Road to Damascus

C-lo and I took our first trip outside the the noise and pollution of the big city to Maalula, a predominantly Christian village built into the mountains about50 miles north of Damascus where many of the inhabitants still speak Aramaic. There were a couple of convents built into the hills which were dotted with clefts and caves, it was nice to see the place being used by groups of Syrians having family picnics and such like. Outside the cafe at the summit there was even a convention of Syrian motorbikers!
The landscape was dramatic and the place had a certain charm, but, as with so much of Syria, seemed fairly poorly cared for, presumably due to a lack of funds. In this case the cleft and caves were strewn with boxes of rubbish left behind by visitors.

In the evening we went to our first Damascene night club. It was packed with a mix of Westerners and funky young Syrians. It was great to be out, socialising with our new flat-mates and the club was fun in small doses, but the music was a very cheesy by London standards (an eclectic mix of Arabic, European and American pop).

Nevertheless, before we came to Damascus I wasn't sure that such places existed in Syria. It was super cheap for us (I spent about 4 UK pounds 50 all night including entrance fee and 2 bottles of beer!). However, it would seem that it was only for the comparatively well off young Syrians.