Eid is for Adolescent

Ramadan in Syria finally ended last night. It ended everywhere else the night before last, but the Syrians apparently did not see the full moon until yesterday. This meant that today marked the beginning of eid al-fitr, which is the three-day holiday for breaking the Ramadan fast. The entire country is now on vacation, and the weather is behaving accordingly. Today was beautiful—in the seventies, with clear blue skies. We took the opportunity to explore Damascus. Aaron strapped Natalie into our Lascal baby carrier, and we began wandering towards the Old City.

With the exception of juice stands and a few restaurants and the convenience-type stores that pass for supermarkets in Syria, all of the shops along our path were closed until we crossed an overpass to get to the Old City. There, a number of vendors had set up shop, selling things such as juice, batteries, baby toys, and cigarettes (sometimes all together). With very few families or adults around, and the city's sidewalks and streets practically deserted for the holiday, their clientele consisted of what seemed like all of the pre-pubescent, middle-school-age boys in Syria. As we descended from the overpass, hordes of 11 to 15 year-old-boys (there were very few girls) surrounded us, bargaining for bread, toy guns, “fun stations” (pretty bad play station knock-offs), and knives.

Things got even more congested when we reached the souk al-hamideiyeh in the Old City, a famous covered market built by the Ottomans in the 19th century. It was like Never-Never land inside, with adolescent boys running everywhere, shooting off the toy pellet-guns they had purchased and shouting to each other as the vendors called out to them. To avoid the crowd we turned onto a side street and walked parallel to the main drag. As we went, a group of boys ran past, and a pellet from one of the toy guns deflected off of Aaron’s face. He was fine, although a little surprised and angry because the round came so close to Natalie. After a few blocks, we turned back into the souk right at the Bakdash ice cream shop. I was hoping to buy a cone of their famous vanilla ice cream coated in pistachios, but I didn’t have it in me to elbow through the swarm of 14-year-olds inside, pawing like a litter of gerbils to get to the one water dropper in their cage and pay the cashier. The Bakdash employees certainly looked amused, and a little exasperated. They're the fastest ice cream hands I've ever seen, and even they couldn't keep up.

Finally, we made it to the end of the souk and reached the Umayyad mosque, which was closed for the holiday. We then curved around, out of the old city, and walked back home. On our return, I realized that pretty much only foreigners like us were brave (or stupid) enough to compete with the throngs of teenage boys around the Old City. We still aren’t sure where everybody else in Damascus was today. Probably asleep or away on vacation. It will be interesting to see what the city is like when it’s not Ramadan and eid ends.