A group of strangers becomes a clan!

How small can this world be! When walking through the plane towards our seats we suddenly saw a familiar face. In the midst of all the passengers was one of my nephews (well a bit further away, sun of sister of grandmother :-S) preparing himself for the flight. He was heading for Nepal for a Annapurna trekking and was on his way to heathrow for a stopover. Amazed, but somehow not surprised, we said hello. These things are never a coincidence. After taking pictures (you need to have proof for stories like this) we went our seperate ways in London.

On the airport of Damascus the group finally came together. 3 of them arrived earlier and the other 19 were standing around us. Why does everybody feel so uncomfortable, eager to say hello but too afraid to be the first one. We know we have to take that step, we are set up to do a trip around 2 countries together. Yet deep in our hearts we would like to do the trip alone, as a real globetrekker, without a tourguide, just a backpack and money for a gab. But here we all are. 19 grown up people waiting for the guide to come back with our passports with the visa stamp.

The first day a tour was planned in down town damascus. Next weekend we will visit the city again and have some extra time. And I need that time. The old city has not lost its charm. The entrance gates are intact, the old houses and small streets although not well kept still enchanting and the mosques and churches serene. The full glory is gone, foremost because there is to many tourists wondering around like me.

In the evening we were broken. After a night of almost no sleep we ate around "non Damascus dinner time " (way to early) and went to bed. The guide does not have a very clear view of the routing so we helped him out a little bit. Palmyra was planned for day two and so it happened.
We left too late, we had no lunch and were just 152 km from the Iraqi border. Almost yelling that we wanted to go that way. (from secretly wanna be backpacker to war fanatic??) Palmyra is an old oasis town, that got its wealth from the caravan routes that ran through the country for trade. The old ruines are in good shape. The weather did help (blue sky everywhere we looked) us, but the sight itself did all the work. Most impressive was the old road and city wall. From the fort on top of the hill a splendid view over the value gave us an impression of the old days. Days in which the traders shouted around the square what was on offer and camels and donkeys were arguing about a place to rest. Hm?? Did anything change at all on the middle east markets since 400 AD?

We will see soon enough, tomorrow we will set of for Aleppo. Crossing the dessert again to Crac des Chevaliers (old crusaders castle) on the way over. Aleppo is said to be to most atmospheric city of this part of the middle east. With a lively souk and a beautiful citadel.
And not to forget, plenty of good teahouses were you can smoke nargileh in a historical setting.