Hmm. I talk about the beauties of a country most of you will never see, and no-one except Jules gives a damn. Now I write one article about religion and current events, and there's no end to comments. So not what I wanted. If you've missed it, and you're sorry you missed it (which you probably shouldn't be), check out Stupid People.
In the meantime, a slow day. In the morning we went to see the Umayyad mosque, the greatest mosque of all, if I understand correctly. It's huge. The number of carpets alone required for the main hall boggles the mind. We were there off-season, so to speak; I can't even imagine how it looks when people gather to pray. Right inside the mosque there's a tomb consecrated to St. John the Baptist, maybe containing his head. Maybe not. The literature seems to indicate it, but we couldn't find a single soul with enough English to confirm it for us at the site. Some people said it was in Aleppo. Then again, they might have said that Damascene people don't cut off heads, even if we were foreigners. With my Arabic, who knows.
The mausoleum of Sal al-Din is just beside it, and it's very nice. I seem to vaguely recall having read that some German dude made a present of a beautiful stone tomb. The Damascenes put it into the mausoleum right next to the old one, but they still keep Saladin in the original wooden one.
Around the corner is the Museum of Calligraphy, or something like that. It was closed, because it only works on weekdays except Tuesday. If this sentence did not make much sense in a Friday blog, you haven't been paying attention, as Nina and Nisha are wont to say. I'll try again on Monday, Insha`Allah.
Later, the others went to a store for the supplies. I didn't. I dozed, I blogged, I read and I teeveed.
Preference games interspersed the events of the day. We're all sick of it, because we all keep failing today. It's not a day for cards, either, apparently. Anything that can go wrong, will. We thought we'd have a quick game (started at 50, normally, for a total of 150). Two hours later, we were playing for 200. I don't think that game would ever have ended, if we did not cut its miserable life short.
Tonight the Olympic Games open. No-one will talk about anything else for two weeks, and then some. Makes me glad to be in Syria. At least here the Winter Games do not dominate the everyday life of Everybody Not Me.
Five more days.
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Thoughts of an Unwilling Blogger, or Ramblings from Faraway Places
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1 comment:
I've only been to Umayyad mosque, where all are allowed. Christians enter freely to pray to John's Head or below Jesus' Tower, tourists enter freely to snap their cameras, children enter freely to chase each other around, weary enter freely to sleep on a warm carpet, and women enter freely provided they are Muslim (and thus implicitly properly dressed), or rent a Hobbit cloak. All are welcome, except the shod — and that is an egalitarian requirement, and one easily rectified. However, that might be due to the hugely immense grandness of the Great Mosque, and the fact that Christians are allowed in by contract since the time the mosque was built. I have heard (but not checked) that segregation of sexes is usual in other mosques, probably so that you would not detract us from our prayers by your feminine wiles; i.e. women are allowed, but through another door. Although, I think mixed congregations (or whatever the Moslem bunch at prayer name themselves) are not unheard of.
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