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Just a quick entry this time - I've put some notes on the photos and I've been in the internet cafe for ages!
This is day 4 in Damascus, to,orrow I move on to Palmyra, about 4 hours away, where there are vast ruins of a Roman city in an oasis. They say you have to see it at sunrise and at sunset, so I'm staying a couple of nights.
Since the last entry I've spent a morning at a village in the hills with 2 convents. One has a chapel that was built in 300-325 AD - it's a beautiful, tiny church with domed ceilings and a collection of icons. It's lit by a number of crystal chandeliers, which look very oput of place. A pretty young girl in sequinned jeans does a guided tour, and recites the Lord's Prayer in Aramaic. Ma'alula and 2 nearby villages are the only places where the kanguage (spoken by Christ) is still used, as their first language.
I've visited the National Museum, which isn't very inspiring, but I enjoyed some of the ceramics. The Museum of Medicine & Science was much more interesting. It's in a lovely building and has quirky things like ancient circumscision scissors.
And today I spent the morning wandering around a huge cemetery - I suppose it's the Damascene version of Highgate, where several important people are buried, including Mohammed's daughter. A little wizened old man with a big pack on his back started chatting away to me and gesturing sleep m- I think he was trying to tell me who was buried where, but couldn't understand a word he was saying.
I'm sorry to say I've only learned one word of Arabic (thank you), and if English and French don't work (they often don't), I mime. I have learned the Arabic numerals, so now I know which coin is which. And I can read a bill in a restaurant rather than asking for it to be transcribed! Wish I'd learned them before I got here!
Looking forward to being in a smaller town. I keep getting lost, and the roads here are a nightmare to cross. Some have 3 lanes in one direction. I wait until a local is about to cross (a woman carrying a child is ideal as even Syrian drivers are likely to avoid knocking her down) and scuttle across as close as possible to them, downstream!
Thanks for the messages, it was good to hear from you.
- comments
Anne Daines Thanks for the blog its fun to read glad your are safe. The roads sound awful, I didn't realise it was so modern.