After more than 2 months of waiting I was granted the regime permission to come to Syria for two weeks in September 2014 and was able to visit Damascus, Homs, Maaloula and Krak de Chevaliers. From the very first day I couldn’t escape the surreal feeling of being inside John Steinbeck’s 1948 A Russian Journal produced in collaboration with Robert Capa. A minder, a feeling of loneliness inside a luxurious hotel, ruins of Homs instead of ruins of Stalingrad – there were just too many coincidences. I photographed days and nights, knowing what a rare chance I got and also kept a diary which I used as a basis for this short story.