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Sorry about the funky stuff, we've had some issues with
Internet here.
Now We’re Really On The Road To Damascus
We caught our on time 7:15 flight with no issues, other than
Bob forgetting he had a water bottle in his pocket when we went
through security. They forgave him without a big scene, but of course
took it away. The luggage was comfortably under the (more liberal)
British Air weight rules. (Although our ticket only allowed us one
checked bag. I would have loved to ditch everything, but my purse,
book and computer.) They were also able to check the bags all the way
to Damascus, despite a plane and airline change in London, and a
layover in Ankara, Turkey. Yup, five take-offs or landings…all in one
day. We weren’t able to get seats we liked on the
London-Ankara-Damascus leg, but we’ll give that a shot in London. The
first flight leg was the short one and was scheduled to arrive at 7:30
am…Really! OK…there was a one hour time change, but it sounds cool. We
had to circle London Heathrow for only about 15 minutes, which is good
for there. Probably the most remarkable thing on the trip was the man
I sat next to. He shared the arm rest. Ladies, have you noticed when
you sit on a plane next to a man, they spread out all over the arm
rests and you have to sit with shoulders crunched together and come
out with a sore back. This guy was good sized too. It was quite
amazing.
Our layover in London was about five hours. We got a bite to
eat at a Pret a Manger in the airport. It’s a chain stand up and take
away place. No tables at the airport version, but reasonably good food
at a reasonably good price. Niece Lisa and I ate at their shops once
or twice in London on her trip. My next adventure was trying to use
the WiFi Internet at London Heathrow airport. They have several
wireless services, but all require payment. I spent most of two hours
trying to get on line. I tried one wireless provider after another,
but had no luck at all. Finally, I connected to one to the point where
they had my credit card number, expiration date, and secret code on
the back of the credit card…and then they said they would send my user
name and password to my E-mail address. OK, Let’s think this through…I
can’t get online until I have entered my user name and password, but I
can’t get my user name and password until I get into my E-mail. WHAT’S
WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE??
I finally went over to the coin Internet, where you feed one
pound English coins (worth about $2 each) into a box that is connected
to a desktop computer. I was hoping that could I retrieve my user name
and password info from my E-mail, so I could use the wireless I had
paid $9, or maybe it was $18, to use. I had no messages giving the
necessary info, but was able to check and make sure there weren’t any
important messages regarding the Middle East trip. We had already had
an E-mail from the American operators of our tour company changing the
hotel we were to meet the group and stay at on the first two nights of
the tour part of the trip.
While we were hanging out in London, we checked out the
possibility of better seats on the next leg. We were pleased to get
two aisle seats just across from each other. When we boarded, we found
the reservation person had also given us exit row seats. What a deal!
(We cracked up when the flight attendant came over to our area of exit
rows and asked if we were OK with the exit row responsibilities. One
woman spoke none of the several languages they were announcing
everything in - they moved her to another seat. Then, when she was
explaining the issue to the guy in front of me, she goes, “In case we
crash….“ None of this namby pamby, “In the unlikely event we should
have a problem” garbage for the Brits.) Next thing we noticed is that
the in-flight magazine listed prices for soft drinks, food and other
drinks. Drat! That’s tacky on a seven hour flight. Once again, we were
delighted to learn that it wasn’t the case on this flight. Shortly
after takeoff they came around with soft drinks, food, wine, beer and
even mixed drinks - ALL FOR FREE! (Well, maybe not actually free, but
included in the price.)
Our flight took off just under two hours late. We were like 150th
in line to take off from Heathrow. My two seatmates were a British
businessman and Iraqi doctor who practiced in England. The doctor was
afraid to fly and got smashed. Regardless, the three of us had a
lively conversation about nationalized health care. It was
interesting. Despite all the bad press this sort of thing gets in the
US, the Brits are in general happy with their health care. Bob
certainly liked it when he fell through the cattle grate in England
few years ago and injured his foot.
When the flight landed in Ankara, Turkey, all but about 13
people got off, including the businessman. The rest of us all spread
out so we each had three seats. We did all stay close enough to
continue ongoing conversations. The next leg turned into a sort of
party flight. There were all of the goodies, and so few people. For
some reason the airlines are not allowed to let passengers board in
Ankara, so we made up some of the lost time not waiting for people to
put away their carry-on luggage. At one point I went back to the
attendants area to use the restroom and was chatting with one of them.
He asked me where I was from. I told him Portland, Oregon, the
American northwest. (Many people outside the US have never heard of
Oregon.) He answered with, “I though so, I picked up on your accent”.
MY ACCENT! What accent? I don’t have and accent, you do.
J
There was a curious message on the little illuminated things
overhead. Where every other plane I’ve been on in my entire life says
“No Smoking” with a red X over the cigarette, this plane said, “Please
Turn Of X”. Problem is that the red X completely obliterated the
picture of what you were supposed to turn off. Could have been the
overhead light, could have been electronic devices, could have been
your pacemaker - who knows! It stayed lit the entire trip, so I guess
it should have been turned off - whatever it was.
It’s probably time to explain about what the deal is with
Damascus. We originally signed up for a 23 day trip through Syria,
Jordan and Lebanon. First, they canceled the whole tour due to unrest
in Lebanon. This was an issue as we had $600 non-refundable airline
tickets into Damascus, and out of Amman, Jordan 23 days later.
Canceling or changing the dates was not an option. I studied their
program and tours, and found that there was a possibility of replacing
the canceled tour with two other tours - one seven day of Syria, and
one 16 day in Syria and Jordan piggy backed on each other. It was not
the best schedule in the world, as one tour started before you
finished the other, but both groups were in Damascus at the same time,
so it would work. No problem on the seven days in Syria, but the
Jordan part only had one free slot. They gave us hope, stating they
thought maybe a person was going to cancel. We waited several days to
find out if we could get on the Jordan part. We were going through
customs coming back from the short cruise we took in January with
newlyweds Lisa and Kevin when we got the call from the US tour
operator telling us we got the two spots on the 16 day Syria/Jordan.
Things were looking good.
However, next thing we knew, the seven day Syria thing was
canceled because not enough people were signed up. Well, at least it
was now 16 days with the tour, and only seven days on our own, instead
of the reverse. I was warming up to the idea myself, and Bob who has
been hesitant about the whole idea of going to Syria at all was still
hesitant, but willing. Meanwhile, I have this distant cousin who I
have been in contact with for a couple of years because he has been
trying to find information and pictures from my maternal grandfather’s
side of the family. He had been forwarding my E-postcards to another
even more distant relative who has a daughter (Sue) living in Damascus
with her husband (Jim).
The mother E-mailed me, and hooked us up with her daughter, who
also E-mailed me. After we knew we needed to find a hotel for that
seven days in Damascus and couldn’t find E-mail addresses for any of
the hotels I was trying to contact, Sue offered to make some calls.
Turns out there is some big middle east heads of state conference on,
and all of the reasonably priced hotels were booked solid. (It also
turns out this was also why our tour hotel in Damascus got changed at
the last minute.)
Sue E-mailed back that she couldn’t find anything, except
possibly one or two of the big expensive places. The next thing we
knew, Sue and Jim were planning to meet us at the Damascus airport
when we arrived AND we were going to stay with them. Keep in mind that
we’ve never met, nor have any of us met the Rod, the person that
connected us. It was fabulous for us. Bob was pretty tense about this
trip, and it gave us the opportunity to have wonderful and easy intro
to Damascus rather than one that would undoubtedly be stressful, hard
and most likely pretty frustrating.
All the same, Bob was fritzing out a bit on the plane. “What if
they don’t meet us? (I have both of their cell phone numbers and their
home phone.) “How do we make a call in Syria?“ (Ask anybody with a
cell, and they‘ll help, it‘s how it is in the Middle East. People are
very friendly.) “What if we can’t reach them?” (We’ll take a taxi to
some ritzy hotel and get a room until we figure out what to do.) “How
will we recognize each other?” ( I think an a couple from Iowa will
stand out in a Syrian airport, much the way a couple from Oregon will.
I also E-mailed Sue that we were both wearing green shirts.)
As you might have guessed, we all recognized each other
immediately. It wasn’t exactly rocket science. Bob is the only one of
the four of us who even has brown hair. Sue and Jim have been living
in Damascus for about 18 months. Jim is a painter…turned painter.
Actually, a house type painter turned artist type painter. Sue is a
gourmet cook, turned English teacher. She cooks competitively in Iowa
fairs and in national cooking contests. They had spent a year abroad
when their kids were preteens, and now that the young ones were grown,
educated and out on their own, they had decided to do it again. They
considered several locations, but decided on Syria - lucky for us.
They had arranged for a taxi back to their flat (apartment) in
a “burb” of Damascus. It was late, but we stayed up and talked until
even later. I guess I hadn’t expected this from folks from Iowa, but
it turns out they also enjoy a glass of wine now and then. Their flat
is rented furnished and Sue has added her own touches. (I’ll be
heading over to Pier One to imitate at least one of them in our
house.) Their home is beautiful. The tile in the bathrooms is
wonderful. (Although, I’m still trying to figure out how you tile a
ceiling. Tiles would fall down from their own weight before they
adhered. I don‘t get how they did it!)
We had a lovely room with a big window. Life isn’t simple for
them though. No dishwasher, no dryer and you have to turn on the hot
water heater about 20 minutes or so before you shower or need hot
water for anything. You can’t get many items we take for granted - no
chocolate macadamia nut coffee here. One thing they had that
fascinated me was their dish drainer…of all things. I’ve never seen
anything like it. Syrian homes have racks above their sinks where you
put the freshly washed dishes. They drip down over the sink nearby
counter. In the case of Sue and Jim’s home, the racks were inside a
grated cupboard over the sink. You close the doors, and the dishes
drain with no ugly dish drainer out on the counter. Clever, these
Syrians! If I didn’t have a window over my kitchen sink, I’d be doing
this at home. I may still see if I can figure something out.
After a spectacular breakfast (starring a delicious Sue
invented egg dish that is so complicated that Bob will have to explain
it, and some local jam and variations on cheese and yogurt) they took
us into town for our first real taste of Damascus. The initial step
was learning how to take the local bus into downtown. It costs about
ten cents for the 20 minute bus ride into town. The only really hard
part is getting your hands on small enough Syrian change to pay the
driver.
Our first mission was Bob’s glasses. We had really thought Bob
was out of luck regarding the broken glasses until we get back to
Portland. But, once Jim and Sue heard there was a problem, Jim knew a
GUY who might be able to help! This is always how it works in the
Middle East. Somebody knows a guy who knows a guy….sure enough,. Jim’s
guy couldn’t do it, but he KNEW A GUY…..Bob’s glasses cost an arm and
a leg at home. If we had taken the them into an optician in Portland
it would have been at least $250 for the frames, but more likely $500
or more to replace the whole pair of glasses. (There’s always SOME
reason you have to replace the entire pair of glasses.) While they
couldn’t match the exact color of the frames, they could come up with
the missing “bow” (ear piece) for $30. We opted to go for replacing
both bows for $60. (If one was bent so far it broke, it was likely the
other wasn’t far behind. Also, it made both sides match, even if the
nose piece is still a bit off in color.) The fixing of the glasses was
a huge thing for Bob. It probably changed the whole tenor of the trip
for him. He could READ again. Coincidentally, Sue and Jim had all
kinds of interesting books relating to Syria on hand for him to read.
I’ll be tracking them down at Powell’s when I get back to Portland.
For the next couple of days Jim and Sue took us around to local
places to eat and see. All kinds of middle east mezza (salads, sort
of). We wandered through the Souq (market) Hamidiyya and beyond. Nice
restaurants. The lime and mint drink they introduced us to has become
my drink in Syria. (Although, this country is overflowing with Diet
Pepsi! Can you believe it? These are MY people!)
On the second day (after Sue’s fabulous pumpkin muffins and
other delicacies) we again tramped around the downtown and the souq
area. Wandering about with Jim was an entertainment of it’s own. He is
a one man friendship ambassador. People were constantly greeting him
as an old friend would. He has met and befriended people throughout
the city. One way he has connected has been with his art. He has
photographed and painted people and scenes and turned them into
postcards. He hands them out and delights people everywhere he goes.
He’s very warm, and people respond to it. The Syrians are, in general,
warm and friendly people who can separate individual people from the
actions of their government - a lesson we should learn. When we told
people we were American, they were interested, not turned off. They
haven’t met many Americans and are just curious about what we’re
really like.
On days three and four, Jim and Sue asked a Syrian friend
(Omar) to show us the National Museum, the old walled city, the
damascene houses, khans and some other sights. Omar is a history buff
and took us through the various areas, explaining what we were seeing
as we went along. We spent about four hours in the National Museum
seeing artifacts from many of the archeological sites we will be
visiting when we head off with the tour group, and then met up with
Sue and Jim.
We took a “service” or “omnibus“ (one of thousands of vans that
drive all over the country transporting people from place to place) to
the highest point of the city, Jebel Qassioun. Jim and Sue had pointed
out this same mountain from below when we entered the city the night
we arrived. This time we went up before it got dark and viewed the
massive city of Damascus from above. We were able to pick out several
places we had seen over the previous few days. We then had a nice
dinner at the top, and ended with seeing the same view at night. It’s
quite spectacular either way, but the night time is amazing and
beautiful. Each mosque is lit up with bright green lights and mixed in
with the other lights of the city.
On our second day with Omar we split up at the souq and Bob and
I had to find our way back to Jim and Sue’s in the burbs on our own.
But, you’ll have to wait till next time to hear how that went. |
