Our last night in Turkey, we went and saw the Whirling Dervishes, which is a religious dance done by Sufis. A core of their belief system is that by revovling, they become closer to God. It was a fascinating ceremony, in a beautiful building that was over 600 years old. Unfortunately, pictures were forbidden, but the music and dancing (all men) was pretty fascinating. Much more interesting than my sister's old ballet recitals.
We woke up the next morning, and flew to Damascus. Much more to come on our 2 days in Syria later, but Damascus is beautiful and charming. The people could not have been nicer. The old city, surrounded by old Roman Walls, is great, and we spent hours roaming the old souks and checking out Mosques, churches, drinking coffee, smoking water pipe, eating fresh fruit, candy, kebabs, etc. Will post detailed stories and pics later. There were a bunch of moments where I had to step back and realize where we were, whether because of the impact of the religous history or the reminder of the current political situations.
A few years back, the Syrian government blocked facebook, alleging that the Israeli's had taken it over. Apparently, they also thought the blog was infiltrated, because it was blocked during our stay there...hence the blog delay. We are now in Amman,, Jordan but I'll post all the details and trials and tribulations tonight/tomorrow.
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