Night 1: Late Arrival

Night 1 :

Late arrival After getting my visa on Tuesday morning, I have left Paris…on Tuesday evening ! We can call it « perfect timing »(actually I had no real Plan B if my visa was not ready and I started to freak out when the Syrian lady at the embassy told me that my passport was not here yet !!!). In fact, the Consul didn’t arrive on time at his office because of … I let you guess … Try harder… yeah you almost got it….yesss ! French strikes, of course !

So, I took an Alitalia flight at 7pm at Charles de Gaulles Airport in Paris,with a connection in Roma. There was a plane problem in Roma and the flight took off with 2 hours late. After a safe flight (chatting with a Serbian Guy sat next to me), I finnaly arrived at 3 am in Damascuss ! As it was very late, the visa check was pretty quick. One Syrian policeman even joked with me.

- English ?
-No French.
- Ah, I love France !!! (who doesn’t !) Bienvenue en Syrie ! Comment ca va ?
- Shokrane, ca va mais je suis un peu fatigué ! (Thank you, but I am a bit tired)
- Non non, c’est moi le plus fatigue ! (No, I am the most exhausted !)
- Not sure…

After a 5-minutes debate on how long we have slept during the past week (the people who know me are well aware that some weeks, you litteraly can’t compete with me :-)) , I finnaly met the taxi I had booked earlier during the day. (No I am not a fancy French Man, but there are no public buses after midnight…). He was waiting for me outside , holding a sign with my name and the name of the hotel. It was the first time it happened to me ! (I deliberately forget one time at the Montreal Airport where one of my best canadian friend was waiting for me with a giant sign , full of hearts and rainbows, screaming my name like a 15years-old at a boysband concert).

Well , to come back to my taxi story, I felf very important at this moment, like a VIP. For modesty purpose, I won’t mention that I also went through the VIP line for the passport check (there were actually only 2 open lines for foreigners , « Diplomats » and « VIP ») .

2nd Syrian chat :
Alexis : Salam Aleykoum , I am Alex
Taxi Driver : Aleykoum Salam, me… Tarek!
Alexis : Do you speak English, French ?
Taxi Driver : a bit…un peu…
Alexis: What do you prefer ?
TaxiDriver : well, my best language is...Arabic !

Hahaha ! big surpise ! After a 20min pretty silent drive (« a bit » was closer to « not at all » and for the moment my Arabic level is at the same level !) in direction of Damascus I was finnaly discovering the lights of the city, which appeared like a mirage in the middle of the desert. At this time, I started to feel the first shivers of excitement. I am pretty sure that all of you can remember this kind of feeling, when you first arrive in a new country. I was exhausted but at the same too excited about discovering a new environment , a new city, and new people. Everytime I arrive alone in a new country (especially at night), this set of mixed feeling (happiness, excitement, envy, stress, fear,… joy, etc…) re-appears. And I have to say that it is a f***** good feeling !

Damascus or « Cham » is the capital of Syria and the biggest city of the country with about 4 million of inhabitants. My first night in Damascus was spent in a 2 Stars hotel, the Sultan Hotel. It was the only one (in my price range) able to welcome me at 4 : 30 in the morning. Well, « welcome» was not exactly the best appropriate word as I arrived in front of an empty desk. Where the hell is the hotel receptionist ? After wandering around, I finally met 2 guys sleeping on some sofas and after an in-depht passport check, they finally gave me my key for a well-deserved sleep. « Welcome to Damascus sir, Good night ». Good night for me and good night for them. I was quite thirsty and 5 minutes in my room, I came back downstairs to ask for a bottle of water, but I found them sleeping deeply again…

5 am, time to go to bed, I’ll drink tomorrow !

Some pictures tomorrow…