Here I was, back in the place that was so familiar to me: Damascus. I had decided while I was in London that I needed to learn more languages. This served a dual purpose. For one, I am way too curious and like to know what people are saying and I also prefer to be able to talk to people in their own language (no matter how poor my particular language skills may be). Secondly, I need it for future jobs. Not that I will be working in the Middle East per se, but at the moment my ass is whooped by all those 50-year olds who have 25 years more of experience in the field of human rights. So it was time to come with a counter attack. I have worked in several countries the past year, but at the moment this experience does not seem to help me much in finding a job. Adding Spanish and Arabic to my language experience might help a bit to further my goal. We shall see… inchallah.
So back to Damascus, a year after I had last visited it and boy was I afraid of the heat! (lol you probably thought I would say something else right?? ;)). Anyways the heat was doable in the beginning. Although at some point you might wonder what the exact temperature it was, as the government actually manipulates the metres ;). I’ll explain in week 4! I came to Damascus to do a one month intensive Arabic language course at the Dutch Institute. Fortunately for me, I managed to get the same teacher I had had a few private classes with last year. Yihooooooooooo!!! The first week was intense and we already learned the alphabet, read and write. And I can tell you: it goes very fast.
By the end of the week many people had decided to go to Palmyra for the weekend. I was very very happy to join as it was my favourite place last year. Palmyra is situated in the middle of the desert and is known for its ruins. We arrived in Palmyra in the evening after a 4 hour bus ride. We first went to our hotel whereafter we left to see the sunset at Qala’at ibn maan, a castle perched high on a hilltop known to be the prime viewing spot for overlooking the ruins of Palmyra and the area around it. The sunset was amazing and provided some long desired peace of mind. After that we went to find a nice restaurant and ended up in the middle of a wedding party and were invited to stay and eat. Bear in mind: their idea of sweets might differ a bit from our ideas and your taste buts might experience some ehm…… well……..let’s just call it an experience! The next morning some of us got up at 5 am to see the sunrise (yes guys, only logical to get up to see the one thing you last saw before you went to bed… yawn…… yawn…… but SOOOOOOO worth it). What we had not expected was the massive wind…… we were blown away!!!! (quite literally) But it was a great experience. Having seen the sunrise we just wandered amidst the ruins for a while and I made my way to the tombs, variously sized, free-standing, square-based towers in which were constructed as multi-storey burial chambers (yep they were buried with about 4 to 5 people in one chamber resulting in about well……… say 96 people being buried in one of those towers). Another interesting thing, maybe an idea for those who design coffins, is that every coffin has a stone panel carved with a head and shoulders portrait of the deceased. Quite pretty! On our way back we managed to get a free camel ride. I LOVE those animals!!! We had some pancakes at the pancake house (imagine this: the restaurant had a picture of the Dutch queen at his window and had written pancakes with apple and cinnamon in Dutch!!!). So all in all a bit of the Netherlands in Syria. I posted some pics of my trip to Palmyra last year as well, but below you will find some new pics and as usual my camels play a very big role in them!
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