100 miles to Iraq

Don't worry, I escaped unscathed.

Yesterday's road trip started at 5 in the morning, when Avo and I left Lattakia and headed toward the ancient city of Palmyra, about a four hour's drive away. Avo must've seen the longing in my eyes, because he let me drive the last hour to Palmyra. It felt good to be behind the wheel again.

On the road, signs for Iraq kept coming up and soon we realized we were a little more than an hour's drive from the border. Don't worry, we didn't get any closer than the last 100 miles. It's only another 100 miles or so to Baghdad. Tempting... Just kidding, Mom!

Palmyra was awesome. The ruins are incredibly well preserved. Almost an entire long boulevard of columns has been preserved. You can almost imagine the people walking down the street, stopping in the shops or the public toilets (yes, the small stone toilets remain.) It was pretty cool.

From there, we drove another couple hours toward Damascus to an ancient Christian village where they still speak Aramaic (allegedly the language of Jesus Christ.) There we saw a church that may be 2,000 years old. Some of the wood in the church has been tested and was found to be about that old.

It seemed to be an international city littered with flags from Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Germany. Oh yes, the World Cup! While there are many European flags strewn about, Syrian seem to prefer Brazil and Argentina the most. What a surprise.

Our last pit stop was a little further down the road at a convent in Saanadiyeh. They claim the oils made here can cure all your ails and have letters inside their little chapel testifying to this particular cure or that. Allegedly, a portrait of the Virgin Mary inside the chapel weeps tears of oil. Avo made me kneel in front of it and pray to see if it was actually true. I'm sorry to report I saw no tears. Maybe I didn't pray hard enough. Either way, I'm bringing home a cotton swab of oil. If anybody has ailments they'd like cured, just let me know and I'll be happy to stop by when I get home.

Today was little Arine's 4th birthday. We celebrated with some cake (pink and white decor, of course) and many presents. She's so cute and is starting to talk like an American. The "OKs" and "yeahs" are particularly funny.

Today is also supposed to be the birth of Mimi's first child. I hope her first daughter (she won't give up the name until she's born) has arrived healthy and happy.

Tonight we're off to smoke some nergeeleh and tomorrow is May 28, Armenia's original independence day. We'll be celebrating at a restaurant in the mountains.