Hello Syria!

So, I am now in Damascus. Getting here was a tad stressful.
I was out almost all night and so only had a couple of hours of sleep. I had breakfast and then had the counter call a taxi to take me to the airport. About 15 minutes into the ride, I realized I had forgotten a very important thing - my money belt in the lock box at the reception counter. Ack!!! So I had to go back to pick that up. After that getting to the airport was fine. I had no problems at the airport, except for some reason my flight was delayed. When I did get on the plane, it was delayed some more. Luckily I didn't really notice that as I fell asleep fairly quickly. I woke up on take-off and definitely didn't sleep after that. The first 20 minutes of flight were HORRIBLE!!!!! So much turbulence it felt like the plane was bouncing around. I kept wishing I had a handle to hold on to. I am scared of flying to begin with. That didn't help much.
After landing everything was fairly easy and trouble free. Got through the airport without any problems, except one clasp on my backpack is broken. :(
I took the bus to the city center. It cost 75 Syrian Pounds (ticket plus bag), which works out to about $2US. The bus drop is not in the place listed in the Lonely Planet guide book. I asked 3 foreigners that were on the bus (Italian and French), as one seemed to know what he was doing. He has been living in Syria for the past 6 months studying Arabic. The other two are here visiting him (they had lived together in Paris at some point?). They shared their cab with me and dropped me off near the hotel area I wanted to be in. I didn't even catch their names.
The hotel/hostel I wanted to stay in was fully booked. I am in a dorm in a hotel/hostel next door, the Al-Haramain Hotel. I have one bed in a 4 bed dorm, with 3 guys taking the other beds. I think it is not common to find co-ed dorms, so that sort of surprised me, especially in a country like Syria where men and women don't even sit next to each other on public transport. The guys weren't there when I checked in, so I have yet to meet my room mates.
My plan is to stay in Damascus for 2 nights and then catch a bus to Palmyra.
I can luckily access blogger.com (my blog dashboard) to post things, but can't access my blog. Blogspot.com sites are blocked. Strange that I can access one and not the other.
Facebook is blocked here!!!!! Aaaaaaaaaah!!! What am I going to do?

Woo hoo!!!!!!

I´m goıng to Syrıa! I´m goıng to Syrıa! I´m goıng to Syrıa! I´m goıng to Syrıa!
Fınally got my VISA today and I fly tomorrow.
Yay!!!

Dubai

I'm now in Dubai. :)
Getting here was a tad stressful. I ended up being a little late getting to the airport and pretty much had to run to get on the plane, but made it.
I was flying on Aeroflot Russian. I was not impressed. No TVs, no music. Just a basic plane. And my MP3 battery was dead!! :O The only good thing was that the plane was pretty empty so I had 3 seats to myself. I slept on and off, read a book and did some Sudoku.
The meals were a bit of an issue as I was near the back of the plane. By the time they got to me, all that was left was fish. In case you don't know me well, I don't eat fish or seafood of any kind. The 2 flight attendants that were always on my side of the plane were quite good about it, though, and found other alternatives. For the first meal, they gave me a pasta meant for the 2nd meal. Then when the second meal came along, they realized there was only fish left again, so they brought me some sort of little quiche. Not sure where they managed to dig that up, but it was delicious! When he gave it to me, he said "Special just for you."
I transfered in Moscow and the plane there was delayed an hour, so I sat and had a fairly expensive mocha: $8. Tasted great, though.
Arriving in another country at 2:30 AM isn't the best idea, but I had no problems. Everything was still open at the airport, unlike some other airports I've been to that shut down everything fairly early. I changed the rest of my Korean money and caught a taxi to the hotel I had attempted (but failed - I didn't get a response to any of my requests) to book ahead. The taxi was 41 DHS. The Hotel Florida had rooms available, though at twice the rate listed in the Lonely Planet guide that I have (hasn't been updated?). They said that was the old price from a few years ago. The hotel is nice, though. Clean with an in room safe. A decent buffet breakfast is included.
So far today all I've done is found a travel agent. I booked my flight to Istanbul (4:25AM March 4th) as well as a half day desert safari for this afternoon/evening.
The 6 hour desert safari includes a camel ride, sand boarding, a sheesha, bbq dinner, belly dancing show, henna tattoos and an optional (for a little extra) dune buggy ride. Sounds good to me!! It cost me 180 DHS. They will pick me up at my hotel at 3 so I won't be able to do a lot today. I'll just wander around the area for a while. I'll have all day tomorrow to visit the museum and other places I want to see.
I'll try and post a couple of pictures tomorrow.

flying

For some reason, I always take pictures out the window when flying anywhere. I suppose it helps fill time. Especially when the flights are so long.
Flying home: Seoul to Vancouver (10 hours 15 minutes) to Edmonton (1 hour 25 minutes)

Flying back to Korea: Winnipeg to Vancouver (3 hours) to Seoul (11 hours 25 minutes)At the Vancouver Airport waiting for ?. After boarding, the plane just sat there for about 30 minutes. Still loading bags? I dunno.Complimentary Snack on Winnipeg to Vancouver flight - "Maized and Confused Corn Chips" - Very tasty. They had Flax seeds in them.