It wouldn’t be Christmas if you didn’t feel at some point that you’ve eaten so much that you’ll explode any minute. We’ll never forget the day when after a hearty meal our friend Patrik, probably the sweetest tooth we know, looked at a complimentary massive plate of sweet Syrian delicacies and said “I never thought the day would come when I wish I wasn’t stuffed and could eat more.” We didn’t think we’d get into a festive mood this year but as soon as we arrived in Damascus we were humming to Christmas tunes that were playing everywhere we went. Only humming since we haven’t mastered the Arabic version of Jingle Bells just yet 🙂 The Christian quarter of the old town was also heavily decorated with Christmas lights and blinking 2011 signs. Cinnamon-apple-waffles were sold in the streets next to falafel and sharma stands. So we felt it was time to give those cheap stands a break and indulge in anything that would make us feel “christmassy”. This actually turned into a week long feast as soon as Patrik arrived from Vienna.
Damascus is a true paradise for food lovers. You can spend the entire day wandering through the old town trying all sorts of sweets and savory snacks from little shops and food stands followed by several cups of sweet tea and a nargileh (waterpipe) in one of the atmospheric street teahouses. However, the ultimate experience for anyone who is more into savory stuff is a banquet of mezze (oriental appetizers). Hummus, muttabal (puree of aubergine mixed with yoghurt, garlic and lots of olive oil) baba ghanooj (a chunkier version of muttabal), labneh (thick yoghurt with lots of garlic and parsley), wara ainab (stuffed wine leaves), fattoosh (mixed salad with croutons and a pomegranate dressing) and of course tabbouleh (salad made from parsely, tomatoes and bulgur with lots and lots of lemon).
Damascus is also one of those rare places where you’ll immediately feel at home. It’s generally claimed to be the oldest continually inhabited city in the world and there are tons of stories written about this town. Someone once wrote that if you’ve lived seven years in Damascus you’ll never ever want to leave. We spent seven days there in total and can understand why you’d feel that way. Even though Damascus is a popular tourist destination, tourists are still the minority. During the day you see many locals rushing through the souq and streets doing their shopping. In the evenings the streets are packed with locals going for walks, stopping here and there to chat to friends and neighbours. That’s when it gets very busy and you sometimes have to shuffle through the crowd to get from A to B. On the main alleys cars are trying to get through, impatiently beeping the horn but with with little success. An argument may break out between the drivers, some fists may be shaken each other and sometimes the police will turn up to regulate the chaos. Or they may just turn up, sip a cup of tea and watch the scene with boredom until they feel that it’s time to step in. We’ve also experienced that if people are either annoyed, find something funny or show their support, they start whistling loudly. On one occasion on Christmas day when we got stuck in a tiny alley full with people and cars and there was no back and forth. Suddenly this ear splitting whistling started when some young kids started to climb over the cars and started to do a little jig on the roofs much to the enjoyment of the onlookers. That’s when the police felt enough is enough and stepped in. Within five minutes things miraculously started to move again.
Although it did feel like we spent a major part of our day hunting down Syrian delicacies, we did do a fair bit of sightseeing too. One day we headed out to the truly spectacular amphitheater in Bosra and the surrounding ruins where kids were playing football using the columns as goals. Why not? It’s not like they going to get damaged easily and it’s nice to see that historic sites are still being used. In fact there were quite a few populated houses built on the site. Highly recommended even if you’ve already seen your fair share of Roman ruins. On the 24th we took a minibus to the cute village Maalula, one of just three villages where Armaic is still spoken. There was even a little bit of snow on top of the hills which made my Christmas.
With Patrik we headed to the desert to visit the ancient Roman ruins of Palmyra which are one of the most famous sights of Syria. Even if you didn’t know that you can tell from all the tour busses that are parked in front of the site. Luckily the site itself is massive so you can get easily away from the crowds. The ruins are without doubt impressive but it’s the oasis setting that adds to their appeal. It’s particularly nice around here at sunset from a viewing point up on the hills from the Arab citadel Qala’at ibn Maan. Looking over the never-ending plains, you feel like you’re totally cut off from the world and it makes you wonder what attracted the Romans to settle here in Tadmor as it was called at the time before it was dubbed Palmyra – City of Palms in the 2nd century AD. Over the years Palmyra became an important stop on the Silk Road which we quite liked when we found out. We thought we’d left the Silk Road behind us when we left Turkey. It’s also interesting that people used to live among the ruins until about 70 years ago when the town Palmyra was set up at the outskirts and heavy excavation of the site begun. The town itself isn’t anything special. But it did have one of the best and most friendliest sweet shops in Syria selling these delicious rice flower pancakes filled with curd cheese topped with rose water or orange blossom syrup and crushed pistachios and a variety of baklava that James and Patrik would wolf down instead of dinner.
From Palmyra we headed to the famous crusader castle Crac des Chevaliers or Qala’at al-Hosn which required several minibus and cab changes and haggling but we got there in the end. The author Paul Theroux apparenty called it the “epitome of the dream castle of childhood fantasies’ and T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) called it the “finest castle in the world”. When we arrived at Crac we didn’t quite see this at first. Maybe because we were hungry and also because it was fairly cold and windy. But when we got to see the inner courtyard and the loggia with its Gothic facade you can understand the attraction a bit better. Still it didn’t quite live up to the expectation after all the hype. What exceeded our expectation was the mezze extravaganza accompanied by fresh the mint tea that we got served in a restaurant on our way back to our hotel. We counted 16 plates, each more delicious than the other, and all for a very decent price. We can assure you there wasn’t much talking going on except some yumms while we were clearing those plates until almost nothing was left behind.
We then went back to Damascus for New Year’s Eve and spent a couple of days more exploring of the old town and other corners. There was of course a lot more sweet tea, Arabic coffee, sweets, savory snacks and vanilla ice cream with crushed pistachios at Bakdash, a Damascene institution in the Souq al-Hamidiyya. New Year’s Eve itself was an unusual but nice experience. We originally wanted to go for a nice meal in one of the traditional restaurants but hadn’t realised that you needed to book ahead. So we ended up eating in one of the cheapies that had become our local and then headed for a drink in Cafe St Paul, another local of ours which were both pretty much deserted. Just before midnight we headed to Bab Touma, one of the main gates in the old town, where a large crowd had formed for a count down. Unlike anywhere else we’ve ever celebrated New Year’s Eve it was all really civilized without much pushing going on. So there we were watching a standing clock that had a laser pointing to the sky and started to flash 10 times and blink at midnight. We were obviously expecting the crowd to go crazy but nothing was happening. So we wished each other Happy New Year and turned around to head back to our hotel while the alleys were still clear. A few minutes later we suddenly heard the crowd starting to whistle and to cheer, a tad too late. How funny and fitting is that. The clocks are really ticking at a different pace here 🙂
Damascus was an ideal place to spend Christmas and New Year. It’s such a fantastic place and this made being away from home and our families so much easier at this time of the year. We can highly recommend visiting Syria if you’ve a week or better two weeks of holidays to spare. It’s such a welcoming place. Everyone is very friendly and not too pushy. As you may have noticed the food is delicious and there are enough sights to mix up the experience. But after almost three weeks in Syria and a delicious last meal we felt that it was time to move on. Our visa was about to expire and Patrik was flying back to Vienna. So we said our good byes and hopped in a shared taxi to Jordan where the boarder guards welcomed us with a big smile, a wink and thumb ups. What a nice beginning.
