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
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