wheeee second day in damascus. i love the old city which is surrounded by a roman wall. Ive only started to properly dine out, since in aleppo I was having all my meals with the family, and OMG the food, well everything, is soo cheap in syria. for instance, my dinner last night - Shawarama chicken roll and fresh carrot juice came to the equivalent of 25p. A taxi ride is on average about 20p. I can go on, but a pound definitely goes a looooong way here.

• arabs love all things sweet, especially their tea. in a small glass they can put at least two heaped teaspoons. the amount they put in, you think it wouldn't dissolve, but astonishly it does.
• the family I stayed with insisted giving me this set of pyjamas as a souvenir they called it. what luck, because now I have PJs!
• yesterday, I visited this tea house where everyone sort of lounges around smoking shisha and drinking chai. there was this animated story teller telling a story in a very dramatic way. he was even dressed up in the role and had this metal rod as a prop. I had no idea what was going on in the story, told in arabic, and when he suddenly banged the rod against a metal stand, I literally jumped and screamed. the wholee audience looked at me and laughed. so embarassing. it happened a second time as well. goodness.