Aquarium Hotel Jounieh

... the govt buildings are blocked off, and heavily guarded. But, we can walk around and see the sights. Many of the landmarks are surrounded by new, sleek buildings.

As I am typing this, I hear fighter planes flying overhead; earlier, I saw a squadron of helicopters flowing low, over the city.

This city is as far from the arab culture as I have been since leaving Ukraine. Even turkey was more secular.

I will add more later.

... of Sir Edmund Hilary) that we had just about “knocked the b*stard off” - however the pack of wild dogs waiting around the next corner had different ideas, and we were soon teetering along the cliff edge looking for an alternative way out. I think one of us must have homing pigeon in our blood because after 10 minutes of tramping through the locals back gardens (with a few bumps and scrapes along the way) we popped our right by the Palace Hotel.

... there were photographers capturing each moment. Drinks were on the house and flowing. After lunch, we went into the pool and continued with more drinks. From shots of vodka, to glasses upon glasses of vodka cranberry, to flutes of champagne and wine... I was by the end of the night... *********d. I never thought I would relive LA 2007.... but here we are in Lebanon, and what a horrible feeling it was ...

... abruptly and wait until, one by one, an army of Russians had assembled in a long line behind him, clutching briefcases and queuing patiently, as was common practise at that time! We were given a tour of the flat and in Anthony's room hanging proud above the bed was an enormous Nazi poster. He said he liked the Nazis because they were strong fighters (!) - neither of us were in the mood for arguing but it gave us an insight into how Right Wing these Maronite Christians ...

... truly was a wonderful experience and after about three hours we made it out of the mountains and sped on to the Syrian border that awaited us. LuAyy knows a guy who knows an important officer in Syria. Therefore, LuAyy told him of my situation being an American citizen and he volunteered to help us out. After we left Lebanon and got to the Syrian border we were to stop the car and call up this guy, which we did. About ten minutes passed and ...

... considering all the troubles the country has been subjected to. Our hotel is in the Hamra district, right across from the entrance of the American University of Beirut which is called the Harvard of the Middle East, and that also adds to the aura of urbanity. Lebanon used to be called the Switzerland of the Middle East, and Beirut was called the Paris of the Middle East. That was said more often before their civil war which went on and off and on and ...

... in Beirut was quite an eye-opener as the city had an army base feel. There were army personel patrolling all over the city and tanks hanging out at all key intersections!!! Anyhow, as the bus continued through the city, I was getting a strange feeling that we were getting further from the downtown area. All I knew is that i needed to get to the downtown bus station as my hostel was ...

... late we realized how poor this decision had been. The cab driver charged us an exorbitant price and after he failed at finding our hostel he just dumped us on some random corner. Everything was mass confusion and between the mix of French and Arabic I thought that we were at the hostel. The driver pointed us to a man who led us into an apartment complex. Within five minutes we were sitting awkwardly in a living room with three elderly, Lebanese women. My Arabic was ...

... more Alpine, tiles and sloping roofs and the irrigation gave way to terraces as the snow line got closer. Once in the Qadisha valley things felt exclusively Christian with shrines to the virgin mary on any high point and bend in the mountain road and monasteries dotted all over. Not like the Beeka valley which still seemed, at first impression mixed. Cross based graffitee on almost any scrap of stone gave things a right wing, sectarian feel ...

... guns! ive seen the american university of beirut campus - its set on a hill, so great views out over the med, and also visited the national museum, which houses some great artefacts, many of which survived the civil war in tact, due to the forethought of the curators. yesterday i went to the jeita grotto, a really amazing series of caverns - absolutely enormous, with enormous numbers of stalactites and stalagmites. it was really incredible. we ...