Team Beirut!

I'm not sure where to start besides, someday, I'm going to live in Beirut. It took the powers of Magical May to bring peace to Lebanon, but somehow, we were able to pull it all together and hop on a plane to Beirut just days after the country was, as our guide put it, as close to civil war as possible. He and his family spent three days in their bathroom. Our hotel was in the midst of what was the site of the most recent activity. It was weird though, because as much as there was a military presence, and I knew there was things I should be nervous about, I felt relatively safe. I did keep thinking, man, it would hurt so badly to get shot, but what, with all the machine guns and militants everywhere, it was hard not to think that! I went out running one morning and was thinking, this probably isn't the best idea, but it was so beautiful along the water, I just couldn't resist! A quick review of what we saw and did... we stayed in Beirut, spent the first day walking around and having sunset drinks before we headed out to dinner in the downtown area, we got up early the next morning and went wine tasting at Chateau Ksara, went to Baalback via the Bekka Valley, Aanjar Ruins and then went out to this very cool street, I'm sure it has a name I just don't know it, that evening. The next day we went to Beiteddine Palace and some completely freaky museum with these carved statues and people that were just scary, I'm pretty sure that was the desired summary of the museum, but it was weird, and in general, I'm not a museum person. The people in Lebanon were lovely, both to look at and to speak with. I'm not sure I've ever met nicer people! Our guide, Mr. Adel was hilarious.












Walking around the Cornice, and where I ran one morning.







Sunset drinks. This was after Mark and I gave up looking for a specific Shwarma stand with some other friends, surprisingly enough, we thought it would be a better idea to find a cool restaurant, sit down and split a bottle of wine, shocking. We were the only one's at the place and we were joking around about what a nice romantic lunch we were having. We met up with some others for drinks and the sunset. We asked for half a bottle of wine, but they only had full bottles, don't worry, we made due.










We made it back to the hotel to meet up with everyone else, enjoyed a few more bottles of wine, I once again spilled red wine on white pants, I keep wondering when I'll give up on the white pants in general, I'm sure that would make my friend Missy happy, who I think still believes white pants are a fashion no. We also went out to dinner, where we met our new best friend, Rogier.








The next day we had an all you can eat buffet breakfast, why not, it's what I do now; before we departed for the winery. Who can resist a little wine at 9:30 in the morning...




































Many people have hobbies, like reading, knitting or other things to keep themselves mentally stimulated. I'd love to say that I'm one of those people, but I would be lying, I enjoy those things, but I'm not sure there is a better way to spend a day besides a wine tour... while we were watching the informative video on the history of Chateau Ksara, there was mention of Jesus and I think I said something like, no wonder I believe in this whole Jesus thing, he was able to turn water into wine... We toured the caves, I should have put some pictures of that in actually, and we had a great time, our tour guide was giving us all the history and then telling us about the process when one of my friends looked at me and said it's nice to know how the wine gets from the vines to the bottle and all, but I'm more concerned about how it is going to get from the bottle to my mouth. The wine was actually pretty good, I wasn't sure what to expect and it was a beautiful area. Next we headed towards Baalback, via Bekka Valley.








This was a bridge that had been destroyed in earlier fighting. We saw many signs of destruction from the war from, 1975 - 1990 and also more recent clashes. We could see Syria from where we were, it was only a few kilometers away. The countryside was beautiful and it was amazing to see green again.

We eventually made it to Baalback, this area has strong ties with Hezzbolah and they were trying to sell us t-shirts that supported them. I'm sure that would somehow come back to haunt me and I would never get through security lines at airports seeing that I was supportive of them... obviously we avoided purchasing said items. I also was very proud of Mark and commented numerous times how he was able to just walk by the random stands and didn't stop for tea one time! Impressive after our Jordan trip.


















Our guide, which I have a picture of I should post, told me that this time I visit Lebanon and he is my guide, next time I come as his guest. I think I should take him up on that, I'm sure his wife and children would love to have me around. I love to see the sites and walk around, but I tend to get bored about mid way through and would prefer to just quickly finish up, we eventually learned that it didn't work that way, we had to follow him and he would just wait till we all showed up. He then had us posing for these pictures like we're holding things up or something, I didn't quite get it, but just like most things in Dubai, sometimes it's just easier to do what people tell you to do and not ask questions.

Next we headed towards the Aanjar Ruins with a stop at some restaurant for lunch. We were eating our lunch, which was more food than necessary for a small village I'm sure. After lunch Jess was ready to go, so she suggested that we get on the bus, a few people had wandered off, but most of us were there. After we got on the bus and one guy set off to find the others, our guide got kind of worked up with Jess and said something like, you didn't tell them, blah, blah, blah, I'm not sure exactly what the issue was, but he wasn't happy with her, this was the second time she had gotten "in trouble" with the guide, previously she had her shoes up on the seat. We were wondering if it was a three strike you're out kind of place or what.

Some of you may not know two of my biggest fears, but they are one, that I will be going up the stairs and somehow slip and my knee cap will end up basically slipping up my leg and the other is that I will fall through the grates (is that even a word). When we were in Florence, one of my friends was so sick of it he just screamed out one day as we were walking, "What is wrong with you, you don't eat meat and can't walk on grates!" Actually, if those were my biggest problems, life would be good... but, during this trip I was worried a lot about both things happening, and I really couldn't stop thinking how much it would hurt to get shot.





























That last photo has inspired a new idea... Poles around the world. I decided that I will eventually put together a little album of us looking like poles everywhere. That may seem like it's not that high, but it was quite entertaining to figure out how I was going to get up there. Jess and I were trying on our own, very ineffective and brought back memories of her trying to shove me up on this other ledge thing when we were in Jordan, plus I didn't want to get my pants dirty, so, as you can see I was facing a ton of obstacles. When do you think I will learn not to wear white? Probably right around the time I stop dressing for the weather I want it to be as opposed to what the weather actually is... We set off to find Mark to help me get up there, when we told him we needed some help, he gave us a look, but couldn't figure out exactly how to say no so was forced to come along. He just hopped up there with ease, which just bothered me, but then he was able to somehow pull me up. Then, since I was wearing flip flops, getting down was a whole other issue. Eventually Luke walked by and I just gave each of them a hand and then one leg at at time they somehow just lifted me down, which was nice, but at the same time annoyed me that boys are just stronger than girls, there is no way two girls could have just easily lifted me. It drives me crazy! And, I still can't do a pull up. Life really is hard. We were all very ready to get home at this point, it was a long day, but we did want to go out that night. Rogier, from the night before, was waiting at the hotel for us, we had told him to meet us at 6:00, but didn't get back to the hotel till 6:45 or so. We all eventually ended up drinking more wine in our room, checking our facebook accounts and downloading pictures while we heard some classic stories from Jess, I'm really wondering how it is possible that I have known her for months and we never talked about some of these things. It reminded me of the time we spent an hour talking about NOTHING and then she said, oh I forget to tell you, my Mom's moving to Oman. Seriously? At one point we were going to play drinking Jenga, one of the tiles I grabbed whild previewing the game said, tell the person two people to your left what makes you a good life partner. We had quite a good time with that one! I think I started off commenting on what a patient person I was... We ended up going out to a few different bars that were awesome! The cobblestone street we were on, I'm not sure what the name of it was, was just lined with tons of little cafes, bars and restaurants. The last place we were at was this swanky place, but between the loud music and smoke, Kim and I left early. The rest of Team Beirut (minus one sick soul...) stayed out a bit later. They went to I think two other places that night, I'll just give you some highlights... one girl fell off a table, one girl wasn't quite sure where she woke up and then kept saying "Where are my pants? I can't find my pants?" and one girl didn't make it home till the next morning. Those of us that did make it home were trying to figure out what to do, our discussion included brilliant statements, like, Are you worried? I'm just going to go to the bathroom and think about how worried we should be? Fortunately everybody made it back home and we had a fun day talking about Rogier, apparently our new best friend.

The next morning was a bit of a rough start, some people ate their Shwarmas that they ordered at 5:00am on the bus for breakfast, it was that kind of night. Jess and I had an interesting walk down to the local store and spent some time explaining to them how we were going to move to Beirut someday... It was election day, so many of the roads were blocked, we were going to go to Byblos, but instead went to the Beiteddine Palace and then some weird twisted museum that portrayed students being hit and forced so kneel on hot coals and a hung Santa Claus in this room filled with freaky miniature things and animals on tracks moving about. Weird.

The Palace was awesome to walk around and lay in the sun. It was the best to actually see grass and trees and be able to be outside without being drenched in sweat!




























The picture below is of this guy at the end of creepy museum. He made us tea, sang some and pounded on a drum like thing. There was also about 8 zillion guns in the other section of the museum that I basically sprinted through so I could just sit outside to wait for everyone else.









Next we got back on the bus to head towards Pigeon Rock for lunch and some time to relax before we headed off to the airport. As I had said earlier, Jess and the bus driver and tour guide, were pretty much best friends and it only gets better. As we are all half asleep, the driver pulls over and the tour guide announces that there is water coming up along the floor what is it? Is it broken, do you need to put on the cap, etc. Basically treating it like it's this big crisis. So we're on the side of the road, we sort out that Jess's juice broke, they are panicing and cleaning it up and all this, then we get it sorted out, or so we think, and we're on the road again. All feeling kind of bad, but really, it was just some spilled juice. Then the tour guide stands up holding up this bag that is half soaked with juice and announces to everyone, really focusing in on Jess, this is the drivers medications! This is what happened, this is what we were concerned about. We all just went silent, or at least tried to be, but at the same time we couldn't stop laughing! Once again, all Jess's fault. We were just looking at her and cracking up. We eventually make it to our lunch spot, had an awesome lunch, drank some wine and walked around a bit. Jess tried apologizing to the driver again, but they were like, oh no problem. Yes, after the public humiliation, it was no problem. I was dying, it was just hilarious! We wander off to go and get some ice cream and Mark, Jess and I end up getting to the bus last, we weren't late, just last. Mark hops on and says, sorry Jessica got lost. To which the guide says something to Jessica about how she's the only one without her ticket ready, and can she go to the back and get it out? I guess it's not a three strike rule or we would have had to leave Jess there at Pigeon Rock.

We finally make it to the airport, we grab our bags, well at least most of us do and start heading towards the security gate. After a few minutes, Jess walks up to me and says, who'd you get to carry your bag? I had just decided the best idea was to leave an unattended bag in the middle east on election day, brilliant. Someone had grabbed it for me, really, what is my problem? If someone had told me a year ago that I would be going to Beirut for a long weekend, I would have thought they were crazy. As we were sitting on the plane, Jess, who had earlier said the next person that tells me I have a sunburn I'm just going to lose it on them, but when it happened it was the passport/customs guy, so she wisely chose to hold it together, but anyways, we're sitting on the plane, she leans over and says, I think I was so worried about dying this weekend that I forgot to take care of the normal everyday things, like sunscreen.

Beirut. Unbelievable, I can't wait to go back!