Holiday Suites Hotel And Beach Jounieh

... was a nondescript large concrete kitsch place  that James and I rattled around in (I think were were the only tourists staying).

(Jim)

Bcharre is well known (locally) as the birth and resting place of the writer Kahlil Gibran, author of The Prophet. While we were based there we trekked the Qadisha Valley, taking in the Maronite monasteries hidden away there, as well as visiting the Gibran Museum.

I was especially glad to be in ...

... It's an impressive mosque with a Christian church next to it.  There was a pedestrian mall filled with cafes and some small shops.  Ice cream and coffee was on everyones mind so we walked and then came back to this outdoor cafe that looked good.  This was going to be dinner, I had a feeling!  Yup, I was right.  I ordered gelato and a coffee and then ended up sharing a crepe with Tiffany that was filled with chocolate and bananas.  We ...

... The restaurant served amazingly priced food ,that was fresh and full of flavor The rooms service was fast and polite, the receptionist were very professional and friendly. the spa catored to a range of my needs, from authentic massages to a solarium. The bar is a hidden jem with an amzing dj and a loung that sets the scene..I loved the level professionalism dedication of the staff. Thank you princessa staff

The bus from Tripoli drove at an alarming rate careering round hairpin turns, overtaking on blind bends and narrowly missing oncoming traffic at regular intervals. The road wiggled upwards into the Lebanese mountains, gaining in altitude and providing a spectacular view of the Qadishar Valley along with a terrifying perspective of the vertical drop below. Nevertheless, we made it to Bcharre in one piece and it was a relief to have left the bubbling edginess of Tripoli in ...

... between five and six PM. If we went through the mountains we could get lost and not find our way out for who knows how many hours....but that sounded like a more interesting way to go so that's what we decided on. The drive was absolutely beautiful, so beautiful that sometimes we thought we were in heaven (the pictures don't do the landscape justice). Every fifteen minutes we would either see a sign (they actually did have a few signs in ...

... the people in the audience were using phrases such as: confessional system, consocialization, predatory interventionism, and the Tyre Agreement as if everyone knew what they meant. It was all enough to put a less determined seeker of knowledge to sleep. He had the familiar feeling of attending class without again having read the assigned chapters. So on the way back to the hotel he bought a book titled "The War On Lebanon" which is a collection of essays by ...

... by. My suspicion was confirmed by a young local on the bus who spoke a little French. He told me that I need to get off now and take a taxi. I did just that. Once off the bus, I realized that I had no idea were i was, had no local currency (of course no ATM in sight) and it was nightime in Beirut!!! I hailed a cab and offered US$ which he was more than happy to accept (I later found out ...

... just soaking it all in. We had lunch at the one restaurant that was open on Good Friday and the food was terrible. I was surprised considering that we were, after all, in Lebanon the culinary capital of the Middle East. But afterwards the chef came out and apologized charmingly saying, "I am so sorry, my wife is the cook and she is pregnant now so I do my best to make the food." We tried to hike down into the valley but Erin soon noticed that a stream had taken possession ...

... visa. No worries, though, the hostel owner promptly whipped out a pen and changed the wording of my visa himself. Oh, the Middle East... Lebanon Day Two: Going Back Home Ever since I decided to study abroad in the Middle East, visiting my ancestral village of Bazbina was in the back of my mind. Three generations ago my great-grandfather left Bazbina, Lebanon and came with his wife to New Kensington, PA. Many other men came with him and they formed the Bazbina club. This ...

... between Citizain and Governments returned when he talked about his own country, HIS bad GoVERNMENT (couldn't the states be stuck with bad government too?) No he didn't want to think about that) were all that were stopping a UNited Arab army invading the USA. And that was coming from a Protastant (he said Anglican but I think he meant Protastant) Christian from southern Lebanon, who I guess, may have pushed his opinions for maybe 10 of the last ...