we drove to an ancient crusader castle on top of a mountain called the krak de chevallier. it was amazing. one could see the mountains of lebanon across a beautiful valley. we explored the castle for quite a while; there were secret pitch black tunnels and the like!
then we got the most amazing meal i have ever had at a restaurant overlooking the castle. probably about twenty different kinds of lebanese salads and hummus and then grilled chicken; all you could eat. it was all served by an excessively flamboyant syrian guy (very rare in these parts). we were going to stop in a village called maaloula where they still speak aramaic (the language that Jesus spoke), but we were running out of time so we went straight to damascus.
