These are some of my impressions from a week-long travel in this amazing country in January 2010.
Syrian people are friendly, helpful and kind (at least the ones I met!)and are genuinely interested in chatting, showing you around and generally doing the best they can for you. Like the Iranians described in a different gallery of mine they often feel quite misunderstood by the West, and are keen to prove the western stereotypes wrong, and the average guy in the street makes a good job of it.
Damascus is a city that really casts a spell on you. In the old city it's like being transported back to biblical times, and you get the distinct feeling that Jesus or the occasional disciple might show up at any time. Walk through the oldest continually inhabited city on earth and smell the spice souk, drink freshly squeezed pomegranate juice from a stall, sample the wonderfully fresh Syrian cuisine. I would go back there in a flash. You should go too.