More wandering ...

It's been a little while since I went away to Syria for a 4 day jaunt, but life has been hectic (plus Google decided to stop uploading photos from some reason) and I'm finally now having my first night in on my own in aaaaaaaages ... so time to catch up. I love Syria, or at least Damascus, it seems to have all the nice bits about the Middle East - the people shouting 'welcome' everywhere, the winding souks, the beautiful houses and great food - without so many of the drawbacks (although I wouldn't want to be an active opponent of the regime here ...) It's an easy place to be, and a great break from Amman, so I intend to keep going on a regular basis (and I haven't even tried Beirut yet, which is supposed to be party town extraordinaire)


My favourite thing to do in Damascus is wandering - there are always new alleyways to explore, new shops to browse in and things happening in the street. There are some ugly buildings - this one on the right must be up there with the best of them, and the monstrosity behind the mosque below has apparently been abandoned like this for years now, since they found out that it was subsiding ... nothing like a bit of forward planning eh.



But then there's the old city, which I know I've raved about before, but it really is fantastic - among my favourite spots are ...

The Daddy of icecreams shops, Bakdash.

I have seen this shop with people ten deep just to get near the door ...

101 little alleyways, each one a mini-Aladdin's cave of wierd and wonderful delights ...

Fabulous Ottoman era architecture everywhere, with lots of it being beautifully restored ...

Yummy stuff to eat wherever you turn ... damn, they make it look so good.

There were two really special moments during the weekend which made me think about the idea of "the Middle East" and all the images that those 3 little words conjure up in Europe, which are so different from the way things are, or at least can be.

The first was during a visit to the enormous and very beautiful Ummayad Mosque, the largest mosque in Damascus and considered one of the holiest sites in the world for Muslims outside of Saudi Arabia. The mosque is particularly special for Shia muslims because the tomb of Hussein, the son of Ali, is in the mosque - the whole Shia-Sunni split originated in arguments about whether the religious leadership of the Muslim community should have been given to the Prophet Muhhamad's family (so going to Ali first) or to individuals who were close to Muhammad, which is what in fact happened. However, the mosque is not a Shia mosque, and there are all sorts of other special places important to Muslims more widely, including the tomb of Salahuddin who defeated the Crusaders way back when, and a small building claiming to contain the head of John the Baptist.

All this means that the mosque has all sorts of people in it, and it is always so great to see these different groups of Muslims and others mixing happily - in the photo above, you can see a group of Sunni men from the Gulf in their flowing white robes, while on the right is a group of Shia Iranian women in their black abayas. Although it might look like a scene from West Side Story, there was really more of a party atmosphere than anything else, especially because it was Iranian New Year and there was literally hundreds of pilgrims visiting the tomb and singing in the mosque itself, while people either walked past or sat and watched.



The whole thing really made me think about how much is made (in the news and elsewhere) of the disagreements and conflicts between different Muslim groups, and how little we hear about groups living happily side by side as they seem to do here. I don't think these kinds of scenes are necessarily representative of all of the region, but there are definately parts where this has been the case and others where we can still enjoy real diversity - I guess Damascus has had several thousand years of existence to reach this point, with many periods of conflict, but that doesn't mean other parts of the world can't learn from it.

The other activity that I loved and that is a great community event was going up the mountain that overlooks and joining the hundreds of Damascenes who go up there to watch the sun set and chat about the day - there are coffee stalls, roasted sweetcorn and nargileh (hubbly-bubbly) sellers all along, and people bring the entire family and a little picnic for the event, while yoofs cruise the streets (in the most un threatening way imaginable!) and the fun train provides occasional Arabic beats ...

But the best bit of all for me is when the sunset call to prayer starts up, and a hundred mosques from across the city start up (almost) in unison to praise Allah - it lifts me up to hear it, and even though I'm not into this or any religion as you know, the sounds and feelings seem to transcend and express something positive and beautful that everyone can understand ...