Back after a wonderful trip

I have been back for over a week now. I haven’t posted for two main reasons, first is the lack of time, since I had to start work pretty much right after my arrival. The second and more predominant reason is because I didn’t know how to restart blogging again after such and eye-opening, fun, and unforgettable trip. I don’t think one post can do the trip justice, so I will not try to summarize what I did, where I went and what I saw. I’ll let these sort of details flow out naturally as time goes by.

In the five year absence I can’t say that much have changed on a grand scale. One of the first things that I noticed was how much busier Damascus has become (maybe I forgot how busy it was in the first place). There’s a huge Iraqi presence, which seemed to generally hurt the lower class in Syria. I was told that many of the Iraqis that fled to Syria were generally well-off. These people were willing to pay extremely high rents for the worst places, consequently driving rents, and real-state prices through the roof. This showed me how a war could have such huge consequence on neighboring countries, consequence that are generally unaccounted for, and are ignored by the media for the most part.

I think I was most struck by the way people drive in Damascus. Traffic rules have no meaning; it’s every man for himself or as my uncle says:

بالشّام السواقة بتتبع نظام الاولوية للاجحش

In one taxi ride, the driver told me about his friend from Canada who came to Syria, rented a car, and returned it within an hour, all because she couldn’t drive in Damascus. He continued to tell me that “we drivers understand each other, for example this guy [pointing at a car ahead of us] knows I’m behind him, and will not swerve as I pass him.” After that conversation I became aware of the hidden traffic rules that all drivers know but never share, rules that were never published but are acquired after driving for a few years. For instance, and for those in Syria correct me if I’m wrong, using the left signal while on the outmost left lane means that “I need to be in this lane and I’m not willing to change my lane so you could pass me.” In another instance the driver almost missed an intersection, so we had to go from the outmost left lane all the way to the right lane. As soon as the driver started his dangerous maneuver, I noticed that my cousin casually stuck his hand out of the window to assist in the signaling process. I then realized that as a taxi rider, you are also part of the driving experience, you help out whenever you could. I could go on for an hour with taxi stories, so I’ll stop now.

I must have visited Old Damascus a million times and I don’t think I quenched my thirst for that wonderful place. For those who haven’t been, I cannot stress enough how amazing of an experience it is to walk through the narrow alleys, shop in the thousand year old markets, and come face to face with the wonderful damascene culture. I will be uploading pictures to my flickr slowly over the weeks to come, I suggest you take a look. I will also upload some videos to YouTube once I learn how to do that, and find time to do so.

For now I want to thank you for coming back to my little corner, and thank you for all the wonderful comments and wishes you left me when I was away. I’m happy to be back.