The trip was really fast, there was not a lot of traffic on the borders so we got to Rania's place in Bloudan in 2 hours or so.
After we said hi to her parents and drank some water, we decided to go for lunch in Sham. However her sister Sarah was not up yet and it was already 1.30 p.m. so we went up to the room and we tried on some of her Hijabs. Joelle decided she would go all day wearing the Hijab. She wanted to try how it felt being a Mouhajaba around people.
At around 3.00 p.m. we went to Damascus. Driver Khaled was kind enough to explain that actually Sham and Damascus was the same place. We had lunch in a really nice Arabic restaurant called "Al Kahwali" somewhere near Hamadiyyeh Souk. The food was delicious, we tasted three specialities, and I got to try the lemon and mint drink which turned out to be a very common drink in Syria. The tabbouleh looked very different from ours, there was no onion in it and few tomatoes on the top just for decoration.
Later on we went to Hamaddiyeh. I love this place! Different shops with so many different smells (though not always good ones). It's incredible you can find the sexy underwear shop next to the hijab shops next to the ice cream shop next to the rugs shop next to the shoes shop. None of the shops is larger than 4 m.sq. and in the middle there are also young guys, some not older than 9 year old, selling toys and trying them in front of the public. There's a flying balloon that can be seen every now and then flying in the sky of Hammediyeh hitting the high roof of the Souk. Rania explained that the wholes in the roof were actually made by the french before they left Syria to leave their marks. However it gives a really nice illusion of a black sky with stars!
On the last day we also went to Hameddiyeh and we saw a group of these young guys holding their toys and running away. Then we saw the police. And it's really funny since they put their products in such a way that whenever they see the police they can grab them really quickly and run. I guess they are not allowed to sit in the middle of the Souk and sell their stuff.
One thing that we all noticed is that Syrians really love to cleans their roads. Well... not really clean them but I saw more than 6 people throwing water from water bottles on the road in front of their shops. The reason to that... still to be discovered.
Rania had her graduation celebration the next day. Which is quite a big deal in Syria. So we all dressed up and prepared for the women lunch that took place in one of Bloudan's restaurants. Dina and Diana came from Jordan that day too. The lunch was incredibly long. It lasted from around 1.30 p.m. till 6 p.m. It started with the drinks of course the lemon and mint, and they served us chips, fresh from the bags! Then the famous Mezza. After that, three different main meals. Then two sheep with rice and green wheat (full of fat). And then fruits and then ice cream cakes and finally the big cake which had something on it that looked like college hall of AUB. There was of course a DJ playing all Arabic songs and adding his choice of American music every now and then to please the young women dancing but of course also not annoying the older women watching and clapping with their hands. In total we were around 70 women!
