Wrapping up

We arrived in Damascus mid-day Thursday and are trying to squeeze in some more sightseeing, shopping and (over) eating before we head back home on Tuesday.

After an exhausting day wandering around Bosra, we treated ourselves to a nice dinner at the Halabi restaurant in the Four Seasons. M's favorite thing about this plus is all the free stuff you get! The waiter explained that in Syria giving you more and more food is about hospitality, so while we only ordered 4 plates, there were 7 on the table, plus a big fruit platter at the end! The icing on the cake was the famous Aleppan cherry kebab that the chef sent to us. Delicious.

Today, we've been re-visiting the Christian quarter of the Old City. We began with a cab ride to the Bab Kisan - one of the many "bab"s, or gates, to the Old City. This bab, however, is hardly a gate anymore, as the present site is a chapel dedicated to St. Paul. It is, in fact, the Biblical site where Paul fled the city of Damascus by bing lowered from a gate in a basket. From here, we followed the old city wall up to "Straight Street" with the remains of the Roman gate and evidence of what would have been a long collonade like those we have now seen at Palmyra and the Apamea. Just north, along a side street, is the chapel of Ananais, an early Damascene Christian, and purportedly one of the 72 chosen disciples (? I dont have a Bible on hand), as well as one of the players in Saul/Paul's healing and conversion in Damascus. Along the way we passed various Christian shrines to various saints, ranging in size from a room to a niche in the wall of a building. Lots of fun shops as well. But dont expect to find an open restraunt until 1pm...