Krak des Chevaliers

Our first stop today was a mountain village called Ma’loula. It’s the only place in the world where the people still speak the Aramaic language, which was the language of Jesus Christ. While we were there, we hiked through an amazing gorge. Then we drove to the Hims Gap to visit the Krak des Chevaliers crusader castle. After visiting the castle, we drove to our hotel and Katie and I watched The Medicine Man, a terrible Sean Connery movie. Also, although I didn’t see it, apparently there is an ostrich outside of our hotel. Just one more reason that Syria is not real life, as Curt has insisted.

1. Aramaic: We weren’t allowed to take videos inside the church, so this woman kindly came outside to recite the Lord’s Prayer in Aramaic for us. I don’t know if it was just the language or the woman’s voicing of the prayer, but to me it sounded kind of eerie. Beautiful, but eerie. I don’t know how else to describe it. Our guide pointed out the really intense “haa” sound they have, which you can definitely hear in the video.


2. gorge shenanigans: Curt has come to the conclusion that Syria is not real life because of a series of strange things that seem to have been happening on a daily basis since we’ve arrived. One such thing is that here, you can climb on EVERYTHING. Today, for example, we visited the gorge in Ma’loula, and there were all sorts of ledges to climb up on. I feel like the U.S. tends to prohibit those kinds of things when they’re at historical sites.

3. castle weather: Slightly overcast is the perfect weather for castle-going, and that was exactly what we got today. Everything just looks so ominous. Maybe that’s why they were filming some sort of reenactment movie while we were there. We got to meet some of the actors, which was pretty funny because they were all dressed up in their crusader outfits.