Accommodation

This page is really a set of pictures from the house share I stayed in during 2009, I paid approximately 19,000 syrian pounds for 21 days which seemed very reasonable to me. Anir arranged it - for details see the shops page. The first picture is of the two very nice Italian post grad. students who also rented rooms in the house, as well as Anir and Hasun-the landlords who were fantastic. The typical Syrian house has an open courtyard with a sink in it, which seems very strange to begin with, however there was also a shower with plenty of hot water. It was great to sit and read for hours on end listening to the various calls to prayer (only after a few days did I discover that most of them are recorded and you can buy copies at a shop opposite the west entrance to souq al-hamidiyya, you can't miss it as it blasts them out continuously.

Its amazing how the traffic, including lorries (see below) gets around the lanes, and often you need to dive into someone's door entrance to avoid being crushed. Throughout Damascus there are public water taps, apparently provided as public gifts.

The Loo seat

Syrians are incredibly laid back and things will always happen tomorrow 'God be willing' which can be very frustrating for us english. Repairs happen eventually, and shops often open in a haphazard way, the local pharmacy seemed to manage to stay more closed than open, with observing christian, Muslim and also weekend holidays! But once you get used to it coming back to the UK is the problem. This was typifyed with my, or should I say the English, obsession with toilets, we had a functional one in the house but the seat was very precariously balanced and using it was a rather skilled manouvre, after a few days and much searching around the various souqs I managed to get a replacement (but still not of very robust design - there is definitley a need for someone to import good quality loo seats to Syria) and gave it to Hasun to install. Unfortunately every day hence we asked him what had happening with it - but never did it get fixed, I hate to think of the seat just sitting there in a dark corner! Someone may say that he was just being mean and keeping it for himself, yet when I discovered that my case was too small to bring everything back he gave me his excellent one and wouldn't take any money in return for it. I think genuinely he could not see my concern and just saw it as a bit of english excentricity.

Robin Beaumont 2010 robin@organplayers.co.uk