11-9 (Friday)

I didn't sleep at ALL last night. We had breakfast on the top floor of the hotel - boiled egg, cheese, olives, juice and bread.

Our first stop was the museum. The preservation of the artifacts that have been found is incredible. We did some tombs before heading back to Damascus..

On our way back we we stopped at the Bagdad Cafe! We were only 159 K from the Iraq border. A lot of young girls were there traveling on a field trip with their teachers. They were fascinated with me especially when I spoke to them in English.

We arrived in Damascus around 12:30 and went to Fayeez's house to visit with his wife and children while he went to the airport to pick up a group from Sweden he will be working with for the next week or more.

His wife cooked lunch for us - some sort of noodle dish, rice and artichoke hearts stuffed with meat and cheese. We had chocolate cake with pineapple slices for dessert. Afterwards we went shopping with the mother and girls. The mother and 13 year old daughter put on head scarves before we went out.

The apartment was in an old worn out building a little worse than the one I stayed in in Russia.

Tonight we stayed in the hotel we were originally scheduled to stay in.