I’ll be back again later for extended commenting.

@ Mafdet: Hm, not always. But that food was yum.

And the pictures were great! The mosque and the shrines are beautiful. You look a bit like a monk in that outfit, though. And really the color doesn’t suit you. I see you more in forest green or a nice turquoise.

It seems you have become an expert at dodging the advances of Arab men too! :lol: Smart move going back to the square rather then going home.

The prices are right, even for the wilted dollar. Sounds like a good place to pick up souvenirs. What can I say, I’m a sucker for that kind of thing when traveling.

I hope Caesar didn’t suffer any lasting ill effect from whatever he was eating there!

An interesting adventure, so far.

P.S. You were lucky those ants didn’t carry you away when you were napping. They seemed rather large…

Ooooh, the pictures! I had such a hard time choosing which ones to leave out cos I could not possibly post them all.
*mumblemumblemumblecloak*

Yeah, evil Arabs…

Indeed, Syria is cheap for western tourists - except if you want to live on Pringles (same price as in Germany) or send too many SMSs.

Well, some of the stuff looked rather ancient, but it seems he survived trying it, lol.

Hope it’s truly interesting. I started to really come down with a cold during the writing process, so I hope it’s as good a read as I think it might be with my muddled brain… *sneezes*

Nah, those ants only look so weird that you imagine them to be big. The ones with the huge head are normal sized ants, dunno, 2 or 3 mm maybe, and the normal looking ones are rather tiny.

(Yes, I know, you don’t like chamomille tea. That was for that eggplant thingy you wrote. )

Anyway, I hope you feel better.

Not really yet. Hopefully soon.

Maybe I’ll comment on the rest of the text after I’m over the shock.

Are you drinking a lot of juice with Vitamin C? It might help your cold to make a faster exit.

arab men: i lived in egypt last year but had no problems as i wear hijab. but when my 3 sisters visited, none of whom wear hijab, it was madness. we were followed everywhere, men passed comments, sometimes crude. and only a few heeded my “3yb keda” which means “shame on you” and is apparently guaranteed to deflect attention. I couldn’t believe the same men who treated me with such respect could be so disrespectful by insisting on making unwanted overtures to my sisters.

about the mosque cloak-on the day i took my sisters to the citadel with mohammed ali mosque attached, my youngest sister had on 3/4 length linen cargo-ish trousers wh a cap-sleeved shirt. she refused to wear the cloak, but eventually had to. I had warned her to cover up that morn-she didn’t listen..

enjoy reading ur posts

@ David: One down, three to go, lol.
Actually….. I don’t think I saw any tattoos there…

I don’t do juice. I bought Vitamin C powder on Friday though and have been merrily overdosing. Didn’t help so far.
Am home sick now and hope the antibiotics will be more useful.
*sneezes*

@ bb-aisha: Welcome. Well, I had a lot more days than three, and only saw Damascus, so there. You should definitely go and see the Old City; it’s nice there.
No, I wasn’t clothes shopping; does that un-make me a woman?

Well, I guess I was wearing a bit less than just not hijab. It is very difficult to compromise between the brain/heart telling you “You’re a guest here: behave yourself” and the rest of the body telling you “Aargh, heatstroke!!!!”
But then again, if the infamous Caesar of Pentra can keep himself from ravishing me, others should too…

On the day we went to see the mosque I wore an ankle length pair of jeans (and socks and shoes, so no exposed skin there) and intended to put on a long-sleeved shirt and hijab. But the white woman had to pay the 50SP for the dreadful cloak and a lousy pamphlet about the mosque….
I think it was as much about making money from tourists as it was about appropriate dress.

*sneezes*

Hm, your sister’s cargo pants make me think of the dude we once went to Turkey with. That Ahmed dude who had attached himself to us had told him the day before, “No shorts, wear long pants”. We told him in the morning, “Um, don’t you think you should put on something other than shorts?” He didn’t. And the “gatekeepers” are very liberal in Istanbul. They didn’t mind at all that my sis and me were too silly back then to cover our hair or wear long-sleeves. But they held very strong views about men in shorts. He had to tie a blanket around his legs.

Scary green shirted story! So, what was up with the old bearded man? How did he come to learn English?

I ate a mango once. It was pretty good. Did you have any pomegranate juice there? I am drinking some of that these days. Its supposed to be the best juice for one’s health.

Too bad you missed the DJ party. That sounds like a fun time!

Wow! I feel exhausted after this long chapter.

You are on antibiotics now? That sounds serious! Hope you don’t have to call that horrible doctor with the huge syringe!

Ants, hm.
Sis, who was that, the turtle research dude or one of the other weird ppl you and the guys met on your Turkey trip? Anyway, one of my sister’s holiday acquaintances found an ant in his breakfast honey and pointed that out to the hotel’s waiter - who of course rushed off with the offending honey jar to fetch a new one. Which led to the guy hollering after the waiter “Hey, he’s taking my protein away!!” He never meant to actually eat the ant (I hope), he just wanted to gamely inform the waiter and go on eating that honey.

I was a bit scared while experiencing the “green shirted story” indeed, yup.
I didn’t see him doing that but Caesar said that old man was painting portraits of tourists. So being able to communicate other than in Arabic would sure help business.
It’s amazing so few ppl seemed to be speaking English though; there certainly was no lack of tourists…

Ok, you can eat mangos here as well. But you can’t buy any juice anywhere. While you can get it everywhere in Amman or Damascus. Not fair.

Well, I’m not so much into DJs anyway…

Oh, poor you, shall I write another one?

Eh? Doctor? Syringe? Oh, do you mean the asshole who gave me that tranquilizer while I was suffering from food poisoning? That dude is not allowed in my house anymore…
Antibiotics is good. That means I’ll be getting better now instead of worse.

I saw Spidey 3 recently. It was reasonably entertaining. I cracked up when he did the Saturday Night Fever Travolta imitation.

How did you get that girl to float?!

What is that small two story structure supported by columns and arches (in pics 1 and 3 of this chapter)? Is there a well under it? Ok, you have another pic: the “nicely shaded place for making wudu”. There it looks like a fountain. Say, what’s a wudu?

You look rather like a Vulcan diplomat in your fashionable garb.

How are German children taught such amazing self control? Did I tell you that I reached under The Liberty Bell (the most famous and historic bell in the U.S.) and moved it when I was a kid? The park ranger lady was quite upset when her bell moved as she was relating its history while standing right next to it!

Did you see an actual head in John’s Shrine?

I heard today on the radio that 1.5 Euro is now equal to $1.00. They interviewed some Irish lady who was having a great time buying stuff here.

So, you could take a taxi there for only 50 cents? That’s amazing! Here a short taxi ride costs at least $10.00.