Syria - Damascus

I visited Syria a while ago but never really got to indoctrinate people with its awesomeness so I will attempt to do so now. Syria rocks for several reasons. First of all, it is a country under martial law since the 60's, and continues to be so, justifying its regime by the threat posed by the state of Israel. Unlike many other Arab Muslim states, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Syria is not under Sharia law (religious Islam law) but is rather secular, and is ruled by the Socialist Ba'ath party. Being under military regime means you won't browse the likes of blogspot or facebook in Syria--or you could try, but then you get shot. Ha ha! Only joking, you get your typing fingers chopped off. Boring stuff aside, being in Syria totally has a communist slash retro-military feel to it. I like it! 

Here is a really enthusiastic dictator-y traffic-blocking policeman who helped us get around town. He loved his job. 

Here is Syria's president Bashar Al-Assad hanging out in the streets of Damascus, watching over the people what not

Our first pit stop was the beautiful Umayyad mosque in Damascus. John the Baptist's head is allegedly buried here, having been decapitated and presented to King Herod on a silver platter...

               

 The amazing entrance to the mosque and secret VIP room which took 200 years to build

   Tis me clad in lavish Arabian textiles

 See what I mean by retro-commie vibe? Feels like you just got warped dead bang into the middle of the cold war. 

                                                                              

Then we went to hang out at Azem palace, built in the 1700's for the Ottoman governor of Damascus. Syrian architecture is my worldwide fave so far, full of colour and insane minute detail. The picture below is a reconstruction of a bath house and they are just bathing! You  pervert. 

  

One thing Damascus is really famous for is its Al Hamidiyeh Souq (market) which is a really lively roofed street stretching out for miiiiles, with the most beautiful stuff on sale. Obviously, when there, you would have sinned if you didn't visit Bakdash--the world famous Damascus home-made ice cream place. It was crammed and I don't even like ice cream--but have you ever wondered what god has for dessert? Bakdash ice cream.. It's in the Bible, I checked. 

We did some a LOT of shopping--stuff in Damascus is hand-made and cheap. If you like to shop then you probably shouldn't come here because this place will make your head pop. 

In the evening we hung out at the Art House--a stunning converted mill restaurant/hotel with a never ending supply of incredible food I practised gluttony on. This place defo surpassed a Western place in the amount of free yum and fun. 

Our trip continued with a visit to the Golan heights which I will cover later. All in all I have to say Damascus is  is pretty much the Paris of the East. It doesn't get too much tourism mainly because people have no idea what it's like, but my verdict is you would deny yourself a lot of exotic pleasures if you didn't visit here NOW. Plus, you probably need the break from facebook. Am I right?