I had a horrible flight from Istanbul to Damascus - really bad turbulence a good part of the way. I had white knuckles most of the trip, when really, I wanted to be sleeping. Other than that, my entrance to Syria was fine. Making my way to my hotel had a few setbacks, though. I wrote about that in another post. Basically, the airport bus didn't stop at the station shown on the map, so I had to find a ride with some other travelers to where I wanted to be. Then, I found out that my originally planned hostel/hotel was full. :O I didn't have to wander too far and found a bed in a co-ed dorm at a hostel next door (it was the only bed they had left available).
After I had gone to bed, one of the guys arrived. He is from Japan and is one month into a three month trip around the Middle East. We talked for a short time before I fell asleep. I slept fairly well. I didn't wake up at all when the other two arrived. I woke up at 7:30 and went back to sleep. Too early. I got up at maybe 8:30, got ready and went down for breakfast. Breakfast was fresh bread (still nice and warm), an apple, a cheese triangle, butter and jam, a hard boiled egg, tahini and a couple of olives. Not a bad breakfast.
[a random building... not sure what it is, but I like it]
After breakfast I took some clothes down to be washed and then wandered over to the Old City part of Damascus. I walked around the Citadel (it is closed to the public)
[statue of Saladin in front of the Citadel]
and then through the old souqs (SO long!!) and back alleys until the Ummayad Mosque was open at 10:30.
[in a long covered souq. fairly early so not all of the shops were open]
I love wandering. :)
In front of the mosque is the remains of an old (temple?) gate, at one end of a very long covered souq. 
The Umayyad Mosque, also known as the Grand Mosque, is one of the largest and oldest mosques in the world. The mosque used to be a church but was converted into a mosque.
To enter the mosque, I had to wear a funny grey robe. 
The mosque really is very grand. It is HUGE!!! And beautiful.
I mentioned the mosque when writing about the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul - because there is a shrine in the mosque which also claims to contain the head of St. John the Baptist (the one who baptized Jesus).
At least 6 different places claim to posses his head. There also several claims of possesion of his arm (with which he baptized Jesus) and other such things. The mosque is important to Muslims for many reasons, one of which is that it is said to be where the Prophet Mohammed's grandson and other descendents were improsoned during the Battle of Karbala.
There is a shrine in the mosque that contains the heads of those people who died in Karbala. Next to (connected to) the shrine is a small box like inset where the head of Husayn ibn Ali (the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed) was kept. Next to the mosque is the tomb of Saladin.
After spending some time in the mosque, I had tea at An Nafura, a little coffee/sheesha shop behind the mosque. Nice, but too much ash was blowing around from all the sheeshas.
I walked around the Old City for so long. It really is like a labyrinth with winding alleys, some ending in dead ends, some covered (some with quite low roofs).
Some were even leaning!! Such an amazing place to go through. Many of the streets and alleys are souqs (traditional markets) selling all sorts of things from clothes to housewares (in different alleys, though).
I eventually found the Azem Palace. So nice!!
I wasn't allowed to take pictures in the rooms, though. They were set up sort of like a museum. One room in the palace is for the bride. The whole purpose of the room is for the bride to get ready for the wedding. She bathes, and then takes around 2 days to prepare for the wedding.
I did take some pics in the central courtyard, though.
After checking out the palace, I went through some more of the souqs. I bought some snacks - sesame snacks and ones made with pistachios (sort of like peanut brittle but made with pistachios), and some dried apricots.
I ate a late lunch at Leila's Restaurant. It is in a beautiful courtyard about a floor below the ground level. It is open to the sky, but there is a roof that they pull over if the weather is bad.
The bathrooms are pretty much caves (but fancy caves!). I had fattoush and a banana milk to drink.
The waiter was a bit odd. He brought my food, disappeared and when I had just snapped a picture of my dish, he returned with a plate and started scooping the salad from the bowl onto a small plate, pretty much dumping some of it in my lap. :O I said I could do it on my own, but even after spilling on the table and my lap, kept going, making a bit of a mess of everything. Strange!!! Then he didn't return for so long. I finished eating and ordered some tea. The tea took a long time to come.
It isn't the cheapest restaurant in the area. I had expected a bit more in terms of service. After I paid the bill, which included 10% service fee, the waiter didn't bring all of my change but rather gave himself a tip by rounding the bill up. I was certainly not impressed.
I nearly got lost wantering about the souqs again. I covered several of the alleys more than once or even twice, and it seemed as if sometimes I was going in circles!!
I love the spices!
The only people that talked to me other than sales people trying to sell things to me, are a few women, and a girl who was walking with her father and brother. They asked where I'm from and what my name is. The girl and her father and brother were kinda sweet and were trying to talk to me for a while, as we were walking in the same direction for several minutes.
I headed back to the hotel and then, for some reason, decided to eat again. I asked at the hotel where I could get food nearby. The guy said there are a couple of places I could get sandwiches up and to the right. I went where he said, but found no sandwich type places. I went into a little restaurant. The only English anywhere was on the window, where it said, "MEALS COOKING." I asked what they had and the guy took me to a display case near the back and pointed out everything in English.
I got rice (some sort of curry-ish seasoned rice) and a vegetable dish. Flat bread is in bags on the tables and is pretty much help yourself. The food was excellent, and cheap. Then it was off to the Internet to do some posting, and bedtime was upon me.
[the crooked stairs up to the 3rd floor where my room was]
[a random building... not sure what it is, but I like it]After breakfast I took some clothes down to be washed and then wandered over to the Old City part of Damascus. I walked around the Citadel (it is closed to the public)
[statue of Saladin in front of the Citadel]and then through the old souqs (SO long!!) and back alleys until the Ummayad Mosque was open at 10:30.
[in a long covered souq. fairly early so not all of the shops were open]I love wandering. :)In front of the mosque is the remains of an old (temple?) gate, at one end of a very long covered souq. The Umayyad Mosque, also known as the Grand Mosque, is one of the largest and oldest mosques in the world. The mosque used to be a church but was converted into a mosque.To enter the mosque, I had to wear a funny grey robe. The mosque really is very grand. It is HUGE!!! And beautiful.I mentioned the mosque when writing about the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul - because there is a shrine in the mosque which also claims to contain the head of St. John the Baptist (the one who baptized Jesus).At least 6 different places claim to posses his head. There also several claims of possesion of his arm (with which he baptized Jesus) and other such things. The mosque is important to Muslims for many reasons, one of which is that it is said to be where the Prophet Mohammed's grandson and other descendents were improsoned during the Battle of Karbala.There is a shrine in the mosque that contains the heads of those people who died in Karbala. Next to (connected to) the shrine is a small box like inset where the head of Husayn ibn Ali (the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed) was kept. Next to the mosque is the tomb of Saladin.After spending some time in the mosque, I had tea at An Nafura, a little coffee/sheesha shop behind the mosque. Nice, but too much ash was blowing around from all the sheeshas.
I walked around the Old City for so long. It really is like a labyrinth with winding alleys, some ending in dead ends, some covered (some with quite low roofs).Some were even leaning!! Such an amazing place to go through. Many of the streets and alleys are souqs (traditional markets) selling all sorts of things from clothes to housewares (in different alleys, though).I eventually found the Azem Palace. So nice!!I wasn't allowed to take pictures in the rooms, though. They were set up sort of like a museum. One room in the palace is for the bride. The whole purpose of the room is for the bride to get ready for the wedding. She bathes, and then takes around 2 days to prepare for the wedding.I did take some pics in the central courtyard, though.After checking out the palace, I went through some more of the souqs. I bought some snacks - sesame snacks and ones made with pistachios (sort of like peanut brittle but made with pistachios), and some dried apricots.
I ate a late lunch at Leila's Restaurant. It is in a beautiful courtyard about a floor below the ground level. It is open to the sky, but there is a roof that they pull over if the weather is bad.The bathrooms are pretty much caves (but fancy caves!). I had fattoush and a banana milk to drink.The waiter was a bit odd. He brought my food, disappeared and when I had just snapped a picture of my dish, he returned with a plate and started scooping the salad from the bowl onto a small plate, pretty much dumping some of it in my lap. :O I said I could do it on my own, but even after spilling on the table and my lap, kept going, making a bit of a mess of everything. Strange!!! Then he didn't return for so long. I finished eating and ordered some tea. The tea took a long time to come.It isn't the cheapest restaurant in the area. I had expected a bit more in terms of service. After I paid the bill, which included 10% service fee, the waiter didn't bring all of my change but rather gave himself a tip by rounding the bill up. I was certainly not impressed.I nearly got lost wantering about the souqs again. I covered several of the alleys more than once or even twice, and it seemed as if sometimes I was going in circles!!
I love the spices!The only people that talked to me other than sales people trying to sell things to me, are a few women, and a girl who was walking with her father and brother. They asked where I'm from and what my name is. The girl and her father and brother were kinda sweet and were trying to talk to me for a while, as we were walking in the same direction for several minutes.
I headed back to the hotel and then, for some reason, decided to eat again. I asked at the hotel where I could get food nearby. The guy said there are a couple of places I could get sandwiches up and to the right. I went where he said, but found no sandwich type places. I went into a little restaurant. The only English anywhere was on the window, where it said, "MEALS COOKING." I asked what they had and the guy took me to a display case near the back and pointed out everything in English.
I got rice (some sort of curry-ish seasoned rice) and a vegetable dish. Flat bread is in bags on the tables and is pretty much help yourself. The food was excellent, and cheap. Then it was off to the Internet to do some posting, and bedtime was upon me.[the crooked stairs up to the 3rd floor where my room was]
Where they sell "Ordinary Char's Clothes" (men's wear).
Or how about EEEK???
Both of these shops are in Apgujeong, in the Rodeo area.
The umbrellas (as well as everything else related) disappeared a few days ago. Now I miss them.
In the middle of the steps up to the front of Yongsan Station is a bit of a water feature - basically, in the middle section, water runs from the top to the bottom and then disappears. The steps of the middle section light up. Yongsan Station is connected to 2 huge department stores, a very large EMart grocery store, and the huge 
It is a 24 hour convenience store similar to a 7-11. There are many stores like that around Korea: IGA Mart, 7-11, Orange Mart, Family Mart, GS Mart, etc.
Then we went to Carrefour, a big western style shopping mall downtown Alex. When ever we went out, she covered her head and pretty much hid her face. She didn't seem to want to actually walk with any of us, and seemed a little paranoid. At the mall, half of the group went to the grocery store with Hussein, our wonderful driver (he loves us all... except for Joanna). Bryn, Ian, Joanna and I wanted to wander around and window shop. Joanna really wanted to buy some clothing because of the situation of having to flee Dubai without her luggage(as she claimed). She wouldn't walk with us there, either. She walked a few feet behind us, keeping her head covered. When we went to look at anything, she stayed well away and when we were finished, she would go take a look. She does everything so slowly, including walking and eating. We were hungry so we went for a quick snack, a cinnamon bun. She ordered a chicken crepe dinner. She moved like a snail while she ate because she was too busy watching everyone that came near or walked by or even moved in the distance. Eventually, after eating, Ian and I got separated from Bryn and Joanna. We went into the grocery store (it had everything from food to clothes to cds. We each bought a notebook. When we all found each other again and were ready to leave, Joanna had bought a new outfit. Actually, Bryn had paid for it because Joanna had forgotten to bring cash and didnt' want to use her credit card because it could be traced. After we got back, she came to our room to join us while we were doing our homework. She said she wanted to show us something and broke out into a very long story. To make a long story short, she claims that she unknowingly helped Saddam Hussein in New Zealand a couple of years ago, and so became sort-of part of his group. She worked with and taught Iraqi refugees. While whe was there, she had a few problems (was attacked by a mother of a 16 year old drugged up girl that she had helped) and the only ones that would help her were a group of Iraqi refugees, of which one was Saddam Hussein, using the name Hassam. She spent time with all of the refugees there. She claims that since then, every where that she goes, she sees people from his group and communicate with them using hand and body signals. Apparently, she saw people from the group at Carrefour (4 of them, to be exact), and they communicated to her that they wanted her to talk to Saddam about the situation with the refugees. She says that she is wanted because of her associations and is worried that the Egyptian gov't will come and take her away because of it. She went into a big long speech about how the Arab troops were mobilizing in Dubai and in Cairo and that they were going to make their big move after the Rammadan, a month long religious period starting next month(?). She wouldn't leave our room until very late and after every one else had gone to bed, she told Megan and I that she was going to flee the country. She walked into Megans bedroom and was standing at her window for about 15 minutes or so and when Megan tried to talk to her, she said to be quiet. When she finally came out, she asked if the guys downstairs would be asleep, because the coast was clear outside. She then hugged each of us and tried to give me her cds and watch. She wanted to trade bags with us but we suggested that if she wanted to do something like that, she should use shopping bags. In the morning, she was gone, her key was on the table and the clothes that she had been wearing were left with her bag and some other things in her room. She left the door open. We had a big discussion when we got to the school. Then she phoned the school to say that she was having family problems and would miss the day but would be back tomorrow. She phoned the school again, a little later, to say that she would be there in the afternoon. The made her go to the apartment to pick up her things and then she did show up. She is now staying in a hotel a short walk from the school. Everyone is a bit freaked out by her. She is very creepy. We are hoping that she will stop coming, as it makes us all uncomfortable. We have to actually work with her, as we do partnered work in the class. It is hard to explain because she did say a LOT more than that. She is obviously delusional but there has to be some sort of truth behind her behavior. Maybe something happened to her and she has become paranoid. Who knows. We do have a lot of people looking after us, though. Egyptians are very protective. We love all of the Egyptians that we have met. They are such great people.Anyway, I should go now. This is getting a little long. Tomorrow night we are all going out. And then it is our weekend (Friday and Saturday). Yay. We might to go the beach and a museum or two.Love you all. Keep in touch.