Legend has it that on a journey from Mecca the Prophet Mohammed cast his gaze upon Damascus but refused to enter the city because he wanted to enter paradise only once – when he died. It might be a bit of an overstatement to compare Damascus to paradise but there is some indefinable element to it that makes that story ring with truth.
Damascus has so far been one of our greatest surprises. We expected it to be yet another city with lots of great things written about it, but all coming down to the same thing: 4.6 million people in a city that would have some history but simultaneously be like all other capitals around the world. Such expectations could not have been further from the truth.
At no time during our stay in Damascus did we ever feel that it was a capital city nor that it had 4.6 million inhabitants. All that we were surrounded by was the history. Mark Twain once wrote: “Go back as far as you will into the vague past, there was always a Damascus… She has looked upon the dry bones of a thousand empires and will see the tombs of a thousand more before she dies… To Damascus, years are only moments, decades are only flitting trifles of time. She measures time, not by days and months and years, but by the empires she has seen rise, and prosper and crumble to ruin. She is a type of immortality.” Damascus vies for the title of the world’s oldest continually inhabited city and with every step you take you can feel her age and a kind of grace that comes with it. Maybe this grace has seeped into the people as well because so far, the Syrians have been the nicest most hospitable people we’ve ever met.
To give you a bit of an understanding of what we mean by history take for example the hotel we were staying in. This was located outside the Old Town but was nevertheless housed in a 600 year old building.
The Old City itself is a network of tiny alleyways, only some of which are miraculously navigable by these little narrow cars others are barely wide enough for two people to pass one another. Along these alleys are ancient buildings many constructed with what looked like a mud and straw mixture. Some of these buildings are crumbling while life still goes on inside the, many are sagging with age, others look as majestic as they have for centuries.
We put the guidebooks away and simply got lost in these little turns, trying to discover little corners, courtyards, mosques and churches and to simply soak in the atmosphere. There was nothing better - well, maybe with the exception of the absolutely amazing ice cream. Take my word for it – there is nothing that even remotely compares in Vancouver. This one ice cream shop on their main souk street, has lineups out the front door and they are well deserved. Their scrumptious ice creams are made with sahlab (a tapioca-root flavoured drink) and are topped with crushed pistachio nuts. If I had to survive on one thing for the rest of my life, this might have to be it.
But on the other hand, there were the hot chocolate filled croissants that came straight from the oven. Those might give the ice cream a run for its money. And then the pancakes, the lamb dishes, the fresh orange juice, the pastries …. Oh the list just keeps on going. We only spent two days in Damascus but that was enough for the food to make a wonderful impression on us.
Overall we did not in fact do much or see much while in Damascus. We simply roamed. However, I could have easily kept on roaming that city for another 7 days and not have gotten bored.
I won’t bore you, however, with an ongoing description of this amazing city. I will let the photos speak for themselves.
*NOTE: Pictures coming soon.
Damascus has so far been one of our greatest surprises. We expected it to be yet another city with lots of great things written about it, but all coming down to the same thing: 4.6 million people in a city that would have some history but simultaneously be like all other capitals around the world. Such expectations could not have been further from the truth.
At no time during our stay in Damascus did we ever feel that it was a capital city nor that it had 4.6 million inhabitants. All that we were surrounded by was the history. Mark Twain once wrote: “Go back as far as you will into the vague past, there was always a Damascus… She has looked upon the dry bones of a thousand empires and will see the tombs of a thousand more before she dies… To Damascus, years are only moments, decades are only flitting trifles of time. She measures time, not by days and months and years, but by the empires she has seen rise, and prosper and crumble to ruin. She is a type of immortality.” Damascus vies for the title of the world’s oldest continually inhabited city and with every step you take you can feel her age and a kind of grace that comes with it. Maybe this grace has seeped into the people as well because so far, the Syrians have been the nicest most hospitable people we’ve ever met.
To give you a bit of an understanding of what we mean by history take for example the hotel we were staying in. This was located outside the Old Town but was nevertheless housed in a 600 year old building.The Old City itself is a network of tiny alleyways, only some of which are miraculously navigable by these little narrow cars others are barely wide enough for two people to pass one another. Along these alleys are ancient buildings many constructed with what looked like a mud and straw mixture. Some of these buildings are crumbling while life still goes on inside the, many are sagging with age, others look as majestic as they have for centuries.
We put the guidebooks away and simply got lost in these little turns, trying to discover little corners, courtyards, mosques and churches and to simply soak in the atmosphere. There was nothing better - well, maybe with the exception of the absolutely amazing ice cream. Take my word for it – there is nothing that even remotely compares in Vancouver. This one ice cream shop on their main souk street, has lineups out the front door and they are well deserved. Their scrumptious ice creams are made with sahlab (a tapioca-root flavoured drink) and are topped with crushed pistachio nuts. If I had to survive on one thing for the rest of my life, this might have to be it.But on the other hand, there were the hot chocolate filled croissants that came straight from the oven. Those might give the ice cream a run for its money. And then the pancakes, the lamb dishes, the fresh orange juice, the pastries …. Oh the list just keeps on going. We only spent two days in Damascus but that was enough for the food to make a wonderful impression on us.
Overall we did not in fact do much or see much while in Damascus. We simply roamed. However, I could have easily kept on roaming that city for another 7 days and not have gotten bored.
I won’t bore you, however, with an ongoing description of this amazing city. I will let the photos speak for themselves.
*NOTE: Pictures coming soon.
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