Things we learned:

Currency: Pounds (48 Pounds=$1 USD)

Cities Visited: Damascus, Palmyra, Homs, Aleppo

Check border crossings for visa information at the Syria/Jordan border. Depending on the mood of the border guard towards Americans, expect to wait for 10-12 hours to get your visa.  People with Israel stamps in their passport will NOT BE ALLOWED in Syria.

Syrians are very cautious about discussing politics, especially when it relates to their own government.

Lots of Kurdish people live in the north, especially near Aleppo.

In Palmyra, beware of restaurants without prices or written menus.  Also, internet cafes in Palmyra are scarce (we only found two) and they are way more expensive than anywhere else.

Syrians will usually assume that you are French or German before assuming you are American.

Arak is anise flavored grape alcohol originally from Syria that is usually mixed with water, which turns the concoction milky white.

When a Syrian puts all their fingers together, palm up, it means wait.  When they pat their heart, it means no, thank you.

At Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, a foreigner must go to an entrance on the side of the building before going inside the mosque to buy tickets and for women to pickup the proper attire to enter, a hooded robe.

It is definitely worth picking up  some pistachio ice cream at Backdash Ice Cream parlor in Old Town Damascus.  Actually, just eat a lot at the souqs in Syria.

In Aleppo, you can find the olive oil based soaps everywhere.  We also found out later its much cheaper here than across the border in Turkey.

When arriving in Aleppo, keep an eye out for a group to head to the Dead Cities.  You can only take a cab and it will definitely help to keep costs down.

Prices

• Tea = 25 to 50 pounds
• Water (1.5l bottled) = 20 to 30 pounds
• Internet (1 hour) = 40 to 60 pounds
• Budget hotel room = 400 to 1,200 pounds, depending on the city and season

Deenaree´s list…

• Food: Baklava in Aleppo, they use rose syrup!
• Experience:  Walking around the Souqs everywhere and just taking it all in.
• Something to remember: Spending a day exploring the ruins and hiking up the hill to the castle at Palmyra.

Ben´s list…

• Food: The awesome little dessert rolls filled with cream that we still don’t know the name of that have something to do with chicken breasts!
• Experience: Meeting the grandmother of our cell phone SIM card salesman (yes, you get to know Syrians quite quickly!) and finding out she is one of very few native Aramic speakers (Jesus’ language) left in the world.
• Something to remember: Our hotel owner in Palmyra (Towers Hotel) giving us a ride for 3 hours to our next city without accepting a single Syrian pound.

One of the best aspects of our travels is that we have been incredibly fortunate to have met caring, kind, and generous people all over the world in the form of couchsurfers, expats, travelers, and locals. These people keep our homesickness at bay and remind us that we are all connected in one way or another regardless of our differences in politics, income, religion, etc. Our time in the Middle East served as a constant reminder of this basic rule.

Our fourth Middle Eastern destination was Syria. Politically, Syria and the United States have, in light terms, been at odds. I will not go into the politics that govern our relationship with this country, but I do hope that you take the time to read up about it (through unbiased sources) if you are curious. With that said, it is these political differences (not paperwork) that found us waiting 10 hours at the Jordan/Syrian border to obtain entry into the country. With visa in hand, we are welcomed into a world of people who charm us with their genuine and undeniable friendliness. It is the Syrians who teach us not to mix the politics with the people of a country.

All over Syria, people stare as we walk by and greet us with a cheerful “Welcome”.  They take an active interest in knowing where we come from and are usually surprised when we tell them.  We get the impression that Americans are not frequent visitors to their country.  We are approached by girls wanting to practice their English and store owners asking us to have tea with them.  Many people express a genuine and dreamy-eyed interest in wanting to visit/live in the States.

In Damascus, we experience the depths of  Syrian hospitality from the representative who sold us a cell phone SIM card and took an extra half hour to draw maps of different hot spots in the city for our point of reference. He even provided us with his number in case we wanted to meet up and introduced us to his grandmother when we took him up on his offer.   Even though we were strangers in her home, she enthusiastically served us cake, showed us albums of her family, and shared stories of her childhood in Maaloula.

In Palmyra, the manager of our hotel invited us to drink Arak, Syrian alcohol, with him and his friends every evening and drove us 3 hours from Palmyra to Homs free of charge.  We had not been accustomed to this type of kindness especially from someone in the tourism industry, but we were so touched by it and hope someday to have the opportunity to return the favor in some small way.

In Homs, we were invited to have a hummus breakfast in the home of a Syrian friend of our couchsurfing hosts.  As in Damascus, we were introduced to the man’s family and spent a better part of the morning eating pita bread piled high with thick, chickpea dip.  He then gave our group a guided tour of the old churches scattered around his neighborhood and explained the significance of relics and healing fountains at these sites.

We enjoyed our time with the beautiful people of Syria so much that we were sad when our time in this country came to an end.  Although our 10 hour wait on the border almost deterred us from entering, our experiences with the good-natured Syrians provided us with the belief that they are, by far, the friendliest people we have ever met.

]]> http://travelstainedlife.com/2010/04/29/some-of-the-friendliest-people-on-earth/feed/ 0 http://travelstainedlife.com/2010/04/26/watching-time-stand-still-in-the-souqs-of-syria/ http://travelstainedlife.com/2010/04/26/watching-time-stand-still-in-the-souqs-of-syria/#comments Tue, 27 Apr 2010 03:20:15 +0000 Ben http://travelstainedlife.com/?p=1604 Continue reading →]]> Our time in Syria could probably be reduced to two wonderful components; the people we met in the country and the souqs that dominated every city we visited there.  The souqs can be seen when visiting any Middle Eastern country, but there was a special ambiance in Syria, where once in the Souqs, time seems to have stopped centuries ago.

Our first experience with souqs in Syria was in the capital city of Damascus.  The main souq there is an enormous place that covers a good portion of the historical Old Town area of the city.  The place oozes charm and is arguably the oldest continuously inhabited city on the face of the planet.  One of the main streets is covered by a steel roof for pedestrians, which is riddled with holes which are supposedly from gunshots fired during resistance against the French occupation in the 1920′s.  The other main street, aptly named Straight Street in English, stretches for at least a few miles without as much as a curb changing directions (quite rare in this part of the world) and sporting gorgeous wood paneled stalls.  In between, there are shops of all shapes and sizes in abundance.  Every shop owner seems to have a specialty and we saw vendors as bizarre as those selling nothing but adhesive tape!

The other souq we visited in Syria that rivals, and probably surpasses, the beauty of Old Town Damascus is Aleppo.  The never ending main road is mostly covered by an arched rock roof that looks as old as time.  Apart from the few modern conveniences in the souq, like electric lights, one would think they had suddenly transplanted back at least a few hundred years.  To walk there is to walk through history.  Steaming piles of of freshly roasted sunflower seeds sit next to pyramids of spices that are meticulously sculpted.  Vendors selling clothing wait for customers next door to shops selling traditional cuisine.  The variety is incalculable and it is certainly possible to get lost in the market for an entire day.

One of our favorite past times in the souqs of Syria was eating.  Well, eating is pretty much always one of our favorite past times, but the concentration of wonderful, cheap food there was unsurpassed in any other place we have been.  Because of this, we practically lived in these souqs for a few days.  The souqs of Damascus were particularly plentiful.  Not only were we able to find our very favorite falafel shop in all the Middle East, but our favorite street corner in Damascus housed our two go-to food joints.  The first made a delicious shawarma sandwich for $1 with sauce, veggies and a healthy portion of meat.  Right next door, across the narrow, alley-like street, was a shop that made little sandwiches that could be best described as a folded pizza.  Starting with raw dough, and painstakingly brushing on tomato sauce, then covered in cheese and veggies, and folded into thirds, this was one of our favorite meals in all the country and cost a mere 70 cents.  We spent nearly every evening in Damascus hanging out at this corner going back and forth between the two shops until we were satisfied.  For dessert, we would take a short stroll down the street to a local baker that sold chocolate filled croissants at such a pace that their industrial baking oven could barely keep up with the demand.

In Aleppo, we again struck gold with food in the markets.  Our first morning in town, we were walking through the market looking for breakfast, and stumbled across a shop with what I am convinced is the best hummus in the world.  It was a small, indiscreet shop mixed in with textile and souvenir vendors that simply dished up hummus into small bowls with a side of bread and nothing else.  It was without a doubt the best breakfast I had on our entire trip and it would be reason enough for me to want to go back to Syria.

Our experiences in the souqs of Syria will live with us for a long time to come.  The combination of history, atmosphere and awesome food is about the perfect combination for us.  We will fondly remember our days wandering around, looking for nothing in particular, and our nights standing outside food shops enjoying the fruits of their labor.  We can only hope to find such complete experiences in the rest of our travels.