Monday, June 28, 2010

My Northern Jaunt, Part II: Qozhaya

After my (how to say this?) unsuccessful hike from Ehden to Aintourine, the nice people I met in Aintourine (pronounced Ain-turr-een, the first an ع sound) recommended a hotel in Qozhaya.

Before they took me to the hotel, the first man I met, Antony, insisted on showing me an old religious site in the village.  It is an ancient church where a saint lived who turned water into flour.  After we went to the church, Antony tried to make me drink from the stream next to it, insisting everyone does it.  I declined, trying to explain the idea of developed immunity, luckily he didn't seem to take too much offense.


For more on Antony, Qozhaya, and the beautiful Qadisha valley, click past the jump.

Antony was extremely hospitable, as all the people I've met in Lebanon have been.  He spends his summers in Lebanon and winters (really a second summer) in Australia.  There are millions of Lebanese in Australia, and all over the world for that matter.  I've read (and been told) that there are more Lebanese outside of the country than in it.  If you want to know where people have gone, look no farther than the countries people choose to root for in the World Cup.  Brazil is a very popular choice, and I love to watch their games because everyone gets into it.  I watched their game against Portugal downtown, whenever Brazil got close to the goal you could hear the street explode with cheers and air horns.  I'm going to watch them again tonight against Chile.

You can see the great hat Antony wore in this silhouette (yes, I took this picture without his permission.  But since you can't really see his face I think posting it on the interwebs is fine):


Antony and some other villagers from Aintourine then took me to Qozhaya, taken from the road on the way there:


The hotel they took me to, Foyer Qozhaya, was built only two years ago next to an ancient monastery that is a big tourist draw.  The view from my room, good closeup of the agricultural steppe they farm on in the valley:


It was a relaxing stay, very quiet.  I'm pretty sure I was one of the only guests.   While exploring, I found this gorgeous chapel built into the stone of the valley:

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