Syria - Damascus

Damascus is one of the oldest continuously inhibited cities in the world - Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Mongols, Turks and French were here at one time or another.

Syria must be having a tourism boom - we spent five days in Damascus and had to stay at three different hotels because they all had full reservations. The massive white building below, which we thought was a government building, turned out to be the newly built Four Seasons hotel. Unfortunately, it was not in our budget:

Our first day in the city, we walked over to the old city to go to the souqs - almost all shops were closed! We had forgotten that Friday is the weekend on the Muslim calendar. To be honest, since we haven't worked for over six months, the weekday and weekend distinction has become very blurry for us (sorry).

Here are some items sold at the souqs - it is a shame we can't buy any souvenirs; our bags are filled to the top as it is...:

The camera flashed so you can't really see, but he is barbecuing the meat with a blow torch:

One of the entrances to the souqs is this 3rd century Roman gate:

This is the Umayyad Mosque. It was converted from a Byzantine cathedral, which in turn was built on the site of a Roman temple:

I had thought it would be very quiet in a mosque, but it was actually quite boisterous, especially in the outside courtyard where people socialized and kids were taking advantage of the slippery marble floor by doing the slide.

There are these great fresh juice stands every corner - my favorite is banana and pomegranate:

This restaurant is in the courtyard of an 18th century house:

Historic coffeehouse:

Dinner - fresh mints and peppers are always served with the food: