Come back to Syria again!

And so ends our trip through the land of cultural treasures and scenic wonders that is ash-Sham. A hearty thanks to the people of Syria, and their warm hospitality and generousity!

Make your next trip to the Arab Republic of Syria!

Sugarcane juice

A raw sugarcane juice stand in Amman Jordan (photographed the day I left).
The guy in the grey is sticking a sugar cane into the machine to be crushed and the juice extracted.
Some of the alleged benefits of the juice.

Maps of Syria and Jordan

Syria is a country of 20 million (mostly Sunni Muslim) where I spent a month trying to learn more Arabic.

To the south is Jordan, the country I landed in and departed from. It has fewer people, more affluence, more tradition, more Western tourists and has a pro-Western government.

Back to Jordan

You can take an overnight sleeper from Aleppo to Damascus for less than $7!

The catch? .... They don't have any "smoking or non-smoking" in Syria. Maybe 80% of the (male) population smokes. Mustapha here my cabin mate, was friendly and helpful like almost all Syrians, but probably a four-pack-a-day man. He had to get up at night to smoke and had four or five cigs first thing in the morning (and not some wimpy filtered cig either, Syrian cigs are HARSH).

My tutor

Great guy. He's not the one responsible for the state of my arabic knowledge. He tried.

Eid al-Adha

Today was the first day of Eid al-Adha, the most important Islamic holiday. It commemorates Ibrahim's sacrifice of a sheep instead of his son, after proving to God he was willing to do the latter.
As you might imagine, the slaughter/sacrifice of sheep holds a very important place in the holiday. I watched the sheep on the pavement here being dispatched to cries of "Allahu Akbar", as a liter or more of blood pouring from its throat into the alley's gutter. The butcher let me take the picture.

It was pretty dramatic, but if you eat meat you can't be squeamish about this stuff.

Anyway, the mutton from the sacrficees' is donated to the poor.

Armenians

Some Armenians fled south to Syria after the Turkish genocide 1915-16. A lot have done pretty well in business and the community is prosperous.