting lost in Venice (without the water and everyone is speaking Arabic). There is so much to see and experience here that has nothing to do with touristy stuff--it's all about walking around the Souqs (markets) to look at the countless shops of clothing, spices, gold jewelry and candy or sitting at a cafe sipping tea, smoking a nargila (hooka) and playing backgammon with friends (which we did both nights we were there). Michael and I kept remarking how cool it was to see how people here really lived, since clearly none of the stuff we were seeing was set up for our benefit, the tourists. I suppose that's what you get for visiting the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world.

The people here are beautiful and friendly. Also, suprisingly to us, there were a noticable number of women who didn't wear a headscarf, much more so than in Egypt or Jordan. And, consistent with what we've experienced before, we were greeted with countless people welcoming us to Damascus as we passed them on the street. We really enjoyed our time in Damascus and could definitely see coming back.