Damascus

I really like Damascus. The old city has a very classic feel and has a couple amazing mosques and churches. The Umayyad Mosque is the most beautiful mosque I have been allowed to go in. And word on the street is that when Jesus comes back he's going to do it in this mosque (Lonely Planet). Next I went to Sayyida Ruqayya Mosque, which was a little too flashy for my liking, but had grown men crying at its sight. On the Christian side of things, I went to the church where Saul/Paul (Can someone explain to me the name thing?) got his sight back and escaped from the Jews. There's also a lot of shopping if that's your thing. Finally, the National Museum had a really cool early church (200-300AD I believe). The only issue with the National Museum is that the information plaques are in Arabic and Italian. ITALIAN!!! So I didn't get as much from it as I could've, so if you go, if is probably worth getting a guide if you don't speak either one of those languages.

Other than the amazing sights, the people that I talked to were all really nice. Almost every Syrian that I met, once they heard I was American, said "Barak Obama!" "Do you like him?" I'd reply, "Of course." Then they would say "I love him!!!" I'm so glad he won. Also, other than cab drivers, everyone gives you a fair price. I tried to tip a couple people, and they refused the money.

I also met a few Americans that had decided to move to Damascus to learn Arabic. Any perception that you may have of Syrians objecting to Americans in their country at least appears to me to be greatly exaggerated (Blast you Fox News!!!!). The one weird thing is that the president's face is everywhere.

Finally, I stayed in the Al-Rabie Hotel in a three person dorm room with a 60 something year old French man and a 70 something year old American man. They were so interesting. They just spent all their time traveling and had some really cool stories. Especially of World War 2 sights, which they both had an interest in.