October 8th 2015 – Lalibela, Ethiopia – Asheten Mariam Monastery

envelope
October 8th, 2015
Lalibela, Ethiopia

Hi,
During my after army trip to South – America, I learned a bit Spanish.
I thought another language is a good skill to have.
The problem is that ain’t so good in learning languages and that It took me too long to get enough Spanish to handle in those countries.
So I did what of my friends did – we used Spanglish =)
But that doesn’t work over here, in Ethiopia. They don’t English nor they talk Spanish. They talk Amharic, which is a Semitic languages. Yes, just like Hebrew. So Atzva and I started to talk Heb-mharic =D
It took me time – each time I didn’t know a word in Amharic (and I don’t know a lot of those) – a Spanish word jump out of my mouth.
I had to get used to use Hebrew. I haven’t had much chances to do it: I have visited to Egypt and to Jordan, but in both cases I didn’t use Hebrew at all. I didn’t tried too much of my Arabic either, It was better not to let people know I am from Israel. But here I can do it – and you know what? it is pretty fun 
The pictures are of the hike we did to Asheten Mariam Monastery above Lalibela =)

Take Care
Gad

10082015-11The summit of the mountain above Lalibela – where Asheten Mariam Monastery stands

10082015-33The plateau on the way up

10082015-07A small spring on the road to Asheten Mariam

10082015-35Can you see Asheten Mariam Monastery?
Me neither =P
Well hidden

10082015-24Look close, you can see a crack and a blue door in the cliff.

10082015-37A house in the cliff below the Monastery

10082015-40Climbing up the tunnel to the Monastery

10082015-41 10082015-18 10082015-20Asheten Mariam Monastery

10082015-03Asheten Mariam Monastery from inner court

10082015-21The door at entrance to the yard of the Monastery

10082015-05This is the outer wall of the yard of the Monastery. Look how soft is the Scoria.

10082015-19 10082015-02Asheten Mariam Monastery from inside

10082015-04Asheten Mariam Monastery from above, and the summit of Basalt
The roof protecting the church are less impressive than the roofs down in Lalibela.

10082015-43Hexagon of Basalt – I finally understand why they were some many of those hanged in the Churches – The play on it with a small stone =)

 10082015-29 10082015-30 10082015-3110082015-39The view!
Yep, that’s the view from above the Monastery.

10082015-22Going down the tunnel out of the Monastery

10082015-28 10082015-06 10082015-23The view from the end of tunnel going down from the Monastery.

10082015-09A souvenir stand on the way and the view from the road down

10082015-10The road down to the parking (for the softer) and to Lalibela (for us =)

10082015-25This is really Little house on the Prairie =P

10082015-27 10082015-14 10082015-15 10082015-26Going down

10082015-16We did walk a a bit today =D

10082015-17Don’t jump!

10082015-12Kita (a traditional Ethiopian pancake) with Berbere (crushed peppers paste) served as first dish for dinner (we went to an expensive restaurant today =)

10082015-13Tibs and french fries as main dish
The Tibs was a big success – everyone else in the restaurant (8 people) ordered it once we got ours =) The french fries were because Atza really wanted something else than Injera, pasta or rice – it was a good dish =D

icon-car.png
Lalibela, Ethiopia

loading map - please wait...

Lalibela, Ethiopia 12.031667, 39.041111