Sunday December 29, 2013, 13 km (8 miles) – Total so far: 235 km (146 miles)
Breakfast in “Boa Vista” at 8.30: Toast with butter and jam, some fruits, some spicey coconut and scrambled eggs. Very nice breakfast.
We´re going to visit the ancient city of Annuradhapura today. It was once the cultural and spiritual center of Sri Lanka and the formar capital.
Today the old town (the modern new town exists,too) the so called sacred town is an area full of holy sights and temples. They claim to have the oldest tree in the world here.
It´s Sunday and so there were a lot of people. On one hand that made the visit even more interesting, on the other hand it was more exhausting to walk around with all the crowd in the hot sun.
The most challenging thing for us was the fact that everyone must put of his shoes and walk barefoot, and that begins when you reach the holy area, not just at the entrance of the sight itself. So you have to walk really some big stretches barefoot and the ground is hot, hot, hot. (and stony, and sandy, and…) It´s still a miracle to us how the locals stroll so slowely and relaxed along.
Anyway, at midday we´ve had enough of culture. We ate some fruits at a stand beside the road and had a break in our guesthouse. We regained energy with a little siesta and set off again for one dagoba or stupa (that´s how they call the temples here) more: the eldest and closest one to our gesthouse.
In the evening we had once again some delicious home made rice and curry with vegetables, chicken and a beer served in a tee pot with cups (in the sacred city it´s not allowed to sell alcohol)
