Lord of the Syrian Flies

I don't know if this will post, because the Syrian government blocks facebook and many blogs, but here it goes:

When I last wrote I was in Baalbeck, where that night I had met some of the travelers from Talals. Went to bed after watching the football match, and the next morning, along with the brit, traveled to the largest Ummayed ruins in all of the Middle East. Afterwards, a wine tasting at one of Lebanon's biggest vineyards. Some pretty dreadful wine. Afterwards, we parted, I to head down to Beirut, and he back to Baalbeck to cross to Syria. After getting dropped off on the middle of a freeway by my busdriver, I took a car back to Talals, where I met a German girl, a UW student (small world), and my new favorite person in the world, Hiro, a 37 year old chemical engineer from Japan who has traveled for three years without going back to Japan with his guitar, writing hundreds of these delicate Japanese ballads.
When it got dark and the power came back on, we all went back to the downtown area to have dinner and watch the football match, and then to a cafe to have a nargileh. The people next to us had this huge fruit platter they didn't finish, so we, being enterprising backpackers, took it. Can't fuck with 30USD worth of free fruit.
After getting back to the hotel and having a beer, we went to bed. Both Hiro and Sopha, the German girl, also wanted to go to Syria, so the next morning we boarded a microbus from Charles Helou to Damascus. I had no problems at the border, thanks to the Visa I had already procured.
In Damascus, we arrived at the best hostel I've seen thus far. Though we are all sleeping on the roof again, the hotel has a beautiful courtyard with a fountain and a little cafe to drink fresh juice.
That afternoon, I split off to have lunch and another nargileh while watching the football match with a guy who just graduated from Wesleyan, and now is getting his doctorate in Islamic studies.
That night, Sopha and I, along with a Italian journalist for Reuters, walked around the old city. I was surprised, because for the first time since I've been here I saw them, as women, getting harassed by men. Maybe because Syria is more conservative than Lebanon.
Now, we're going to go shopping, maybe to see the old mosque. Sopha and I will go to a hamam to get a scrub down, which is much needed.