The holidays have come and gone and while I would've loved to have visited home at least for Christmas (this has been my second consecutive year away from home for the holidays), due to ticket prices it just wasn't an option. As a present to myself and an attempt to make up for being away from home, I decided to go to Syria instead. That's right folks, I made it to the motherland...well, one of them anyways. I was originally going to go to Lebanon as well, but quickly realized how much there is to see in Syria and wanted to do the country justice. In the end, I still didn't get to see all I wanted to and hope to go back in the near future.
It took me waiting ten hours at the airport and having to bribe the guards at the end of the ordeal to get a visa. For Americans, you can only get a visa at the Syrian Embassy in Washington DC. That clearly was not an option for me so after harassing the Syrian embassy in Yemen for over a week and still being denied a visa, I decided to take my chances. The wait was painful, but well worth the frustration.
I'll write more on my Syrian adventures in the next few posts as there were a few experiences that are worth more detail. For those who are curious, below is a rough itinerary of what I did and saw:
12/24/09
Arrived
Waited at the airport for ten hours and bribed the guard at 10pm
Drove to Jabal to get a get view of Damascus at night
12/25/09
Explored the Old City in Damascus
Visited Azem Palace
Met Dori and Fawzi (Jordanian friends) in Damascus
Attended a live Christmas concert that night in the Old City
12/26/09
Explored Busra (preserved stone castle and coliseum)
12/27/09
Hiked to Deir Mar Musa and spent the night and next afternoon there (old monastery in the mountains of Syria)
12/28/09
Returned from Deir Mar Musa in the afternoon
Explored Umayyad Mosque
Explored Rayqad Tomb and Mosque
Met a couchsurfer (Adnan) in the Old City and got a personal tour of the surrounding history
12/29/09
Visited Palmyra (amazing stone temples in the middle of the dessert)
12/30/09
Visited the Mosque of Cain and Able aka the 40 shakes mosque
Visited the Zaineb Mosque
Went to Hammam Ammounah
12/31/09
Took a bus to the airport in the morning, arrived in Sana’a in the evening
It took me waiting ten hours at the airport and having to bribe the guards at the end of the ordeal to get a visa. For Americans, you can only get a visa at the Syrian Embassy in Washington DC. That clearly was not an option for me so after harassing the Syrian embassy in Yemen for over a week and still being denied a visa, I decided to take my chances. The wait was painful, but well worth the frustration.
I'll write more on my Syrian adventures in the next few posts as there were a few experiences that are worth more detail. For those who are curious, below is a rough itinerary of what I did and saw:
12/24/09
Arrived
Waited at the airport for ten hours and bribed the guard at 10pm
Drove to Jabal to get a get view of Damascus at night
12/25/09
Explored the Old City in Damascus
Visited Azem Palace
Met Dori and Fawzi (Jordanian friends) in Damascus
Attended a live Christmas concert that night in the Old City
12/26/09
Explored Busra (preserved stone castle and coliseum)
12/27/09
Hiked to Deir Mar Musa and spent the night and next afternoon there (old monastery in the mountains of Syria)
12/28/09
Returned from Deir Mar Musa in the afternoon
Explored Umayyad Mosque
Explored Rayqad Tomb and Mosque
Met a couchsurfer (Adnan) in the Old City and got a personal tour of the surrounding history
12/29/09
Visited Palmyra (amazing stone temples in the middle of the dessert)
12/30/09
Visited the Mosque of Cain and Able aka the 40 shakes mosque
Visited the Zaineb Mosque
Went to Hammam Ammounah
12/31/09
Took a bus to the airport in the morning, arrived in Sana’a in the evening
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