Syrian Adventures: Room Hunting

As soon as I arrived in Damascus, I started to look for a room. It’s not that I didn’t like my hotel but my social needs were not fulfilled (!). The first day I arrived I met a French girl (Marine) who is a friend of a friend of a friend… She was moving out of her room at the beginning of the month, and she offered me to take her room if the landowner agrees. But I wanted to visit more rooms to compare and make my decision. Some people advised me to enter any cafés and ask for an available room but, as I don’t speak Arabic at all, I preferred to start by calling a few numbers I found on the Internet. Unfortunately, the results were quite unsuccessful (room already taken, too expensive, or they didn’t speak English…).

So, I opted to the “Let’s go to a place where I can find people who speak English and ask for help” option. I called the Damascus Hostel, a bagpacker place where the tenant (Raymond) offered me to come for a tea. I gladly accepted and 2 hours later (time to find the place…) I arrived. There, I met 2 Arabic guys who worked there and apparently knew many landlords in the old Damascus (Maher and Saad). The good thing is that Maher speaks English. They offered to help me and 10 minutes later I found myself walking in the little Damascus’ streets with them. In 3 hours, I visited about 6 places in several Arabic families (read: I drank tea 6 times). They also showed me a couple of rooms in very nice old houses full of foreign student who were learning Arabic. In fact, finding a room in Damascus is pretty easy, but finding the right one is a bit more complicated! Basically the price range is about 10 000 Syrian Pounds (SYP) to 17000 SYP for a room in a shared house (220$ to 350$ per month). I wanted to go for the cheapest room so I denied most of the foreign student places in the Christian district of Bab Touma. Finally, one day later I received the confirmation of Marine’s landlord and I decided to take the place (which is quite cheap and has internet, true luxury !!). As the room was free only on the 1st of November, I decided to live in an Arabic family I had visited, for 8 days.

The house is situated in the middle of the Old Damascus, in the Christian district. I will take a video to show you how to go to this house. It is a real labyrinth (main street then small street, then smaller street, then left, right, left, left, left, right, right right, left, ??... right). I share this place with Laurice (the mother), her son Sami (30ish), her daughter Eva (20ish), and an Italian student (Antonino).

Here are some pictures of the houses:

The nice little courtyard

My room is upstairs (the door open that you can see...)

Courtyard From Upstairs 1

Courtyard From Upstairs 2

My Room. I tidied up for the picture !

If you notice, there are 2 Jesus pictures (christian family) and I have a baby sheet so I can only sleep well ! The dirty paper next to Jesus is a a 1991's calendar (jajajaja I live in a "museum"). Finally the light switch is not working so I have to "play" with the bulb to have some light. Don't misread me, I like my room !