Slumfe صلمفة

A trekking so well-organized in the north of Syria next to a resort village of Slumfe صلمفة :
The rules was strictly respected : (And this is a point in which I say how proud am I that I've been walking in the nature land in middle east with a perfect respect for the natural reserve!!)
-Forbidden to through paper's and to smoke : everybody respected it during the 10 hours of the trekking and some people used our plastic bags to take of the rare papers we found out around the nature trail!
In the north of Lattaquieh, this natural reserve is a treasury: a whole Lebanese cedar forest with thousand types of birds, insects and flowers, worthy of note!

Deir Mar Musa

Deir Mar Musa is located in the middle of the desert, almost hidden within the mountains offering you a wonderful view on a semi-deserted valley (by night, you will see many lights from villages you won’t expected by the day!). Of course the atmosphere is pure as the billions of starlight attest it after the dawn. It is an Eastern Christian monastery in which the monk follows an ancestral syriac rite (they fell prostrate to the lord in a way that look like the Islamic rite and all the praying time is done sitting on carpets). It has an interesting well-furnished library about religions but also with history, philosophy, sciences and a bit of news. Deir means monastery in Arabic. This one has something special because it allows people to take part of the monastery life by providing them with food and place to sleep in return for a small contribution to the daily activities of the monastery : harvesting olives, almond; cleaning the rooms or the dishes; helping to cook, etc… This initiative include dialogue of religions as non-Christians peoples also join the community.The idea is nice but in fact it’s quite tricky for example during the eid-al-fth (3 days celebration by the end of Ramadan) many people came and disturb the monastic atmosphere, don’t respect the rules (no smoking, silence during the meditation and the prayer time, participating in the works on the morning). I’m curious to know the real Deir Mar Musa on winter…

Eastern culture in Europe?

If I was ethnologist I guess I would like to analyze 2 geographical areas: Mediterranean and Middle-East. Leaving for about one year in Syria, I had one month break time in Greece and I felt quite impressed by cultural similarities between the 2 countries. I’ve already been to Turkey in 2005 so I was not surprise by founding something similar with Syria, both countries being located at the ‘geographical east’ (beyond the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles straight) but I was not expecting it in Greece*. These details are first of all feelings that I tried to understand and I found some tangible examples: About the general behavior of the people, family is the central reference inside the society. For example, as the Muslims Syrian’s have their important family time during the Ramadan, the Greek orthodox have a strong family customs with the Easter. I saw also this typical ‘family company’ in which I recognize both Syrians and Greeks when I enter a shop and everybody working is from the same family.
Some more fine details like when I saw a complete family bringing her 20 years old son in the bus station and the mother cry (Greece, Turkey) or on the airport a complete family wait for some familiar and everybody cry when they arrive (Damascus).
- In the style of the food like with the Mezze**
- Then there's objects like the Komboloi (Greek), Misbaha (Arabic), Tespih (Turkish) that Armenians have also.

*I may also should not have forget that Greece was under the Ottoman empire! They may have interfered inside the societies rules, it is of course not only about ottoman red hat (Fez)…
**Many little dishes on the table at the diner time