And Then There Were Three

Hello Everyone,
It's been a while since we posted, because the computers here are either useless or expensive to use. About two weeks ago Anneke and I had some time to kill in Syria before we met up with Nick in Beirut. So we decided to go check out a monastery called Marmousa monastery. We were going to only stay for a night or two but we ended up staying for a week. Accomidation and food there are totally free just as long as you help out a bit. To pull our weight anneke and I did dishes, weeded the garden greeted guests, and milked goats. During our freetime we read and explored the sourrounding mountains. We had a very nice week. After returning to Damascus we became very sick. I vomited twice and we were both not......solid. We spent the majority of the day on the roof of the al-rabie hotel (where we slept) making runs to the washroom. Thankfully the next day we were totally fine. We then made our way to Beirut where we met up with Nick Gamble. We spent the last two days with him exploring beirut and chilling on the beach. Yesterday we went to Sobra which is a Palestinian Refugee camp in the south of Beirut. It was really neat to walk through. Its a very poor part of town, but we still managed to get invited to someone's house for tea and nargele, which never ceases to amaze me. We also visited the Jeita Grotto and Jounigh where we took a gondola up a small mountain and had a fantastic view. Tommorow we Leave Beirut and Head to Bcharee where we are planning to hike up the Quornet as-sawan, which is the highest mountain in Lebanon. We very excited for the rest of our trip with Nick and can't wait to see all of the other amazing things that the middle east has to offer.