last day in Beirut :(

Yesterday Josh, Marika and I took a stroll around our neighborhood for a few hours to soak in the gorgeous weather and images of Beirut before leaving today.  The night before we had gone out to celebrate the fact that the 3 of us matched to one of our choices for residency and didn't have to spend our last night in Beirut on the phone trying to scramble for an unfilled spot somewhere undesirable.  We find out exactly where we match around midnight in Thailand (our flight leaves this afternoon for the next stage of our adventure).  So "mabrouk" to us for getting a spot!!!!!!!

We started off at the local organic farmers market near our place where we ate some freshly made Sage with greens, goat cheese, tomato, olives, and olive oil wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla type thing...yum.  I bought a jar of local honey, which is basically going to feel like a brick in my suitcase, but i can't resist the light molasses-consistency goodness...especially on a fresh piece of pita.

I had to include a shot of our favorite ice cream place, conveniently at the bottom of our apartment building, or maybe not so conveniently since all our jeans are fitting a little tighter than when we arrived a month ago.  There's also a tiny espresso booth where Ahmad sells 30-cent espresso (can't beat that after a late nght of salsa dancing before heading to work).  It's an extremely busy intersection where we live, taxis passing by ALL day and night, honking non-stop, cursing out the window at other maniac drivers.  What's cool about Ahmad's shop is that he knows so many people from working here on this corner, that cabbies will pass by and without even telling him what they want, he knows their usual order and runs out to the street to give them their desired brand of cancer sticks in exchange for the Lira he's owed.   Our first day here we stayed and chatted with him a while and he gave us our first espresso on the house, telling us he had the best coffee in Beirut, and even better - that they're open 24 hrs.  We'll miss his giant smile :)

We decided to walk down to the waterfront since the sun was shining brightly, and on the way we passed walls that were covered with all kinds of graffiti and posters, mostly political in nature, and some more blunt than others!  There's such a sense of political awareness and frustration with the state of things around the AUB campus, yet at the same time there are Syrian children trying to make a living selling roses on the street at night.  This city is so full of contrasts.

The wind really kicked up when we were at the water, and Josh had fun playing chicken with the waves as they crashed against the walls (we actually had quite a bit of fun watching him too), some of them went as high as about 50 feet!

It's really common to find fresh-squeezed juice of all kinds (even with avocado, carrot, etc) on every street corner here.  Another contradiction with people wanting fresh healthy fruit juice along with their 3 packs a day.  But this guy was irresistible with his orange-grapefruit combo, the juice sparkling in the afternoon sun, and it was as refreshing as it looked.   Near the juice man was two crowds of old curmudgeon-y types huddled around backgammon tables.  Their focus was so intense, and few words were exchanged between them, however the ones hovering around who were just observing waved me over and I couldn't not take their photo.  It reminded me of the giant chess set in the park downtown in Sarajevo that would be occupied by old men each afternoon in a quiet escape from their other obligations.

I want to thank all the new friends I've made here, Benoit, Nizar, Roudy, Mo, Michael, Sam, Salwa, and my old buddy Vladan, for making this such an incredible month and making it so hard for me to leave (only the thought of the beaches in Thailand make it a little easier...).  I hope to see all you guys again sometime soon, either here in Beirut or in some far off land!

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.