Saida/Saidon

The first two images here are actually from several weeks ago.  Erin's dad put us in touch with a family he works with out here, and their lovely daughter Salwa, a student at AUB, took us out for lunch one afternoon, and for a stroll on the beach afterwards.  Fast-forward to this past weekend, Salwa took Erin and I down south about 40km to a city called Saida (or Saidon to some), while Josh and Marika took a 3 1/2hr bus ride to the Quadisha Valley to the town of Bcharre (where poet Khalil Gibran is from).  When you ask where to go to a nice beach in Lebanon, everyone says Saida.  What they don't always add, it that in the off season, the beaches are allowed to accumulate with trash galore, so it's not entirely appealing.  Also, in Saida, our hostess pointed out "mount Saida" - a ginormous mountain of trash that sits right next to the sea, which gets partially washed in to the water during the winter storms.

Other than those minor details, the old city and souk are so beautiful and you feel transported back in time, with stone houses and arches crossing over the narrow paths, and the sound of children playing around every corner.  After having lunch, we set off for the fortress on the sea.  Although they were technically closed, we flashed our lovely smiles and were allowed in for a quick visit.  It's built on a rocky island 80m away from the coast and it is connected to the main land by a stone bridge built of nine arches, and the entrance is decorated with stone lions built in to the stone.  The fortress was built in 1228 by the Crusaders, on the remains of a Phoenician shrine dedicated to the God Melkart. Later, in 1253, King Louis IX of France added a main hall to the fortress, and it's considered to be one of the most beautiful fortresses on the Mediterranean coast.  One of the security guards led us to the top, up a dark narrow stone stairway, where we had great views of the city and the sea.

We came across a soap museum in Saida, which doesn't sound like the most exciting place, but it was fascinating.  Inside an underground stone walled "factory," you get to see how soap was made centuries back, what a labor intensive process went in to making these sweet smelling olive-oil cubes.  They must have had thousands of bars of soap displayed in creative patterns throughout the path of the naturally cool underground museum, as you can see in the photo above.  While trying to find our way back to the main road to catch the bus home, we came across a stage that was being set up for a celebration in honor of a sheikh (local Islamic scholar) who was killed by the Israeli army last year.

One final stop we made, actually a detour on the way to the bus station after I asked about an enormous church I noticed on top of an adjacent hillside, was at a Maronite church.  We were getting there just as the sun was starting to set, which cast gorgeous rays of light on the golden mosaic on the church front.  Inside there was another beautiful mosaic that had such vibrant hues that it reflected some of the colors on to the surrounding church walls.   That's one thing I didn't mention above that is special to Saida, is the mosaics that you can find throughout the old city.  Some are in better condition than others, but even the aging ones with missing tiles that reminded me of the many of the toothless smiles of the local elders, were stunning.

There are so many more places in Lebanon that I wish I had time to explore, I'm really sad to leave when I feel like I'm just getting my feet wet here.  I decided to stay in Beirut for the last 3 days instead of taking any more day trips, so that I can explore other pockets of the city that I haven't made it to yet.

Byblos x 2

I'm feeling conflicted about my time here in Lebanon, but I'll start with the good stuff first.
I finally found the salsa crowd here, just when I was about to give up and think that there were no dancers in Beirut, man was I wrong.  The dancers are not only awesome dancers, but in true lebanese fashion they are so nice and welcoming, offering rides to go out dancing, (yes, i've taken rides with strangers, but somehow being part of the salsa community makes them less "strange" to me) and offering to give tours of the city.  But enough about salsa for now.

We were thinking of taking a weekend trip to Tripoli, since Lonely PLanet gushes on about it for pages and pages, but the more we asked around the locals, everyone told us that we'd be more impressed with other places, and one person even told us to be careful because the al qaeda that was kicked out of the refugee camps all went to tripoli...who knows if that's true, but we were just as excited to visit Byblos so we decided to start there.  We actually ended up going twice because by the time we arrived on friday it was almost sunset, and after not finding a cheap place to stay but wandering around a while, we rode the $1 bus back to Beirut to sleep and planned to return the next morning.

Byblos is the world's oldest continuously inhabited city (~8000years), and is calm, quiet, and next to the sea.  The uneven cobblestone streets that make up the Vieux Souk (old souk) part of town give it so much of its character, and the air smells like orange blossoms.  By the way, the first picture above is on a clear day (finally) from our patio where you can see the snow-covered mountains!  The second photo is of the ruins in Byblos, which look unassuming and small from outside the gate, but are absolutely massive, and were built right up to the sea.  Many of the ruins were uncovered after a big landslide there.  The 3rd and 4th photo are also from the ruins (Marika and I were there with Josh, Erin was in Syria with her dad that weekend), there was a beautiful stone house built near the water at the early part of the 1900s, and would be such a nice place to escape to...  The next two pictures are of the castle among the ruins, where we all tried to imagine what it must have looked like in it's day, complete with a moat.  One of the artifacts on display inside was a ceramic pot with the remains of a 5-year old child, which is apparently how over 2000 children used to be buried after their untimely deaths (along with trinkets in the pot).  Josh couldn't help himself and decided to climb under the clearly marked gate, and he managed to get to the very top of the castle without any security noticing.  Actually there wasn't any security.

We heard that Byblos was best at sunset, so we walked down to the waterfront as the sun was melting into the sea, and I can't resist putting up the picture of josh and marika (and take all the credit for how good it came out).  There were rows of tangled fishing nets lining the edge of the docks, and all the colors were so amazing in the leftover sunlight.  We ended the day at a restaurant right on the water, after peering in to about 10 other places in search of the best looking seafood we picked one that felt right.  The prawns, calamari, and mussels, bathed in garlic, cilantro, lemon, and butter, were so fresh and favorful.  It was one of those days where you feel so fortunate, to be where you are and to be who you're with, away from the honking and smog of beirut.

Haifa Hospital Photos

 

1 - Dr Wassim, the radiologist at the hospital (the only radiologist, so technically he's on call 24/7/365).  He's been so eager to teach us about radiology, and also to try to shed some light on the complicated local history.

2 - Dr Wassim's ultrasound machine...  he knows it's old, he wants a newer one...  His son is a radiologist in Russia and gets to play with all the latest technology.

3 - patient charts.  Everything written must be in english, because everyone trains in different countries (mostly Russia, Ukraine, Italy, etc) and languages, most everyone speaks at least basic medical english.

4 - pharmacy for part of the hospital

5 - my favorite posted sign in the hospital.  people smoke while standing in front of these signs.  I'm just glad they're not also carrying large weapons.

6 - the pharmacy on the inpatient medicine ward

7 - timecards for the doctors and nurses

Weekend in Beirut and Baalbeck

 

Sunday was insane.  We met up with a new friend who was accompanying an author on a trip to the Bekaa Valley, to Baalbek, to do research for this author’s new book, to get some “local color.”  The Bekaa Valley is known for its vineyards, among other things.  It was much colder in this region, about 1 ½ hrs from Beirut and higher up in to the steep hills, plus it’s been stormy since Friday so everything already has a dark and gloomy feel.

We met quite a few interesting characters during our day here, which I am happy to tell people about but have decided it's not best to include here.  One interesting man we met was from a family of  beekeepers.  We weren’t sure if something was lost in translation, because when they brought out a small bowl of golden honey, they said it all came from the queen bee and that it sold internationally for $300/gram.  The bowl was passed around for us to stick our fingers in for a taste... needless to say I was the first to ask for seconds, and when our guide motioned at me to come sit next to him for more, he lifted up the spoon with a mountain of the gooey golden goodness and made me put the whole of it in my mouth.  It seemed pretty awkward at first, to get a spoonful of honey fed to you from a stranger, but he then went around and gave everyone else a heaping mouthful as well, and we learned that it's not uncommon for people to feed guests there (it happened again later).

Later in the afternoon we over indulged (not by choice - we kept saying we were full but more and more was piled on our laps) in the local specialty in Baalbeck, basically a spiced lamb meatball inside a doughy casing, and were then told we would go have lunch at our guide’s house - which consisted of more of the lamb meatballs with some much needed salad, and potatoes that had baked in the little oven in their sitting room.  Our lovely hostess also roasted chestnuts on top of their ancient looking stove as the tea kettle warmed, and their 4-year old son sang us the French song he had learned in school.  On the way home we stopped at the source of a local river, surrounded by hillsides of maturing almond and fruit trees, with snowcapped mountains in the background, and the clouds clearing just long enough for us to see a vibrant rainbow.

Some friends invited us out to meet up at a club downtown at midnight, that’s when things start to happen on the weekends here, but the combination of the insane day and stormy weather were not so motivating and we called it a night early.  The hissing wind woke me up at 5:30am and when I looked outside it was rather apocalyptic.  The sky was filled with different colors swirling in the early morning light, accentuated by brilliant strikes of lightening, buckets of rain coming down, strong winds rearranging our patio chairs around and causing the giant heavy sheets of fabric that people have draped over their balconies to block out the morning sun to flap around like the weightless yellow flags we had seen along the streets in Baalbeck, and of course it was all punctuated by explosions of thunder.  Having just heard about the earthquake and knowing that all the buildings here are made from cinderblocks, I felt a uneasiness as the winds got louder and louder, so I put in my earplugs and pulled the cover over my head and tried to return to my dreams.

Photos:

1 - the view from our top (8th) floor apartment on a cloudy day
2 - from a stroll along the coast in Beirut at sunset.
3 - the "biggest stone in the world" (of course Josh, being a boy, had to climb it).
4 - roman ruins at Baalbeck
5 - a stunning blue mosque in Baalbeck that we didn't stop to look at unfortunately
6 - yellow flags are a common sight in these parts
7 - sad that the only thing in english is Marlboro (not that i want to see more stuff in english, but sad that that's what is represented)
8 - someone's future dinner, complete with lungs...and a rose.
9 - chestnuts and tea...yum!  i'm inspired to roast my own chestnuts now...
10 - in the Bekaa Valley
11 - our guide and his 4-year old "mini-me"
12 - the local river source, late in the afternoon

from Dadaab to Mombasa

 

Wow.  I found a superfast internet cafe so i'm uploading lots of pictures, yay!

These are:

1 - some of the people we worked with in Dadaab

2 - Marika, Josh, and Erin looking tore up after our hellish busride from Garissa to Mombasa.  There was a hole in the floor of the bus near josh's feet that was like a direct funnel of dirt and dust, in addition to the mouthfuls of dirt coming in through the open windows (which you wanted to have open, otherwise you'll pass out from heat stroke).  The passenger next to Marika threw up into a plastic bag, which then split open and coated Marika's leg and seat.  The passenger in the aisle next to Erin and I (they pack the bus so full that the aisles are FULL of standing passengers...on a 10hr bus trip) threw up several times straight on to the floor, so we had to sit with our legs up against the seat in front of us, until someone brought a bag of dirt on to the bus to coat the vomit-soaked floor.  It was as if it wasn't the first time it had happened.  Oh yeah, I was sitting on the sun-facing side of the bus and got a nasty sunburn on the whole left side of my neck and arm.  It was one of those experiences that really makes you question what the hell you're doing there, but also so bad that you just have to laugh.

3/4 - of course we forgot all about the bus from hell when we found Vindigo Cottages in Diani Beach (south of Mombasa), where Josh and Vanessa and I had stayed almost 3 years ago...simple little cottages right on the beach, with a local fisherman who rides by on his bike everyday.  We bought red snapper from him, which he's fillet-ing in this photo...other days we got prawns which he cleaned and deveined, and he also had a basket full of crab, lobster, squid, etc.

5 - This is our friend Geoff who we met when we stayed here almost 3 years ago...we ran in to him this time on the beach during a morning walk near our cottage.

6 - little bastard monkeys that are ALL over Diani beach...when we were here 3 years ago they broke in to our cottage and stole a bag of pasta, took it up to the roof, and proceeded to taunt us by eating it within our sight and dropping pieces on us while we layed in the sun.  This time, while we were preparing lunch in the kitchen, we saw that one of the monkeys had let himself in the front door and was perched precariously on our dining table.  When he realized that he'd been seen, he grabbed our giant, perfectly ripe avocado like a football and made a b-line for the door and escaped.  We chased him out but by that time he was sitting smugly on the roof and the avocado had already been pillaged.

Beirut pics