Mirsada did feel better, but not by much, it was still a rather slim diet and frequent bathroom visits. We made a quick visit to the central park a block away and watched some Norias, the large wooden water wheels used to get water into an aqueduct where it then could be used for irrigating the surrounding fields. Quite impressive for being 13th century design.

Despite taking it slow and slacking in the shadow, Mirsada was fatigued and we decided that we would book another night in Hama. Possibly leave later in the afternoon but not before noon which was check-out. I went on a stroll to get the time tables for the buses to Damascus as well as check out some more Norias.

After getting another round of rice for Mirsada and a chicken wrap for myself we did some resting at the hotel. Having rested a whole hour after eating with no bathroom visits we decided that it was now or never we should leave for Damascus. The hotel manager did some very friendly handling of our bill since we paid less than the two days and we had also bought food and drinks. If you ever stay in Hama, check out the budget hotel Cairo, nice and clean for a good price!

We got to Damascus without any incidents and bartered for a cab to Al Diwan, the hotel we had thought we would end up at the very first night in Syria. Prices had gone up a bit and the room quality down, we haggled for some time and ended up paying 44 dollars per night. Fair enough. We asked about the laundry service and thought it was a bit expensive but needed to wash clothes so handed them in and went out for a proper meal this time. Before we left we moved the beds together however revealing a not so well cleaned floor, we asked them to vacuum this before we got back.

At Pizza Roma I got more cheese than my poor body could handle but I did a brave attempt on the pizza hut clone and considered it a draw. When paying the bill didn’t match up and when asking what the items on the bill was we were informed that one of items were apparently napkins. First time I’d seen that one, not that we ordered that or so. Rather than arguing about it, we took the whole box of napkins with us.

After stumbling back crippled by the fat bomb in my stomach we saw some dvd-stands and figured we treat ourselves with another calm night. As we were discussing movies we were approached by a guy, probably in his late teens, who starts a conversation by asking us not to call him stupid in good english but please answer his question. He had a keen interest in my shoulder bag (white one bought in Beijing, with the animal from the anime xxxHolic) and asked if I perhaps had bought this in Syria or if it was from abroad. I told him that it was bought in China and he shrugged and explained that it’s very hard to find such stuff here but thanked me for answering before vanishing in the crowd.

Speaking about fashion one thing that’s a big difference here in Damascus and the rest of Syria is the Burkhas and head-cloths. I’ve maybe seen 5 or 10 ladies showing their hair in total earlier and now its maybe 20 in an hour. Some girls also wear make-up, tight jeans and t-shirts. I thought the idea of wearing make-up and covering your hair kind of contradicted each other but apparently not. I guess it’s the same thing in any country, people are more aware of other cultures and less conforming to the norms in the major cities or capitals than the less privileged outskirts.

In the elevator back at the hotel there is an older arab man who when we get off asks us in swedish if this was the second or third floor. A quick flashback to what conversation we had in the elevator brought back the memory of me using the always classy and useful phrase “vakôster’u?”.

The laundry was already done and we got it back drenched in perfume and with a bill larger than the total for the very nice dinner we had in Aleppo at the posh place. The room was not vacuumed, but before we could complain a bellboy arrived with a broom and tried his best to clean the thick dusty carpet.

We haggled concerning the laundry bill and reduced it a bit but it seems we had misunderstood the prices as well. No big money in the long run but still a bit lame. After watching the movie we were about to hit the sack when we realized that there are no sheets in our beds. We notified the now well-known porter of this and he after some explanations understand what we wanted and gave us sheets. Did I mention that there was no toilet paper before we mentioned this neither? Depending on our laziness we might look up another hotel tomorrow.

We had arranged a tour with mr Walid at the Baron Hotel, he’s son would drive us around around the Dead Cities and the area for the mere sum of 80 dollars. This was a bit hefty to say the least, but it would be a bit tricky to hike around the Dead Cities and nicer to get a driver related to the rather famous hotel than picking up a random guy from the streets.

The Dead cities are a bunch of towns which were deserted for an unknown reason. A few earthquakes have taken place over time and trade routes maybe changed, who knows? Anyways they were nice to wander about, Serjilla was one town which had been deserted since the 6th century, but it felt rather recently abandoned. There remains indicated rather high living standards of that time, e.g. two-storied buildings and tombs for the deceased.

After some photos and more strolling Mirsada started feeling sick. We decided to skip the mosaic museum, or actually only use their bathrooms, and got on a minibus heading for Hama. We got to Hama, got a taxi to Cairo Hotel and got there rather just in time. The rest of the day was spent nursing Mirsada who could only keep boiled rice and drink small amounts of water or stirred coca-cola.

In the evening she started to get better but we ended the day with watching a movie on the laptop. Hopefully she will be better tomorrow.

We’d set the alarms at seven but happily snoozed away until 11. Vacation is after all vacation, we missed the included breakfast but got served tea at least. The plan for today was to visit Qala’at Saraam which was a bit north of Aleppo, but first of course some food.

We found a kebab/salads place with locals and had a nice brunch for a low price. When leaving the owner asked if we were married, I answered no by reflex and Mirsada added ‘but we will marry’ which made the already smiling owner widen the smile. It seems that not only was Mirsada being frowned upon for living in sin (no blame goes to the guy apparently), he also thought that I tricked her by saying I would marry her ‘later’. I was more pleased with the situation than Mirsada (I could probably have high-fived the guy).

We found our way to the minibus station and after several re-directions we found another parking space where a minibus claimed to be going to Daret Azze. Slightly less than an hour later we were dropped off, the price for us both was less than a dollar. Now it was about 6 km walking or hitch-hiking left. We didn’t walk more than 20 meters before a pick-up truck with three ladies and an older man on the back picked us up.

They started talking limited english with us and asked where we were from and so on. The landscape was nice so I took some pictures but had to respect the ladies wishes not to be photographed. I’m a bit lost in the views when suddenly Mirsada asks me how long time we’ve been married and pulls out my hand showing my Chalmers-ring to the ladies and explain that we got married last year. This leads to the question of children, and Mirsada is again frowned upon (jokingly but still) for not conceiving any children. One of the ladies is the proud mother of eight and clearly the winner of the popularity contest.According to Lonely planet 40% of the population is under 14 years of age, has a life expectancy on 67 years and a population increase of 2.5% (which now was lower than previous years). Seeing the rate of unemployed already today makes me wonder how sustainable such a population growth is.

We arrive at the old church which was the biggest known in the world at the time it was finished (490 AD). Rather impressive size and even though what’s left of it now is mostly blocks of stone one could get a feeling of how it would have looked like at that time. It was raised on the site where a guy called Simeon used to preach.

Simeon was bent towards the more ascetic side of life and actually started the whole spending-ones-life-on-the-top-of-a-pillar trend. This generated lots of kudos at the time; fellow christians from as far away as France and England went here on pilgrimages and after his death they built this church. The tallest pillar (he built them higher and higher to get further away of the pilgrims who wanted to touch him) were some 18 meters but there was little left of this, most of it had been chipped away as religious souvenirs. We decided that we’d seen enough and started to head back to Aleppo.

We asked for directions and walked along the road for some 15 minutes before another guy picked us up and dropped us in a crossing in Daret Azze. We there got picked up by a mini-bus who drives us to the other mini-buses for free (opposite the direction he was going). We changed bus and got back to Aleppo for the same price of less than a dollar.

On the way back we walked through some fruit markets and bought some delicious black berries and cherries. We didn’t get the expected change back from one guy and questioned him, he pretended we got the correct amount until we read the price written on his sign and then gave us the rest of the change with a smile while his friends chuckled. It helps to learn their numbering system, which is rather easy even if somewhat peculiar to a westerner.

It goes something like this; one is one, two is a backward seven and three is a backward seven but a little longer. Four is a backward three, five is a zero and six is a seven. Seven is a V, eight is a upside down V, nine is nine and zero is a central placed dot. Not that hard once you get used to the backward thinking.

Back at hotel Baron we gulped down close to a kilo fruit before going into siesta / blog-mode. We should make arrangements for tomorrow when we plan to see the dead cities (or at least a few of them) and of course eat again.