My hotel in Damascus was listed on Hostelworld.com as having dorm rooms or cheap single rooms. At the reception desk they denied that anything of the sort was available. They kept trying to show me expensive rooms (4 star) and I kept demanding something cheaper. Only after I refused to see anymore rooms upstairs did they relent and show me the downstairs rooms. I took a room two floors down that wasn’t much different than the upstairs rooms except it was smaller and windowless. My neighbors were the doormen and bellboys. The internet available advertisement actually meant that there is an internet shop down the street, not in the hotel. Nice truth in advertising. Of course the internet was not working half of the time at the shop. 
Again the main tourist office, people in the bazaar, the internet shop, and a restaurant told me that I was the first American they have seen in years. The bazaar in Damascus is very very big. It did not take long for me to get lost. I stopped at one of the grand old Arab houses that was converted to a restaurant. In the lovely interior courtyard I had a thyme salad that was fantastic. It was fresh thyme in place of lettuce, olive oil, lemon juice, tomatoes, and onion. It was zingy and delicious. Then I had the tasty villager’s plate with bulgur, chickpeas, potatoes, and meat. With a one and a half liter bottle of water it came to about 6 USD. With help, I found the impressive old mosque in the old city and hung out to watch people.
If you visit Syria, there is one person you will feel like you know very well. Bashar Assad, the Syrian President. Every shop, or every shop that is smart, has at least one large poster of him up in the front window and usually many more inside. Sometimes they have so many pictures of him up in the windows that it is difficult to tell what they sell if you cannot read the Arabic signs. So imagine Bashar in every shop window. Now add huge banners and billboards on the buildings, every mile or so on the highway (really weird), and the posters and Bashar silhouettes in cars, buses, and taxis. There were times when I could stand on the street and easily see about 70 Bashars looking at me. He must really be loved there because in a “totally fair” election he won 99 percent of the vote. It is amazing how much people love an authoritarian ruler when there are soldiers around with machine guns implying that you should love him. The really great part is the variety of Bashar pictures. I personally love the Mr. Cool sunglasses Bashar, but others have merit as well: stern Bashar, laughing Bashar, noble Bashar, relaxing Bashar, military Bashar, concerned Bashar, fatherly Bashar, business Bashar….
