Bosra was my very last destination in Syria. It is an ancient Roman city located in the southernmost region of Syria near the Jordan border. It was only about an hour and a half from Damascus. The ancient Citadel below:
Kids playing soccer:
When I left Bosra, it was evening and getting dark. The buses were not running to Damascus at that time. I tried hitchhiking, but without luck. Fortunately a young man came out of his house nearby and offered me a night at his family’s home. He spoke some English. Though people are friendly in Syria overall, there is even more hospitality down in the country. I slept on this couch:
And had dinner:
The next morning, he offered to give me a tour of nearby Daraa. We took a taxi ride there. If this city sounds familiar, it had made international headlines just a couple weeks prior for violent uprisings. You could even say the very start of the war in Syria was in Daraa.
At the time, the city was calm. I didn’t notice much in the way of damage. It looked like things were back to normal.
Inside a cafe in Daraa:
Train depot:
The young man took me to a community pool next. He showed me a photo of his cousin, who died in the Daraa fighting just recently:
In the afternoon, I thanked the young man and left for Damascus. I stayed in Damascus for a couple nights and then took a train ride to Aleppo the next afternoon. It was night when I arrived and fairly late. I then took a taxi to the Turkish border and another taxi from the border back to same hotel in Antakya that I stayed a couple months before. It was about 4:00 in the morning. Syria ended up being a memorable trip, but I had little idea how significant this trip would be in light of the events the country has seen since.
Coming up next: Lebanon
