http://flic.kr/p/rLiPSS
Mar 26, 2015
Mar 24, 2015
Mar 23, 2015
Domestication
As the warm afternoon sun flooded my host's living room yesterday, I realised that I have been indoors or in a car almost continuously since Thursday evening. I am not complaining about the hospitality - far from it - but after six months on the road, it is a radical lifestyle change. After explaining my desire to go for a short walk, I excused myself and set out.
One thing about the towns in the hills around Beirut is precisely that they are built in the hills. The roads follow the contour lines, and if you make one wrong turn, you'll find yourself on the opposite side of a very steep valley, with no way to get to your destination other than winding down the hill and trying again. (That's one of the reasons my Thursday evening taxi ride was so painfully long.) Another peculiarity of these areas overlooking Beirut and the sea is that they consist almost entirely of low rise apartment buildings. Any errands require the use of a car. The only people I saw walking were attached by a leash to one or more dogs. I suppose I was rather conspicuous, especially with the bright yellow duct tape patches on my shoes. (Inexplicably, my photo of the repair job that I uploaded to Flickr has received over 3000 views in a little over 24 hours.)
From the above, it's probably quite obvious that I did not head north Sunday afternoon. I am very comfortable here, and being well fed at regular intervals. I should make an effort to do something other than sit and eat while I'm in Lebanon, or the resumption of my pilgrimage will be a real shock to the system.
When I arrive in Larnaca from Beirut on Saturday evening, I have several options. I could walk to Limassol and take the ferry to Haifa from there, or I can save a few days and fly out Sunday after attending Liturgy. The Orthodox cathedral in Larnaca was built over the tomb of Lazarus, and some of his relics have been preserved there to this day. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Saint_Lazarus,_Larnaca (This year, the commemoration of Lazarus' resuscitation at our Lord's command will take place on April 4, a week after I arrive at the site of his second and final grave.)
Now that I've processed this information, there's no question about what I want to do. I plan to be at Liturgy Sunday morning in Larnaca. I suppose I could start walking to Limassol afterwards, but once I reach Haifa it will be about eight days of walking along the Israel National Trail before I reach Jerusalem. If I catch a Sunday flight and start walking Monday, I should arrive on Tuesday, allowing me to spend the greater part of Holy Week in Jerusalem. (Hopefully the hordes of Catholic and Protestant faithful will have withdrawn by this time.) I should have booked a hostel months ago since it is a very busy time of year, but I'm not overly concerned.
I will need to book my flight home before I reach Israel. (Apparently they may demand to see proof of departure at customs and immigration control.) My months of wandering are drawing to a close. Of course I'm eager to see friends and loved ones again, but the pilgrim way of life on the road has a beautiful simplicity to it which is difficult if not impossible to replicate when at home in the world.
In October I wrote of my mixed feelings of excitement and dread regarding my pilgrimage, and compared it to jumping off a cliff. There is no longer any dread in my heart, but my joyful anticipation at reaching my goal is mingled with some sadness. In online discussions, people who have completed the Camino often report experiencing the post-pilgrimage blues.
I don't know what I'll be doing when I return to Canada, other than seeking gainful employ. One thing I plan to do is maintain the habit of daily exercise I've acquired over the past months. (I've lost 20 kgs, so a new wardrobe is also in order.) A forty hour work week would provide both the time and money for a gym membership, but if I'm unable to re-enter the workforce immediately I will at least have the luxury of taking long walks each day. This might be beneficial for another reason. I've had several people suggest that an account of my pilgrimage could make a good book. I would need time and a good editor to work these updates into something worth publishing, and walking for several hours each day would provide me with the distraction-free time I'd need to get such an undertaking organised.
In any case, I will soon be sleeping in my own bed again, surrounded by my books and computers. There are some advantages to a domestic life that are impossible to replace while on the road.
One thing about the towns in the hills around Beirut is precisely that they are built in the hills. The roads follow the contour lines, and if you make one wrong turn, you'll find yourself on the opposite side of a very steep valley, with no way to get to your destination other than winding down the hill and trying again. (That's one of the reasons my Thursday evening taxi ride was so painfully long.) Another peculiarity of these areas overlooking Beirut and the sea is that they consist almost entirely of low rise apartment buildings. Any errands require the use of a car. The only people I saw walking were attached by a leash to one or more dogs. I suppose I was rather conspicuous, especially with the bright yellow duct tape patches on my shoes. (Inexplicably, my photo of the repair job that I uploaded to Flickr has received over 3000 views in a little over 24 hours.)
From the above, it's probably quite obvious that I did not head north Sunday afternoon. I am very comfortable here, and being well fed at regular intervals. I should make an effort to do something other than sit and eat while I'm in Lebanon, or the resumption of my pilgrimage will be a real shock to the system.
When I arrive in Larnaca from Beirut on Saturday evening, I have several options. I could walk to Limassol and take the ferry to Haifa from there, or I can save a few days and fly out Sunday after attending Liturgy. The Orthodox cathedral in Larnaca was built over the tomb of Lazarus, and some of his relics have been preserved there to this day. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Saint_Lazarus,_Larnaca (This year, the commemoration of Lazarus' resuscitation at our Lord's command will take place on April 4, a week after I arrive at the site of his second and final grave.)
Now that I've processed this information, there's no question about what I want to do. I plan to be at Liturgy Sunday morning in Larnaca. I suppose I could start walking to Limassol afterwards, but once I reach Haifa it will be about eight days of walking along the Israel National Trail before I reach Jerusalem. If I catch a Sunday flight and start walking Monday, I should arrive on Tuesday, allowing me to spend the greater part of Holy Week in Jerusalem. (Hopefully the hordes of Catholic and Protestant faithful will have withdrawn by this time.) I should have booked a hostel months ago since it is a very busy time of year, but I'm not overly concerned.
I will need to book my flight home before I reach Israel. (Apparently they may demand to see proof of departure at customs and immigration control.) My months of wandering are drawing to a close. Of course I'm eager to see friends and loved ones again, but the pilgrim way of life on the road has a beautiful simplicity to it which is difficult if not impossible to replicate when at home in the world.
In October I wrote of my mixed feelings of excitement and dread regarding my pilgrimage, and compared it to jumping off a cliff. There is no longer any dread in my heart, but my joyful anticipation at reaching my goal is mingled with some sadness. In online discussions, people who have completed the Camino often report experiencing the post-pilgrimage blues.
I don't know what I'll be doing when I return to Canada, other than seeking gainful employ. One thing I plan to do is maintain the habit of daily exercise I've acquired over the past months. (I've lost 20 kgs, so a new wardrobe is also in order.) A forty hour work week would provide both the time and money for a gym membership, but if I'm unable to re-enter the workforce immediately I will at least have the luxury of taking long walks each day. This might be beneficial for another reason. I've had several people suggest that an account of my pilgrimage could make a good book. I would need time and a good editor to work these updates into something worth publishing, and walking for several hours each day would provide me with the distraction-free time I'd need to get such an undertaking organised.
In any case, I will soon be sleeping in my own bed again, surrounded by my books and computers. There are some advantages to a domestic life that are impossible to replace while on the road.
Mar 22, 2015
Hmm... what's the frequency, Kenneth?
The last half of my previous update was dropped, but the first half was repeated several times with some odd formatting. My roaming plan has no data provision for Lebanon, so I didn't discover the fail until I arrived at church this morning and connected to the WiFi here.
Anyway, from Tripoli, my German friends dropped me off in Antelias, just north of Beirut. That's when I realised that while I still remembered how to get to the old church, all I knew of the new location is that it's in the hills across a valley from the heavily fortified American embassy. It's not just the North which has seen massive growth. I barely recognised the area, although once I spotted the army checkpoint I knew exactly where I was. After walking around for a bit and getting a sandweesh batates ma'a toom, I decided my best bet was to flag a taxi and let the cabbie figure it out. I guess he was only in the area to drop off a fare, since his knowledge of the neighbourhood was even worse than my own. I had been stopping every five minutes or so to ask for directions, and he was doing likewise. The difference, of course, is that travelling at 4 km/h meant I remained in the right area, but stopping for directions every five minutes in the cab meant we wound up taking a very VERY scenic route. When we finally arrived at the church 45 minutes later, I discovered it was 500 m from where I had first hopped in the cab.
I've spent the last few days as a guest with my friend's family, and it has been wonderful. I've been to services every day (except for Thursday, due to that frustrating ride), I've been feasting on fresh and tasty Lebanese food, and have made a good start at catching up on the past nine years -- including meeting the seven year old child. I am quite happy to be here, although I do plan to head north again to pay a visit to the Balamand and see some folks there.
I'm also playing with the idea of going back to Tripoli and then walking down to Beirut. While I've been trying to walk as much as I reasonably can, the trains, buses, and car rides have trimmed about a thousand kilometres from my journey. Any notion of "authenticity" or "purity of pilgrimage" was shot long ago. (Thankfully, my sense of humour is still intact.) What I may do is head up to Tripoli this evening, spend the night there, and then walk south along the sea road for a few dozen kilometres before heading back to the highway and catching a bus south in time for Great Compline Monday evening.
This is not (simply) a case of pig-headedness. With the land route from Turkey to Jerusalem closed for the present, most pilgrims are going through Cyprus. This presents a different set of challenges. The physical minefields are all well marked, but the Turkish military occupation of the northern section of the island has created numerous political ones. Crossing the Green Line in Λευκωσία (as Nicosia is known in Greek) has been possible for several years now. The problem is that the shipping companies operating ferries between Cyprus and Israel have been instructed by the Cypriot gov't not to sell tickets to non-EU pilgrims who have entered Cyprus "illegally," i.e. through the port of Girne/Κερυνεια. In 2006, an American pilgrim was allowed to take a ferry after being scolded, but this past autumn a different pilgrim wound up having to travel from the port of Limassol to the city of Larnaca and leave Cyprus by plane. By travelling to the Republic of Cyprus from Turkey via Lebanon, future pilgrims can avoid one set of potential problems. (Lebanon is beautiful, and worth visiting in its own right, even if it's just for a few days along the coast.) If I do a bit of walking while I'm here, I can provide information for future pilgrims who choose this route. I won't be walking the 90 kms or so continuously, but by using Beirut as a base I should be able to spend time with my friends, get to church, and do some significant amounts of walking. (Yeah, I want it all.)
Whatever I wind up doing over the next few days, my flight from Beirut to Larnaca is bought and paid for. I'll be leaving Lebanon on March 28 and arriving in Cyprus after the 45 minute flight. I'm not sure whether I'll take a plane or a ferry to Haifa, but I should be on my way to Jerusalem again shortly.
Whatever I wind up doing over the next few days, my flight from Beirut to Larnaca is bought and paid for. I'll be leaving Lebanon on March 28 and arriving in Cyprus after the 45 minute flight. I'm not sure whether I'll take a plane or a ferry to Haifa, but I should be on my way to Jerusalem again shortly.
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