I Mean, Syria-ously

So much to catch you all up on. Sorry about no posting yesterday as internet in Jordan is a little tricky and moreover I was busy all day. Here's how yesterday and today have played out...

So I wake up, get ready and go to the local Safeway to meet two CSers for a day trip to Petra. One Jordanian male and a Polish female. We made quite the team. The girl arrives first so we're just waiting on the guy who will be driving us the 3 hours south to the ancient city. So we wait and wait. Then we see him coming. He pulls up in his small blue hatchback and unfolds himself from the car. He's bigger than me in both aspects- taller and thicker. How he fits himself into the car I'm still not sure. We get in and the trip begins. You know all great trips begin with the words "Hey, cross those wires in the floor so we can have music."

Actually, the trip to Petra wasn't that bad at all. The conversation was pretty good and both he and the Pole were very nice people. It was a fairly uneventful trip aside from the speeding ticket he got while doing 110kmh in a 80. His car GPS clocked his highest speed at 137kmh, what the equates to in miles, I do not know. But it was pretty fast.

We arrive at Petra and I shocked to find out that the price of admission has gone up. When I was there in 2004, it was around 15JD (about $22US). That's expensive, but I suppose that since Petra is now one of the new 7 wonders of the world, they felt that substantiated a rise in price to 21JD (about $31). Of course, this isn't unprecedented. I paid almost $20 to get into the Taj Mahal and $20 to get into Angkor Wat. Of course, locals pay only 1JD, 40 rupees and $1USD respectively to get into those places. Could you imagine the outrage if foreigners were charged $20 to go to the Statue of Liberty and Americans were only charged $1? Ah well. What can I do?

Again, a fairly uneventful trip once in Petra. I had taken the proper precautions beforehand- drank lots of water, wore sunscreen and tried to stay out of the sun as much as possible. But, like last time, I got really worn down by the sun and got a little nasious by the end of the day. I was ready to go home. But my Jordanian friend had other ideas. He suggested that we travel a little further south to Aqaba so we could do some duty free shopping (read: he needed some smokes). I voiced my objections. I'm tired, hungry and want to go home. He insisted that it wasn't that far away and that we would be home at 9pm at the absolute latest. He hadn't been wrong about distances and directions thus far, so I trusted him. Almost two hours later at 730pm we arrive in Aqaba. Aqaba, for those who don't know, is a really neat place. It is at the southern tip of Jordan situated on the Red Sea. It's a really beautiful place and from there you can see 4 nations. Jordan, Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are all within sight. We literally spent 15 minutes in the town, he picked himself up a bottle of Vodka and we were back on the road by 8pm.

We took the Dead Sea road back to Amman. Of course Nabil (the Jordanian) promised it would only take 2 1/2 hours tops. I again took him at his word. Of course by this point all hope of 9pm was out the window and I was hoping before 11. It quickly became obvious when we saw the first roadsign that said Amman 310km that 11 was looking more like 12. All in all, it was a fairly quiet ride back home. All of us were tired and the heat of the desert caused us all to be a little uncomfortable (did you really think he had A/C?). I had one of those surreal moments in my life though as we were cruising through the Jordanian desert and finally come across the Dead Sea, illuminated by moonlight. The smell of salt was thick in the air and I just looked around me with a Pole in the backseat sleeping and a Arab in the driver's seat bobbing his head to Lil Wayne on the stereo. As I looked across the Sea and looked upon Israeli settlements in the West Bank it was almost too strange to be my real life.

We finally pulled back into Amman around 1130. Nabil swore that all the roadsigns were wrong even up to the moment I got out of the car. I really hated to tell him that he just misjudged it all. Oh well, he'll know better next time. It was a great day though. Despite the long hours in the car I really liked both the people I was with and enjoyed their company. Chalk another victory up for CS.

Today on the way to Syria I made some friends the old fashioned way- chance encounters. I got up early and had breakfast with Andrea and then went to her school for a little while to use the internet and try to figure out where I can stay in Syria. Due to the fact the details of my trip from this point on are, how should I say, fluid, I din't plan for any acommodation. I found a place and called from the school. All booked. Andrea talked to some of the other teachers at the school and all of a sudden it became "Let's Find a Place for Patrick" as I sat and stared blankly at a wall while the Arab secretary was busy on the phone calling around Damascus trying to find a place for me to rest my head for the night. I felt pretty helpless and kind of embarrassed. Maybe incapable is the right word. She finally found a place for me at the Deir Mar Paulus and sent me on my merry way.

I caught a cab to the bus station and then found a "sevees" which I booked to take me to Damascus. A servees is a funny thing. It's more of a shared taxi. Basically you wait around until you get 4 people wanting to go to Syria, you all pile in and you're on your way. To call it cramped would be an understatement. Of course with my luck there was a girl in the car which automatically meant she got the front seat. Being scrunched in the back between two guys is definitely against custom here and thusly she had all the legroom in the world while myself, a 6'8" Texan and the Syrian Nick Pendley crammed ourselves in the back. I got the hump. It was a really uncomfortable ride the one hour to the border and one hour to Damascus. I'm pretty sure all my lower extremities fell asleep at one point and sweat poured. I envied the princess sitting in the front seat gabbing on her cell phone. She didn't know how good she had it. The only saving grace of the trip was that I really got along well with the two guy in the backseat. We had a lot of good conversation and they were both eager to help me since it was my first time in the country and the city. The Texan even offered his place for me to sleep tonight but I delined because of my prior booking. The Syrian Nick Pendley invited us to his girlfriend's birthday party tonight so I think I'm going to go. He even offered to pick me up. After we arrived in Damascus he bargained a cab for me, we scheduled a time to meet and then parted.

The cab ride was fairly short to the hotel. I hesitate to call it a hotel though because it's really not. In fact, it's a monastery. Apparently Deir Mar Paulus means St. Paul Monastery so yours truly will be shacking in a convent for the night. A nice nun met me at the entrance and showed me to my room. Nothing fancy at all, but complete with an Arabic New Testament and a picture of the Virgin Mary on the wall. Should be pretty interesting.

So that long piece of writing catches you up on my life right now. Fairly entertaining even to me. I'll be sure to let you know how the rest goes. Until next time...