This weekend I took my first big trip outside Damascus. A couple of veteran teachers, Evelyn and Lynn, and Lynn's daughter, Chaeli, Megan and I hired a car to drive us. It was a nice, new 4 wheel drive, the only problem was, it only held 4 passengers. One of us, usually Megan and Spunky, ended up riding in the back with all the luggage. The Syrian man who owned the car kept telling us, "it's new, very nice" and we kept telling him, "yes, it's very nice. For 4 people!". It wasn't a bad ride despite that little issue. They let me play singing games in the car.
We stayed in a nice, little hotel right on the Palmyra's ruins. Palmyra is an ancient dessert oasis that was located on the Silk Road. In it's heyday, it much have been one spectacular place. There were hardly any tourist there, and the ruins just lie out in the the open, no fences, no parking lots. The town is quite small and tourism is about the only thing the town has, so we got haggled a lot. The people are really quite nice despite the desperation. The oasis is something. All you see is desert forever then there's this big, green area with water just springing up from the sand. Damascus look green and lush after two days in Palmyra.
We took a camel ride. I know I swore I would not ride a camel, but it was actually pretty fun. It was a little hairy when the camel got up and down, but once we were riding, it was actually more comfy than riding a horse. I could probably be talked in to during a caravan into the desert for a few days.
We visited the castle and a tomb. We walked on top of the tomb which made me very nervous, but the pictures turned out great. They aren't too blurry from my shaking.
