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Last week, Bisan and I decided to visit a place called Ein Zarqa in the village of Deir Ghassaneh near Ramallah. It was not a planned trip but ended up being one of the most beautiful locations we have visited in a while.
I was scrolling through my Facebook feed when my friend Khaldoun, originally from Deir Ghassaneh, posted a slow motion video of a rock being thrown into this beautiful crystal clear spring. The sun was reflecting off the beautiful splash and I was intrigued right away. I called Bisan at night and said lets go see this place. Bisan being the craziest travel buddy said yes with no questions asked!
She picked me up at 6:30 in the morning and we drove outside Ramallah in the direction of the town of Birzeit and Nabi Saleh village. While the location of the spring itself is not far from Ramallah, finding it was difficult due to the lack of clear signs. We drove all the way to Deir Ghassaneh village, because that is where we thought the spring is located. But after asking around, we were told to go back to Beit Rima, the village just before Deir Ghassaneh to find the easiest entrance into Ein Zarqa. The Deir Ghassaneh road is extremely steep and bumpy.
Going back to Beit Rima, we asked some of the drivers at the taxi station to show us the way and honestly we do not think we would have made it without their help (Tip: Do not be shy to ask people about directions). After we failed to find the right path, one driver offered to lead us to the closest street leading to the valley.
While we managed to arrive at the spring in a small car, we think that it would be much more stress free to rent a bigger car to avoid falling into one of the many holes in the unpaved road. Along the way we stopped multiple times to take in the amazing scenery. We were surrounded by what seemed like a million Olive trees. The valley below was filled with beautiful flowers and plants and the fog was clearing just as we arrived offering us to see the sun rise into the sky.
Again, there was no sign to indicate that we arrived at the spring, but we found a huge white cement water tank with the words “please take your trash with you”. That was enough for us to know that we arrived at the spring.
Having left at 6:30 in the morning meant that we were able to enjoy the area by ourselves. The place is usually packed by visitors but arriving in the morning hours will guarantee you enjoy hearing the birds sing and the water without human interruption. We took sometime to drink in the view, which was honestly breathtaking! The minute we stepped out of the car we could hear the spring running. We took out our food basket and surveyed the area around and finally decided to climb the cliff overlooking the spring and have our delicious breakfast, which Bisan had prepared in the morning, watching the sunrise and hearing the water flow so peacefully.
We had our hot black tea with fresh mint and devoured the vegetables with the ever delicious Jerusalem Ka’ak and Labaneh. After taking few amazing shots and recording some videos, we decided to go back down and venture into the valley to see what we could find. As the weather was getting warmer, we realized that we have made the best decision to come early. Two families joined us but we were not bothered because we had enough time to enjoy the tranquility.
We walked a bit into the valley and could see the hike trail directions marks and we knew that this trail is something that we will be doing very soon. Bisan being the knowledgable person about plants, started picking some herbs and plants and I was taking more videos of the two of us.
After walking for another hour we decided to head back to the car and drive to the village of Deir Ghassaneh that has amazing architecture mostly in the center of the Old town. The day did not end here but we will have to share that with you soon in another post so stay tuned!
End