The journey from the Barada river to the Mekong has begun! Or from Barada beer to BaBaBa!

Now the journey has begun, after a long flight with a surprising stop in Syrias northern city of Aleppo we arrive just before midnight at Damascus international Airport. The passport control was a little terrifying, after all smiles and friendly behaviour are just as common among the Syrian airport authorities as in modern day American airports but we managed to swing with caution to the baggage claim, where we claimed our baggage among chainsmoking arabs from all over, changed our cash into comfortably worn Syrian notes and headed out. We were greeted, or assaulted in a friendly manner by lots of taxi drivers eager to escort us into their capitol and after a haggle here and some further haggling there we offered a driver 500 syrian pounds (roughly the equivalent of 5 euros) to drive us into the city. We dropped our luggage off at our hotel, a formidable four star hotel, much more decent than what we assume the rest of the trip has in store for us but completely worth it. After having tossed on some much needed deodorant we left for the beautiful old city centre of damascus. I thought that ramadan might possibly be a burden but on the contrary it is the reason Damascus is the most among the liveliest cities I have seen at night time. Swarming with locals and three tourist, us and a French person we passed, we strolled down the cities largest market, bought kaffiye's (the not-trendy-anymore arab head and neck wear) , some sandals and some sun lotion for reasonably low prices, after thorough haggling ofcourse, and finished the walk with some chawarmas. By the time we were heading back, the city was closing and hence the streets were ill lit and empty, a romantic end to our beginning! We got to the hotel, went up to the veranda on the ninth floor with a breathtaking view of damascus, drank some Barada beer served in different coloured sovietesque bottles and played Yatzi, the winner of the game will not be included, but we icelanders simply have a way with dice!
We are off, it is hot outside. The plan is to visit a few mosques, markets, walk the old city, hammam and end the day by going to the hill for a sunset view over Damascus, maybe some narguile and tea!
Behave, and we will post some more again soon

Love
Rutur