Damascus

Arrived in Damascus, the capital of Syria. Legend has it that Damascus is the place that the Prophet Mohammed on a journey from Mecca, cast his gaze upon Damascus but refused to enter because he wanted to enter paradise only once - when he died. I'm not sure I see exactly what the Prophet Mohammed saw in Damascus, but I did think it was a pretty city, but a middle eastern 'city' nonetheless. Not necessarily my favourite places. I decided I wanted to fit in a little trip to Israel (shhhh dont tell Syria or Lebanon) so I decided to only spend a couple nights here before heading into Jordan. Checked into Hotel Gazlan in the old city, everyone here is world cup CRAZY and many of the hotel had lazy backpackers gathered around smoking sheesha (water pipes) and watching soccer, runs, re-runs and re-re-runs (for the record I support Garna). Filled a whole day in the scorching heat seeing all the sights of Damascus - the huuuge Souq (bazaar strip) that was constructed in the early 1800's, the Souq has lots of little holes in the roof left from overhead machine gun fire from French planes during the nationalist rebellion in 1925. The souqs, which are all over the middle east, are an amazing way to see people, culture and tradition at its most raw - everything from Bedouin people in from the desert to get supplies to take back, fully clothed Iranian and Iraqi pilgrims, and people from all walks of middle eastern life - the rich, the poor, the in between, the juice makers, the tea makers, the bacalava sellers and the scarf wearers ... I just love the souqs, for all their smells, tastes and sights.

At the end of the rather long souq is the Umayyad Mosque - said to be the most beautiful in Syria and one of the most holy in the world to Muslims. It was converted from a Byzantine cathedral and was built in 705 A.D. The most outstanding feature is the gold mosaics, which adorn the facade of the prayer hall and the 37 metre stretch of it along the outside courtyard wall. From there, went past the spice bazaar, which are always a keen photographer's heaven and a scensory overload! Then to Khan As'ad Pasha, arguable the best peice of architecture in the old city - build in 1752 it uses like grey and white marble in striped formation which looks so beautiful, see the bottom 2 shots. From there it was a visit to the Azem Palace, built in 1749 - is pretty cool because its all on one level, which is apparantly very rare for Palaces and the like! It was a blessing to walk around without 40,000 stairs to climb up and down. After being ripped off several times, becomming exceedingly unimpressed with the VERY unhappy, miserable staff at the hotel, it was off to Amman, Jordan.

Question - WHY AM I IN THE MIDDLE EAST IN IT'S SUMMER??!!! ... what a ROOKIE!

Pictures - The top 7 are taken from the Umayyad Mosque, both inside it and in the outside courtyard area, which truly was beautiful - I really love the shot of the couple walking across the courtyard, woman covered in black and man covered in white, both outifts are very commonly seen here (if you ask me the men get a MUCH greater deal in this heat, being able to wear long white flowing outfits). Note the 'putting on special outfits' sign - for tourists who must wear a long dress with a hood, covering top to toe. I thought the sign was really cute!

The next 3 shots are from within the Souqs, an old fella having a nap in the middle of the day, and a shot I really love of some pigeons flying. This guy who I referred to as the pigeon nazi has roped off a part of the courtyard near the souqs and was charging to feed seed to the pigeons .. what was really amusing and it kept me particularlly amused for ages, was that some of the cheekier kids couldnt resist the temptation to stomp their feet or run into the congregation of feeding pigeons and make them fly up in the air all at once ... the pigeon nazi saw this as potentially losing him money so he would tell the kids off .. and whip around as soon as there was a noise behind him to try and catch one of the cheekier older kids setting the pigeons a-flight .. I REALLY wanted a shot of the pigeons flying so was eagerly awaiting the next kid who dared to go up against the pigeon nazi and run into the flock the moment he turned his back .. sure enough, about 5 mins later a young boy (about 10 years old) noticed me waiting to take a shot and without speaking a single word, he gave me a knowing look and indicated for me to get ready ... sure enough .. as soon as pigeon nazi attending to some seed for another ripped off child, this young fella stomped his feet and set the pigeons aflight! He was very impressed that I got my shot and was quite proud of himself too! He got a smack around the ears from the pigeon nazi, but he didnt care ... he was stoked with himself! The last three shots are from within the Kham As'ad Pasha .. some of the architecture which was really beautiful, and one of a group of young Muslim girls havin a photo shoot.