On Monday, we decided we would pick up where we left off on Saturday and see more of the Old City of Damascus but this time with our new Aussie friend, Hannah (hi Hannah!). We walked from one end of the Old City to the other and had our first exploration of the Christian quarter. I still cannot get over the history in Damascus and loved just seeing random Roman columns about! The nice people and ice cream does not hurt either! Here are some pictures of our wander...
We finished our wander on Wednesday (after a day trip to Bosra on Tuesday) by going to the Sayidda Ruqayya Mosque and exploring the Christan quarter more. The Sayyida Ruqayya Mosque was eye opening--it was quite fancy with glass mosaics and green lights on the inside. It is one of the most important Shiite pilgrimage sights so we saw a lot of Shiite pilgrims praying/crying/offering baby dolls (I assume for infertility issues) around the shrine. We had an interesting tour by an Afghani man which got slightly uncomfortable when he suggested we buy a copy of the Koran and give Islam a try, but we politely declined and moved onto the Christian quarter where our day got slightly more bizarre. Hannah had recommended the Chapel of Ananais, an underground church which was allegedly the home of Ananais, an early disciple who baptised St. Paul. When we arrived, there were a few Korean tourists sitting in the pews and one was reciting a prayer. Before we knew it, the rest of the bus arrived including a girl with a guitar who had it out, tuned, and was playing within a matter of minutes. Suffice to say, I had a hard time wrapping my head around a bus load of Koreans singing hymns in English in a small church in Syria...
We also found an awesome building, the Khan As'ad Pasha, a building that used to serve as a hotel for camel caravans carrying goods. The animals and goods would have stayed on the ground floor, and the people on the first floor. I mainly liked it because it was visually impressive! And last, but not least, we ended our wander at Bakdash, the most amazing ice cream place that serves hand-rolled ice cream with pistachios. It's worth the plane ticket to Damascus alone!
We finished our wander on Wednesday (after a day trip to Bosra on Tuesday) by going to the Sayidda Ruqayya Mosque and exploring the Christan quarter more. The Sayyida Ruqayya Mosque was eye opening--it was quite fancy with glass mosaics and green lights on the inside. It is one of the most important Shiite pilgrimage sights so we saw a lot of Shiite pilgrims praying/crying/offering baby dolls (I assume for infertility issues) around the shrine. We had an interesting tour by an Afghani man which got slightly uncomfortable when he suggested we buy a copy of the Koran and give Islam a try, but we politely declined and moved onto the Christian quarter where our day got slightly more bizarre. Hannah had recommended the Chapel of Ananais, an underground church which was allegedly the home of Ananais, an early disciple who baptised St. Paul. When we arrived, there were a few Korean tourists sitting in the pews and one was reciting a prayer. Before we knew it, the rest of the bus arrived including a girl with a guitar who had it out, tuned, and was playing within a matter of minutes. Suffice to say, I had a hard time wrapping my head around a bus load of Koreans singing hymns in English in a small church in Syria...
We also found an awesome building, the Khan As'ad Pasha, a building that used to serve as a hotel for camel caravans carrying goods. The animals and goods would have stayed on the ground floor, and the people on the first floor. I mainly liked it because it was visually impressive! And last, but not least, we ended our wander at Bakdash, the most amazing ice cream place that serves hand-rolled ice cream with pistachios. It's worth the plane ticket to Damascus alone!
2 comments:
Syria sounds amazing! It's moving up towards the top of my "I want to go to there" list...
DEFINITELY recommended! it was our favorite place in Syria and in the Middle East (well, so far)!
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