Etoile Suites Beirut

... br>Take two. I ask another bus in my best Arabic- not much- if the bus goes to Jal el Dib. He nods and motions me to get on. He then hustles other people to Tripoli, so I know I’m on the right bus. All should be well… should be, but it’s not. He forgot to tell me where to get off so by the time I realize it, we’re all the way to Jounieh, the new resort capital of Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast built ...

It's so humid that it's impossible to do anything during the day, the past 2 days we have been getting up at 10am going for a dunken doughnut and having a coffee (well Dino was having a coffee anyway), back to the hostel to sit in the air conditioning until the afternoon when at least the heat is bearable. The city comes alive at night, the deserted streets fill. But at this rate we won't be seeing anything.

Last night with a few ...

... biting off my finger tips in the process. I am pretty sure if someone timed it, I would have gone down in history as world's fastest consumption of a Mc Fish Burger and the Mc Nuggets weren't far behind. I walked back to my hotel and flopped on my bed feeling great. My stomach was full and my diarrhea was gone (so I thought) and after a goodnight's sleep I would be ready to hit the streets of ...

... in a place where I could relax and I knew I was going to be able to do it in Beirut. I am feeling abit burnt out these days so I need a bit of a break from all the intense travelling. From the border, it was only a 1 hour drive to Beirut. Once we arrived in the city, I jumped in a cab so I could go to my hostel. The Russian (Vladimir), Scottish (Adam) and the Brazilian (Claudio) guy decided to jump in my cab as well to see if there was anymore ...

... On Monday I met up with Laith again at a place in Hamra called "Le Prague". It was a really nice café, with internet, coffee, drinks, and good healthy food. I had a huge delicious plate of rice, lentils, and tomato sauce that took me about 2 hours to eat and a cup of coffee. Laith's friend Jackson was also there who I had met Thursday night so we hung out for a couple hours chatting and eating. Eventually, Laith's friend Hany came. Hany is the producer of ...

... Wrong on all accounts unfortunately. See here for more info http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/ 89A58D9F-EE3F-47A3-A82A-A2C287DFDB1E.ht m I'll write up more when I get a chance, but the roads into the airport were blocked by blockades (great English there! sorry) and piles of burning tyres, so Rawda and her family couldn't get through to pick me up. Which was really fun, considering that I had not taken the trouble to learn the Arabic ...

... which is a place in the moutains and saw tons of old houses, a really neat castle and a great majestic president house. More details to come from Ian of course. ;-) Our last weekend, we went with Adeline's family to the Cedars in the moutains. The weather was gorgeous. We didn't need any sweater and we were on the top of the highest peak of the mountain in Lebanon. We saw beautiful sceneries and unbelievable sights. I kept on oooohing and aaaahing and kept on snapping pictures ...

... thing out of proportion) we fell asleep. Suddenly I was awoken by a huge explosion at about 4 in the morning. I was scared. It was really loud and I figured it must be close... i waited a while and another went off. I was awake by now and suddenly another one went off further away and my canadian friend (jeremy)awoke also. We waited with anticipation when another went off even louder and felt like it rocked the building a little. I tried to turn on the news ...

... out price tags! I did buy a poster (Van Gogh's Sunflowers!) for my bare room at NEST, but haven't found tape to hang it with. On the way back, Walid drove us around and we saw the hotel that was bombed out in the 80's as well as where Hariri was bombed last year. Crazy. Back to NEST where we were invited to a mini-birthday party in a student's dorm room. We at rich chocolate cake topped with mini-eclairs - wow. Then down for a quick nap, hung out in Dave ...

... But they are expensive and it seems that few of the upper floors in these buildings are rented. I made the mistake of drinking a tea at a Solidere restaurant without checking the price in advance. It was four dollars! What am I complaining about? I buy at Starbucks sometimes. But after fifty cent tea in Syria, I am spoiled and I have forgotten the price of drinks in chic establishments. Some people here can afford such luxuries. They fled during the civil war they made ...