Hiding From the Rain in the Castles of Gondar

Gondar has been the mellowest of all of our destinations so far. We spent the first day updating blogs and just plain relaxing. We left the hotel for dinner at The Four Sisters, an adorable traditional Ethiopian restaurant owned and run by, well, four sisters. When we arrived the servers and customers were involved in traditional dance. we sat down and decided to order a beaker of tej. I wonder if I will be able to make it when I get home...???? We ordered authentic food, although Hailey really wanted pasta.
We set out on a tour of the Royal Enclosure. We chose to explore instead of getting a guide. I'm pretty sure our facts were not correct, but only we know that. We had to pay 200 Birr to enter because we were foreign; Etiopians only had to pay 10 Birr...
Gonder was founded by King Fasiledes in 1636, it was the capital of Ethiopia for nearly 200 years, reflected by its castle compound, that include number of palace. The most famous buildings in Gonder, lie in the seventeenth century Royal Enclosure including: Fasilides Castle, Mentewabs Castle, Iyasus Palace and Dawits Hall Palace.
During our exploration, it started poring rain, we took shelter in one of the classes and palyed Heads Up on Hailey's phone as we waited for the storm to pass.

 We sit now, in the hotel bar watching the USA-Germany match with all the Americans!

The Eighth Wonder of the World

We flew into Lalibela, an isolated town high in the mountains of Lasta and wound our way into the city toward our hotel, Tukul Village. The rooms are built to resemble traditional stone and thatch tukul style homes, including authentic artwork, blankets and decorations in the room. The views on the way continued to include donkeys, cows, and goats, but the stares seemed to diminish. Probably due to the fact that they were more used to seeing tourists. We ate breakfast, rested in the hotel for a bit, and set off to explore the town. We participated in a traditional Buna ceremony on the side of the street and chatted with some nice people. John was thrilled that they thought he looked like Kevin Cosner and wanted to take his picture. It was all relaxing and good until one of the young men got up and proceeded to beat up and kick a young boy. I'm not sure what he did, but watching it and not being able to say anything made it a strange and uncomfortable situation. 

Lalibela is not only famous for its churches, but also for its delicious honey. We stopped at a tej bar Hailey read about in her guide book and tried tej, honey wine, made, simply, with honey, water, and a grain they could not translate into English. It was traditionally served in a very strong beaker and it was delicious. Hailey and her friends joke and speculate that the beakers were probably donated for scientific experimentation and are instead used to serve this Ethiopian honey wine.

We ate dinner and went back to our hotel. 

The next morning, after breakfast, Daniel, our guide, met us to begin our tour of the churches of Lalibela, named after King Lalibela, believed to have been created in the twelfth century. These rock-hewn churches are unarguably the most amazingly stunning, and miraculous sights I have ever seen. Legend has it that at least one of the churches was carved in just a day with the help of angels. People who have studied this wonder have estimated that it would take about 40,000 people to construct it. The actual excavation of these churches is still a mystery, so legend surrounds it. There is no way to look at this detailed and exact creation and not question the existence of a higher being. The churches are connected by tunnels and passages, many of which we got to experience. We descended and ascended rock stairs into and out of trenches, and made our way through underground passageways to travel from one church to another. All but one are still in use, each with its own presiding priest. We got to remove our shoes and experience each one. People gathered and prayed; being there proved to be an emotional experience, to say the least. I can only describe it by saying that it felt as if the churches were actually alive. 

Daniel explained every biblical reference and John was in awe. I am trying to get him to write about his perspective of the experience from the religious aspect. Hopefully he will share that soon. 

We ate dinner at Ben Abeba Restaurant, a joint venture between Susan, a retired Scottish teacher and Ben Abeba, a local young man from Lalibela who had a vision. Both were there, so we got to directly learn about their vision and their continuing dreams. They are in the proces of building hotel rooms on the property, and Susan tried to talk John into coming back to help. This was one of the most unique restaurants I have ever seen. It was built as an extension of the mountain on which it stands, with different eating a relaxing sections, including a fire pit and individual areas where you can catch magnificent views. We went for the sunset, but unfortunately it was too cloudy, but that did not hamper the incredible views and the overall experience.