Damascus, Syria

From Palmyra we headed to Damascus, Syria’s capital. We said good-bye to Abdul, dropped our packs off and headed (I hobbled) off to check out the city and get some dinner. It was rush hour on a Friday night in Damascus and the city was bustling with people coming and going. Our first impression of the city was that it was old, dirty, loud and smelly (imagine the smell of garbage combined with raw meat and urine). Unfortunately, first impressions are often lasting impressions. And gain, it was hard to find anything to eat other than a shwarma! We found a couple of restaurants serving Arabic cuisine but the meat hanging in the window with the organs and intestines exposed and the food that had been sitting out at room temperature all day encouraged us to keep walking. We finally found a juice bar that served sandwiches too. TJ was feeling really sick and my knee was in pain so we headed back to our hotel. We had a huge room with high ceilings in a funky old house. It was spotlessly clean and nice, except freezing! We got in bed early because it was too cold not to!
On our 2nd day in Damascus we wandered around the Old City and saw the Citadel, the Umayyad Mosque, “one of Islam’s most notable buildings” and the souq (market), which sold everything from wedding dresses to perfume and kids toys. TJ was still feeling terrible and my knee pain had escalated to excruciating. Damascus has a rough terrain to navigate with a not so functional knee. My knee had started giving out and as a result I feared I’d done more than bruised it. I felt like I’d damaged my knee’s support system. So, we called it a day and headed back to our digs to take it easy. It is kind of nice to be forced to sit still sometimes. I’ve read a lot, caught up on the news, played my Nintendo DS and have actually relaxed a bit.