TravelChick

Back to Damascus for Christmas

Nic came back to Damascus with me, and though we were both sick (he more so than I), we managed a few really great days. We didn’t manage to wake up in time to go to any Christmas services, but we walked around the Christian part of the Old City, Bab Touma, in the afternoon.

I had told Nic that Damascene women generally dress rather conservatively but Christmas seems to be the exception to that observation. Women were decked out in short skirts, stilettos, and everything tight and glittery. I was rather surprised, and Nic momentarily believed that women in Damascus don’t dress much differently than women in Beirut.

We walked into a church, I believe it was Jesuit, and saw a really enthusiastic marching band, which was rather charming. After that we walked around, then realized we should eat some dinner. Unfortunately it was too late to go to the place I wanted to and make it to our traditional Christmas movie, so we ducked into a restaurant in Bab Touma and had a rather horrible dinner. It was probably the worst dinner I’ve had in Damascus; we did make it to see Ocean’s Twelve, though. I was quite happy to see a movie on Christmas, which is my personal Christmas tradition, and we did get some popcorn, so being able to carry out one of my Christmas traditions somewhat made up for the dinner.

Two days later Nic and I went to Maaloula; I’m glad that we visited it. It’s a small town outside of Damascus and I think the major attraction there is the opening in the cliff that was the miracle of St Thekla; it’s also one of three towns where a form of Aramaic is still spoken. After walking through the opening and climbing up the mountain a bit we met a family from Baghdad (the town is full of Middle Eastern tourists, which is a nice change). Afterwards we walked back into town and, in our pursuit of a bathroom, ended up asking a guy walking down the street where a bathroom was. He invited us back to his house and we sat around with his wife and their two little boys for a while. Nic had been hoping a family would invite us in for tea (he had even bought some biscuits in anticipation of this, so this really made him happy. It was completely delightful. The man played us his traditional flute and we talked about Aramaic. He, his wife, and his two sons all speak it.

After leaving their house, Nic and I wandered off into some back alleys and came across four of the most adorable kids, two boys and two girls, probably all around 6 to 8 years old, who were delighted to see us and happily took some pictures with us and laughed when we showed them the photos on my camera. They kept excitedly asking me and Nic questions, only some of which we understood (I think they were speaking in dialect), and ran after us once we started walking off. A man in one of the houses above where the kids were running around us opened his window, baby in hand, and motioned to us to come up, so we walked up some stairs and across a balcony to his apartment. He and his wife welcomed us in and introduced us to their two little girls and two of their friends who were visiting. We sat around chatting with them and had some wine and coffee, which just proved to me that Syrians are undoubtedly the friendliest people I've met. It's quite something to be so hospitable to strangers. While we were talking the man’s sister and her husband stopped by; the sister, Lena, studies English at the University of Damascus, so I told her we must get together. She gave me her number and we’re going to meet to practice our Arabic and English!

That day was so fantastic. Just about perfect.

posted by Travel Chick @ 6:33 PM