Shopping Day!! We get in the car and head to the Souq. The drivers in Damascus are maniacal. Traffic moves and people drive fast but there is no concept of a lane and people will pass on any side. At one point in what would appear to be a three lane road there were seven ‘lanes’ speeding down the road. There are lines on the roads but that only makes it more confusing as they don’t seem to correspond to anything. Sometimes there are three lanes demarcated by lines but one lane will be too small for a car (usually the one in the middle), sometimes the lines criss-cross diagonally across the pavement. It is as if some guy was told to “go put lines on the road” but having no concept of why one would put lines on the road they just randomly decorated the tarmac. Kenya driving has taught us well and we make it to the old town in good time and even find parking (not legal parking in many countries but it worked in Damascus).
The walk to the souq is lined with small shops selling beautiful wood carved furniture with inlay of shells, bakeries, butchers, stone carvers, tea shops, and hardware stores. Many of the shops are so small you can’t actually go in them you just stand on the sidewalk and browse and point. We stop along the way and pick up some fresh juice which we drink standing on the street and some croissants which we eat on the way. The souq is amazing. There are tourist stalls but it is very much a local souq where people come to buy whatever they need. Where we enter there are bridal shops with frothy sequined gowns, musical instruments, head scarf stalls with every imaginable color and decoration, lingerie shops offering the skimpiest of ware. That was a strange juxtaposition – the head scarf stall next to the lingerie shop which seemed to specialize in g-string and bra sets with fuzzy trim. The ones on display in the window had a tiny smiling sunflower with yellow fuzzy trim which would hardly cover anything… Moving on – spice stalls, nut vendors, pots, pans, fabric, furniture, ice cream, kids toys, and on and on and on and hundreds and hundreds of people mostly locals shopping. We wind through the first part of the souq to get to the Umayyad Mosque. We get out tickets and Julia has to put on a long robe with hood. We take off our shoes and can enter the courtyard of the great mosque. There are hundreds and hundreds of people both for tourism and praying. The Umayyad Mosque is said to be one of the most magnificent and important buildings in Islam. There are beautiful golden mosaics on the walls and ceiling of the courtyard. We are allowed to enter the enormous prayer hall (with separate sections for men and women) which has a shrine with reportedly the head of John the Baptist (who is a prophet Yehia to Muslims). There were hundreds of people but it was such a peaceful atmosphere and so beautiful. After the mosque we stop for a shawrma and then move next door for some tea and sheesha before returning to our browsing. We also stop at the Azam Palace which is a complex of buildings, courtyards and gardens built between 174 and 1752 as a private residence for the governor of Damascus. The rooms are well preserved and set up with furniture and mannequins depicting life in the palace. After a full day of browsing the souq we only have several kilos of cashews, almonds, pistachios and dates to show for it – but we know we’ll be back tomorrow…
