The plan today was to go for an excursion to Yeremhana Kristos, a monastery of about 1000 years. But we had some time to kill beforehand so took a wander to some of the churches. A ticket was required and we duly paid for it even though it wasn’t meant to be a long visit today.
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- It’s hard to get good photos of the churches due to the scaffolding and canopy erected by UNESCO.
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- Woman praying outside a church.
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- Procession to church.
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- Procession to church.
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- Praying at a church.
The journey to Yeremhana Kristos took nearly 2h by van followed by about 90 mins walk uphill. The church is about 1000 years old, supposedly built with olive wood over a swamp. More clear to me was the fact that it was built in a cave. About 6000 skeletons of pilgrims who died there, are held in the back of the cave. There were some skulls in the floor of the cave as well … you could easily stub into one thinking it is just a bit of rock.
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- Monastery in the cave.
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- Exposed part of a skull in the ground.
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- Some 6000 skeletons at the back.
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- Painted marble arch. Isn’t it a sin to paint marble? Well, it should be.
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- Member of the clergy showing us the cross.
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- Decorated wall.
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- Darek showing locals his pictures.
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- Carrying hay near the monastery.
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- A procession nearby. A wedding, we were told.
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- A procession nearby. A wedding, we were told.
We had done the afternoon’s excursion with Darek from Poland. We went out for a beer with him at Seven Olives. In our chats, Marie mentioned that as foreigners we do get pestered a fair bit and are ripped off from time-to-time.
His response surprised us: “After all you have taken from this continent, it’s a small price to pay!”
Well, Marie’s blood boiled and retorted “And what did you do to your Jews?” Darek said “No, we don’t anything like that in our history. The Germans did it”.