13. Palmyra, Damascus and exit Syria

Our third stop in Syria is Palmyra and its fantastic ruins. Palmyra itself is a tourist town, without any tourists. Loads of shops are closed, even hotels have no reason to open their doors. While we walk around, we are without doubt an attraction. And you know how annoying it is to walk into those tourist towns. I mean you understand that you are not the only one around as not only you want to see this or that monument, but you just don’t enjoy all the other tourists that pull in with busses. But trust me, walking in a tourist town without any actual tourists is even worse. It gives you a strange feeling, especially when all of a sudden the guy from the grocery store looks stressed and starts to bring in his goods, which are normally presented outside the entrance. As if they are expecting anything to happen at any moment. Maybe it had to do with a group of young guys on their motorbikes earlier, maybe it was something else. We will never know as we did not linger to find out. We go a bit out of the centre to camp at a hotel straight at the ruins.

Find the tourist

The next day, after having passed 5 checkpoints, all greeting us with a smile and welcoming us to Syria, we arrive in the capital. In Damascus we just stroll around a bit and really don’t visit a lot apart from the Umayyad mosque, for Muslims one of the most holiest in the world, and the Mausoleum of Saladin. But more important: we have eaten an ice-cream at the famous ice-shop Bakdash. And I have to tell you, that my friends was soooooo good! The ice-creams are made with sahlab, a tapioca-root flavoured drink. The topping consists of pistachio nuts.  I have never seen such a popular ice-cream place. There must have been about 50 people inside. Bakdash is situated in the souq al-Hamidiyya. A souq is a bit like our shopping mall, so to speak, but then without air-conditioning.  And you do not believe your eyes when you see the clothes they sell there. I mean really, they all might be wearing a headscarve, a burka or even a chador but what they wear out home is definitely with cleavage! LOL

And then it is time to leave Syria. The fee you pay for a diesel is valid for a week, and that is all we want to stay here anyway. We might be paying a fee but that doesn’t make it any more simple to get diesel unless you put a bit of extra on the table. 

When we leave the country I am asked about our stay here. I tell the guy at the border we had no problems in Syria. He asks me ‘to tell my country’ that it is safe here and that it is not like they show on TV. No, it is only a few men making problems, he says, not the army, not the government and not the president.  The people here all say the same: those ‘fights’ here and there are fought because of terrorists in the country, not because of the president. And I have to say, for a country that is having a bit of a revolution I have not seen any riots, I have not heard anyone speak against the president, I have not even seen one picture of him damaged or destroyed. Or the president and his army are all very much in control, or what we hear on the news is all a bit exaggerated.

Riots or not. Kosta and I feel better with leaving the country after 5 days already. We have seen its highlights and to be honest, apart from those gorgeous highlights, the country is far from being one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. It is dry, it is dusty and it is beige everywhere. LOL It was interesting to travel through a country where tourist busses should be pulling in, but what you got instead was empty monuments, empty hotels and empty restaurants.