Du Ski in Lebanon??

Well I have been here nearly 2 months since arriving in January. I am still working away at the UN but am making use of the numerous cafes and courtyard restaurants found in Damascus. Despite this and exploring the city and its sights some more, I felt I needed to get out of Damascus for a weekend. So with this in mind my housemate, another friend and I decided to travel to Lebanon as it is close by and easy to get to. Recent events have calmed down in the country and also more importantly there had been a fresh dumping of snow in the mountains.

I therefore decided to travel to the mountains to visit the mystical Faraya Mzaar Ski resort, reputedly the best ski resort in Lebanon. We left during a cold crisp evening from Damascus and headed across the border into the night. We had made sure that the private car (a normal thing in Syria) knew exactly where Faraya mzaar was. He was sure and there would be no problem he said. However once across the border near the town of Baalbek in the Beka Valley our taxi driver stopped telling us another taxi will take us all the way.

However he still wanted paid for his journey, and he wanted to be paid a lot, far more than the journey’s worth. Its always a great moment in learning a language when you can argue coherently with a taxi driver. So this is what we did with him and his 7 friends, for an hour! The main thrust of the argument was that he wanted paid in full to where he had taken us (not even half way). However we argued he had lied to us and not taken us where we wanted to go so therefore we would only pay him for the journey he had done. He did not like this and used many excuses to try and persuade us to pay him.

They ranged from “how was I meant to know where Faraya is?” to “Faraya, I do not know this place, what did you say? Faraaya, oh I know where that is!” and then the classic “they told me they wanted to go to Baalbeck”! After rebuffing his arguments, he timidly asked for money because he “had a family to think about”. That would be plausible if we had not just crossed the border in his private car that was a brand new Mercedes Benz. After paying him the right amount for the journey, we left and arrived in Faraya at 11. Our hotel was like something out of The Shining film, completely empty, décor from the 1970s and 1980s and run by two ghostly but extremely friendly and helpful old men. They had been running the place for 40years and despite being a little confused by life they were friendly and even made us pizza to eat. We got our rented gear and headed to bed.

In the morning we all thought there had been a mistake, we had been given 1970s and 1980s ski gear! I was sporting a fluorescent green all in one while my housemate had a grass green one and the final friend I traveled with had a black and white patterned number! All of us had fluorescent orange and green skis. Oh well, least it is warm to wear! Arriving on the slopes we were greeted with a lovely view of white rolling hills and a pleasant 11 degrees centigrade. After teaching my friends to ski in the morning, I began to explore the mountain properly. I took a lift up to the top and from there I could see the Mediterranean sea stretching out in front of me, blue and in the sun, and Beirut on the coast looking peaceful and calm. Behind me was a moonscape of rolling white hills as far as the eye could see. The skiing was not bad, with a lots of enjoyable red runs and a bit of challenging yet fun off piste runs.

After a tiring day we explored the nightlife of Faraya, or as it turned out lack of it! We wandered up to the only restaurant in town and had mezzeh (lots of small Dishes) in effectively a conservatory in someones garden (the food was cooked inside the house). Then we wandered along the main road to one of two bars, we chose the second one because it was the busy one with four people inside! Sat next to a lovely warm fire and made it feel a bit like Europe and chatted the night away.

The next day it was skiing in the morning then a service taxi down into Beirut. We shared a taxi with a curious American who amongst other things asked us “is Syria full of Terrorists, Do you need to carry guns with you in Syria and do the border guards open your passport at the border?”! Arrived in Beirut and had a whistle stop tour around the centre of the city, the parliament building, Rafik Harari’s grave (the assassinated prime minister of Lebanon in 2006) and the blue mosque. We then met my friend who is working in Beirut for a late lunch in a lovely French restaurant on a street called Gemeyzie, where all the good restaurants are in Beirut. Then it was a taxi ride back to Damascus with a man who set Diamonds in jewelry as a job and was sharing the taxi with us. A normal weekend in the Middle East!

Recent Developments

As you may know by now there has been 'interesting' developments in the Middle East, concerning a 'Wave of Change'. I thought i would update everyone how this is affecting me in Syria or should I say not. After the Tunisian and Eygption Protests there were calls by some to have a "day of rage" in Syria last weekend. However this turned out to be nothing more than a "day of rain" with no-one turning up on the streets. The difference in Syria's case was that the demonstrations were organised by people outside of Syria, Syrians living abroad and even non Syrians living abroad. So due to this lack of on the ground leadership it is quite understandable why the protests did not get off the ground. On the day itself there was an increased presence of secret and not no secret police but sadly for them they stood about in the rain all day getting cold. One positive change that has occured in the recent week is the end of blocking Facebook and YouTube by Syrian Authorities signalling an interesting move by the government, which has blocked these sites since 2007, possibly in reaction to the events in Eygpt, that called for greater freedom of the internet. Despite this opening of the internet, Syrian media agencies were slow to acknowledge the events happening in Eygpt as for at least 3 days. For example on SANA (Syrian Arab News Agency) the top news for those days were that "Rain Falls on Most Syrian Cities" where other arabic media's (Al Jazeera, Al Arabyia, Ya Libnan etc) had Eygptian News on their front pages. Outside of these events I have had a suit and jacket taylored made here for about $200, its getting very cold, and I have started to be known as a local, with a Taxi driver asking me for directions, which I could give in arabic, and getting to be known by name in my local cafe. All in all very nice.

Oh those Middle Eastern Nights..

Well I’m Back in Syria interning at the UN, mainly writing reports and working on presentations. In the evenings I am managing to learn a little Arabic as well as become an English teacher to break even with rent. After spending 10 days home at Christmas, I returned to Beirut and the Middle East life. I managed to remember where my friend lived in Beirut and got myself there late at night. It was great travelling through the empty streets occasionally lined with army checkpoints, reminding me that Lebanon is at a tense situation at the moment. Beirut is an interesting place; it has the people of the Middle East yet the feel and perception of a western place such as Singapore, Kula Lumpa, or a mixture of both. High rise glass buildings, with clean roads and new shop fronts make it feel like Europe, but every now and then you see bombed out buildings, or catch a glimpse of the heavily shelled Holiday Inn, reminding you of the terrible events that occurred here. After arriving at my friend’s house, I went out of Gemeyzie, an area of lovely bars and restaurants for a drink in a bar that felt as though I was in a trendy part of Paris. Interestingly in Lebanon, Arabic in some areas in the third language spoken after French and English so it was strange to be listening to lots of French voices around me.

The next day I hired a taxi to take me over to Damascus, once the driver realised I had been before he drastically brought the price down to the correct price. So for about £12 I had a 3 hour taxi ride into another country! My driver Ahmad was chatty and with my broken Arabic chatted about his family, what I was doing and where he was from. After climbing the steep mountain road over the anit Lebanon Mountains we dropped into the Bekka Valley. It was as stunning as before Christmas, snow covering the tops of the mountains with the wide fertile valley below basked in sunlight. Here they grow wine, and before Christmas, a few friends and I visited the Kasara vineyard. In the lovely surroundings, we toured the small visitors centre and the caves behind which stored the wine. It was apparently begun by the Romans but may have had prehistoric origins. After passing the turn off for this I was stamped out of Lebanon and we drove up another mountain road to the Syrian Border. Here I acquired a visa easily with two New Zealand guys and heading into Damascus by lunchtime. Two hours later I had a house to stay in, and friends to go out and eat with. Nice!

This is the end?

I have arrived back home now for Christmas after an amazing three months in Syria and for 5 days in Lebanon. I thought I should update you all on what I am now doing. Before I left I did some work experience with the UN and have managed to get some kind of unpaid internship there after Christmas. So I am only in the UK for 2 weeks before I head back to Syria to begin this on the 2nd of January. I will keep this blog updated when I can and when I do something exciting, because most of the time I will be working in an office and that is hardly anything to write home about! I will also continue to learn Arabic and I have started to teach English to break even for rent and food, just incase I was slacking! So really this is just the beginning! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

A Spiritual Retreat

After the excitement of Palmyra I decided to take my brother and his girlfriend to Marmusa, an isolated fortress that had in about the 6th century been converted into a small church and monastery. Its turbulent history meant that it had fallen into disrepair and fluctuated in being a working monastery from time to time. However in the 1980s an Italian monk came to Marmusa and though his own will alone helped renovate and repair the dilapidated building. Now it is a working monastery promoting cross religious dialogue and welcomes visitors from all faiths and backgrounds. You can stay for a day or stay for as long as you want for free as long as you help out in some way.

So it was under this introduction that my brother, his girlfriend and I started at the bottom of the path that lead (after 20 minutes) to the monastery after being dropped off at the side of the road by a local service van. Nestled in-between two hillsides the sand coloured building blended into the hillside as we started the walk up the meandering stone path. After getting to the top we entered the very very very small doorway (About 1 metre by 1 metre) and entered into to the small courtyard atop the fortress. Here we were greeted by one of the monks (in jeans and a t-shirt!) and took a seat before tea was brought to reward us for our effort.

From our viewpoint we could see the desert plains stretching off in the distance and more mountains helping to give a canvas for the sunlight to paint. After exploring the small peaceful church complete with original frescos my brother and I went to the extensive yet maze like library to explore. Split on three levels its a great space to explore though narrow corridors and doorways then into large book filled rooms. After having lunch there of lentils, onions and peppers we sadly had to leave, so a service taxi was called by radio for us from the nearest town. We descended the long path with the imposing fortress looking down at us us leaving and boarded the bus as it was becoming dark. A great day away from it all.

Oh no! There is two of them!

Its been busy in the last month of my time in Syria. Graduating from University, hiring private tutors, getting work experience at the UN and my twin brother and his girlfriend heading out to visit! They came at the helpful time of 3 o'clock in the morning so 2 syrian friends and I picked them up from the airport by car. When they came through the arrivals gates my friends and I managed to convince my brothers girlfriend that she needed to cover her head on leaving the airport as "Syria is a Muslim country you know". So she duly covered her head and walked out under the chortles of the security personnel. After about 10 metres or so we couldn't keep it up so we told her it was a joke and in fact Syria is on paper a secular country! Welcome to Syria!

The next day we spent time wandering the streets around my house and showing them the market and general sights of the old city including Azam palace, a lovely ottoman relic surrounded by the busy markets that Damascus is famous for. Inside is a lovely courtyard surrounded rooms of various functions each filled with different manikins, including two in a very dodgy position, one hitler lookalike and one remarkable manikin that looks like John Lennon in Middle Eastern clothing. We also wandered around the Ummayid mosque, the Shi'a mosque (decorated impressively with tiny mirrors) and the jewish quarter. In the evening we prepared for the next 2 days in the desert.

We left in the afternoon on a 1960s Scania bus, the kind of busses you think of in India or Pakistan, to the desert. Inside was cramped, hot and uncomfortable but it was great! We were traveling with about 20 other people. Soon as we got out of the city the music came blaring on and all my Syrian friends got up and danced all the way to Palmyra, getting us involved too and stopping off at one Baghdad cafe for refreshments, on the crossroads with of the same name. Traveling through the desert again was great the landscape of the desert is awe-inspiring, rocky outcrops, Bedouin tents and sandy plains make it easy to see why T.E Lawrence fell in love with the Middle East.

After arriving at Palmyra we turned left and then stopped at the side of the road in the dark. We then sat for 10 minutes before lights came out of the darkness to meet us. A pickup truck then took us slowly into the desert, this was proper Bedouin life! After about 20 minutes we arrived at our destination and headed up a small slope to our tents that were under the gaze of a huge rocky outcrop! Beautiful. After eating a traditional meal of rice, nuts, chicken and peppers we spent the night dancing Dapkai, the traditional Syrian dance, a bit like circular line-dancing!

Palmyra and camels dominated the next day followed by a long journey back to civilisation and the welcome rest of Damascus.

"Coffee should be...

... black as hell, strong as an ox, and sweet as love"

One of my recent day trips has been to Malula, a village north of Damascus where it is said St Paul first converted on his way to Antioch. Malula is now a Christian pilgrimage site. However several places make this claim in the mountains around Syria! Taking a small mini van (called a service) from Damascus it took an hour to reach the hills north of the city. A very striking landscape, with rolling hills interspersed with large rocky outcrops - it made for a dramatic journey. I was traveling with my housemates, a Norwegian, and a Syrian friend whose family come from Malula.

After jumping off the bus in the main roundabout of the town we found ourselves in the middle of a bowl of rocky outcrops, each decorated with crosses and Christian motifs. Very different from Damascus. After wandering through the narrow streets and through tunnels where houses were above, below and to the sides of us, we arrived at our friend's grandparents' house and had the first of many coffees. Interestingly Malula is one of the few places in Syria where people still speak Aramaic and my friend's grandma spoke only Aramaic. It was great to hear as it had a rhythm a bit like Irish! After having coffee and trying to remember our university Arabic we went on through the narrow streets and up to see a cousin of our guide. It seemed everyone knew him. Then after tasting Malula wine (sweet like communion wine) we wandered up to one of several religious buildings in Malula, a convent. The story goes that the saint of the convent, after converting to Christianity escaped her father to Malula. Her father sent soldiers after her and she managed to evade capture when God opened a rock so that she could hide. The place where this is said to have happened is now a shrine where people come for healing and prayer. It was a lovely little shrine with a tree and a cave - lovely to get out of the heat of the day. The sign outside in English read, "Please enjoy your visit but your smoking harms us."

We then wandered up a gorge and round the back of one of the outcrops of Malula which gave great views of the plateau around the town. It was here that some of The Lord of the Rings was filmed apparently. After looking at the view from a hotel that was being renovated we went to one of the oldest churches in Syria, dating from the 5th century. Inside it was small square space with four arches holding up the roof. Everything was very simple and plain, but sadly tour group after tour group ruined the atmosphere, a pattern in Syria! After taking this in we had more coffee with our friend's other grandparents, this time conversation in arabic and then headed back to Damascus in another mini van for yet more coffee.