Syria I

So there are plenty of things to write about here, including the "axis of evil" bit and all, but I'm just going to write about one thing here, mainly because it just happened most recently. I was wandering about the original city of Damascus this afternoon, mainly around the souq, but a few things of note:
We were trying to find St Paul's Church, where Paul was supposedly let down in the basket at the city wall. Ironically, you can't get into the church from within the Old City; in fact, you actually have to get in from the outside (ironic, as Paul was having trouble getting out of the city), which we didn't know about. So, we were wandering around in the corner where the church should have been and wondering where to go. Luckily, a little old lady came around the corner, as we asked her where Paul's kineset was... she starts banging on the nearest residential doorway and ringing their doorbell... so we assumed the church was behind that wall... the door opens, and we walk in, thinking we were walking into the church... it became rapidly apparent that we had been let into a nursing home, and we didn't know how to get out... luckily, we saw a courtyard, so we followed a family out, and found our way through the backdoor of the church!! I can assure you that at least that nursing home looked pretty much up to Western standards, so that was nice...
Several hours later, we kind of got lost trying to get out of the alleyways of the Old City, so we started heading in the vague direction we thought we were heading in... the streets were getting narrower and narrower, so then we thought we had to backtrack, until another little old lady comes out of her house and starts signalling for us to follow her. We assumed she was going to show us the way out to the nearest main street.... nope, she leads us to a dead-end doorway, and then starts complaining about how we need to call a builder and fix the leaking water through her sister's roof... That was pretty confusing, as it wasn't clear if she was asking for money from "rich" Westerners or not, until it was explained that our house wasn't here at all... it certainly took a while for her to realize we were just lost, not crappy flat-mates... so that was odd and entirely random...