Tuesday March 1st.
This morning Stamati and I headed back to the souks. We spent five hours wandering around. We sat and enjoyed an early morning Syrian coffee, and then a vanilla pudding with pistachio and almonds on top. This was from a famous ice cream shop. We went there again later to have an ice cream cone. It too came with pistachio on top. It was more like ice milk, but quite good. We wandered around sampling some food, checking out the shops, taking photos and people watching. It was really interesting to watch the women in burqas checking out the sexy lingurie, made you wonder what they wear underneath... It's amazing how many people ask us where we are from and say “welcome to Damascus”. The people are very friendly and polite, even the ones trying to sell you something.
We also found a beautiful caravan khan, which is the black and white interior in the photo. There are a number of these buildings in old Damascus. They were rest stops for the caravans. Here they could get water and food for themselves and their camels. The bottom floor was for the animals and the top floor was for the people.
We walked all the way from one end of the old city, along Straight Street (English translation) to the opposite side. We saw several beautiful mosques built in the Ottoman style.
Interesting couple of notes about people watching: men friends are quite happy to walk arm in arm down the street, and when good male friends meet they kiss each other on the cheeks.
We met up with Megan as she was walking around too, and we all went to a local little restaurant for lunch. Stamati had seen this spot earlier in the day and thought it would be good for lunch. He said to follow him, because he is Greek and knows how to find good local food. It's interesting to listen to him evaluate the quality of the olive oil he gets with his food.
After lunch we walked back to the hotel to meet up with Graham, Tess, and Krys because we were all going to go to a hamman, which is an old Roman spa. The three women went off to a female one and the three of us guys went back into the souks to ours. We had a sauna, steam bath, a rub down with a rough cloth, another steam bath, a massage that was really more of a short rub down, and then a cold shower. It was okay, but not terrific. The best part actually was the really old building. Apparently it's one of the oldest ones around.
Then we went back to the coffee shop from last night and waited for the women. The night shot of the tower is right around the road from the coffee shop. When they arrived we wandered for a bit until we found another great restaurant. The food was similar but still really yummy. The inside of the place was again a beautiful old mansion. It had trees growing inside, a fountain and a retractable roof!
Then back to the hotel to relax, and do the usual emailing and blogging.
We also found a beautiful caravan khan, which is the black and white interior in the photo. There are a number of these buildings in old Damascus. They were rest stops for the caravans. Here they could get water and food for themselves and their camels. The bottom floor was for the animals and the top floor was for the people.
We walked all the way from one end of the old city, along Straight Street (English translation) to the opposite side. We saw several beautiful mosques built in the Ottoman style.
Interesting couple of notes about people watching: men friends are quite happy to walk arm in arm down the street, and when good male friends meet they kiss each other on the cheeks.
We met up with Megan as she was walking around too, and we all went to a local little restaurant for lunch. Stamati had seen this spot earlier in the day and thought it would be good for lunch. He said to follow him, because he is Greek and knows how to find good local food. It's interesting to listen to him evaluate the quality of the olive oil he gets with his food.
After lunch we walked back to the hotel to meet up with Graham, Tess, and Krys because we were all going to go to a hamman, which is an old Roman spa. The three women went off to a female one and the three of us guys went back into the souks to ours. We had a sauna, steam bath, a rub down with a rough cloth, another steam bath, a massage that was really more of a short rub down, and then a cold shower. It was okay, but not terrific. The best part actually was the really old building. Apparently it's one of the oldest ones around.
Then we went back to the coffee shop from last night and waited for the women. The night shot of the tower is right around the road from the coffee shop. When they arrived we wandered for a bit until we found another great restaurant. The food was similar but still really yummy. The inside of the place was again a beautiful old mansion. It had trees growing inside, a fountain and a retractable roof!
Then back to the hotel to relax, and do the usual emailing and blogging.
Nothing worse than an okay spa experience! That comment brought a tear to my eye....
ReplyDeleteTwo ice creams in one day!!!! Glad you spent the day walking around. The buildings (caravan khan, mosques)and markets look interesting and beautiful....so many dazzling colours; I can only imagine the aromas. Must be nice to experience all the delicious and different foods of the Middle East. Sorry your hamman was disappointing. So, did you walk arm in arm with Stamati?
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