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My stay in Damascus is finally winding down. On Sunday I leave for Cairo for 5 days and then finally back to the USA next Thursday, which is less then a week from today. This past week I finished up my travels in Syria. On Monday I went to the coast to the city of Lattakia with my roommates. The city itself was pretty boring, but there was old Pre-Phoenician ruins outside the city where the first alphabet was created. After that we took the train to Aleppo as the train ride is far more scenic and cheaper than a bus ride. We used Aleppo as our base to visit various "dead cities" in the area from Roman and Byzantine times. That night our one roommate left Syria to catch his flight in Istanbul so we said goodbye to him. The next day we did a little site seeing, we went to the Grand Omayyad Mosque, the Citadel and went to Aleppo's famous vast covered markets. Finally we got back to Damascus yesterday around 4PM. In the day I have various things I must still do; last minute gift shopping, saying goodbye to friends and of course packing so I won't probably write until after my first full day in Egypt which will consist of the Pyramids and Egyptian Museum.

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So the last two weeks have been pretty eventful. Last weekend I went to Beirut for my birthday. It was a lot of fun I got to have TGI Fridays, go to a David Guetta concert, and of course I became a lobster at the beach. This past Thursday the 22nd. I went with my roommates to Marmusa, an old restored monastery in the mountains northwest of Damascus. We got to sleep in a cave for the night for free, in fact everything there was free food and all. We climbed around the nearby hills/mountains then headed back for meditation time/mass. The mass almost killed me as it was long boring, in Arabic, and was till 9:30 and dinner wasn't till after mass. The next day we opted out of morning mass and explored the monastery more. We came back to Damascus via a taxi drive who said he was going to sell me and the other American girl to Osama bin Laden, jokingly of course. We got to Damascus around noon on Friday I packed and got ready for my 7 hour bus ride to Deir A-Zur. I got into Deir around 9PM checked into my hotel and went out to explore and see the "famous" pedestrian suspension bridge across the Euphrates. Afterwards I had a falafel and beer and was off to bed. I got up early the next morning to go and see Mari- 5000 year old Mesopotamian ruins and Dura Europos- 2000 year old Roman/ Byzantine ruins. The usual occurred at the mini-bus station check in with the police etc. I got to Mari around 11:20 and spent an hour wondering the ruins there. Much of the ruins were not well preserved as they built with mud-bricks but the palace and some other areas had been restored. On my way back to the main rode to catch a bus to the next ruins I encounter a guy in military uniform on a motorcycle. He stops for a bit and talks to me then rode up a little bit stopped and told me he would take me to the main road, which was only 500 ft away by now. Exhausted I agreed. So as he stayed and attempted to get a mini-bus for me I realized that everyone driving by knew this guy. Eventually he decided to send me first to the nearest town, which happened to be 5 miles from the Iraqi border. I got into town and of course stuck out like a sour thumb, the guy on the bike followed me into town and got me onto a bus to the next ruins that I wanted to visit and at this time he took out his special book. In said book was all the information that I regularly give to the police whenever I travel except he had gotten it from the main office in Deir A-zur thus I discerned he was a member of the Mukhabarat aka the Syrian Secret Police. He asked me how long I planned to stay at Dura Europos and I said about an hour. So I got to the next ruins, Dura Europos, which overlooked the beautiful Euphrates Valley. I wondered around there for an hour or so and by then my water was a good 110 degrees, I was sunburnt and tired. As I left a SUV wannabe jeep pulled up beside me and low and behold Mukhabarat guy number two was there too take me to the main road, which was a good ½ walk without shade at 3 PM. Thankfully he had cold-water waiting and he got me on a mini-bus back to Deir in 10 minutes. I got on the next bus to Damascus in Deir and 6 hours later and 2 Jackie Chan Kung-Fu movies later I was back in Damascus. Thus that concludes my Euphrates adventure. Tomorrow I’m heading to the coast with my roommates then to Aleppo. Next Sunday I’m hopefully getting a flight to Egypt as Continental informed me that it was impossible to change my flight. So for now adios!

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The past two weeks have been pretty uneventful, going to university library to study during the day and watching the World Cup at night. However yesterday I went with my roommates to a Crusader's castle- KraK des Chevaliers in central western Syria. It was a long trek there, a bus ride and a Kia ride to the castle as apparently all the buses were "full". The castle itself was okay not too awe inspiring, but ruins are starting to bore me a little bit so that's just my opinion. This coming weekend we might head to Aleppo to see all the sites there but that is still up in the air since my joyous 22nd birthday is approaching. My plans have changed a bit since I have decided not to tour Egypt to avoid spending a lot of money, I'm just going to Jordan for a few days than taking a ferry from Jordan to Egypt to avoid Israel then a bus from Sharm el Sheik to Cairo and spending a few days there to see the sites close to the city aka Pyramids and Memphis the Egyptian Museum.