La Bella Lalibella
on Tara's Ethiopian Adventure (Ethiopia), 25/Jan/2010 12:23, 34 days ago
Lalibella was incredible. I went for 2 days with my family last week. Although Lalibella is indeed‘beautiful’ its name does not originate in the Italian for beautiful. Instead it comes from the name of the King of this region at the time that all the impressive rock hewn churches were carved out. King Lalibella’s name actually means‘ one who likes honey’ in the local language. There are 11 rock hewn churches in all and each was as fascinating as the last. We just spent our whole time walking around them thinking‘WOW!’ and‘HOW?!’ The town itself was also really interesting. Many of the‘mud huts’ were several hundred years old and at times it felt like we were walking around a medieval village. Although quite a touristy place I was amazed by the lack of hassle from local beggars etc. Even when children did ask for things they were so overly polite about it you felt bad for not giving in. After telling a boy I didn’t have a spare t-shirt for him he simply said,‘’no problem’’ and walked away. I think the highlight of the two days for me was watching the sunset over Bet Georgis and then walking down the hill to our hotel surrounded by friendly children and watching my Mom entertain them by singing‘There was an old lady who swallowed a fly’ (after she accidently swallowed a fly!).