(posted from Beirut, Lebanon)

26 January 2009

Damascus, Syria

There are very few internet cafes in Syria compared to Egypt and Jordan, so if my messages become less frequent don't worry. The one I went into yesterday just let me use a computer, but this one insisted on seeing ID. A California driver's license didn't work, but a photocopy of my passport did. I did have my actual passport on me, but I didn't feel like taking it out of my money belt (referred to in Euro Trip as a "currency colostomy bag.") They do take down all your details, I guess to keep track of who's been trying to access Facebook. Before I single out Syria for this kind of gestapo, I should mention that when I was in Italy in July 2007 this procedure was also necessary to use the internet. In terms of women, Egypt and Jordan were not bad but nothing special. Syria, on the other hand, has some real beauties with a very high level of breastage. Many women do wear the headscarf, but there are plenty who do not, and like in Egypt, some who do still look like sluts. There is a very wide color spectrum here, as there was in Jordan as well. Egyptians were mostly dark with the odd somewhat white person, though not that white. Jordanians and Syrians span from very dark to people who are white enough to not stick out from a crowd in Norway or Sweden. There are quite a few people with blue eyes and a lot with a weird shade of red hair. In the markets there are a lot of scarfs (not headscarfs, regular scarfs) that are embroidered with things like "falastin" (Palestine), "ghaza lina" (Gaza is Ours) and "al-quds lina" (Jerusalem is Ours). Of course, pictures of President Bashar al-Assad and his late father President Hafiz al-Assad are everywhere. Occassionally, though not really that often, these pictures are accompanied by a picture of Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah. There are also pictures of crying, bloody and wounded children everywhere with captions, the only word of which I recognize is "Gaza." I remember my high school French textbook claiming that Syria is a French speaking country. Well, last night I went to a somewhat nice restaurant and the waitress (the first female server I've had in the Middle East) greeted me with "Bonsoir" but this was probably just because I'm a foreigner. Other than that I've seen a few signs in French, but this is not a French speaking country. And Syrian food is excellent. I didn't like Egyptian food, and Jordanian was slightly better, but Syrian cuisine is divine. I've obviously lost quite a bit of weight since I left because my belt no longer adequately holds up my pants. I've never been able to find a belt that fits me well anyway. So I went to the market and purchased a "Calvin Klein" belt for about US$3. This one fits slightly better.