Markazia Monroe Suites Beirut

... public transportation; there is no way to walk around; it's just miles and miles and miles of highrise hell. The few sidewalks that do exist are a foot and a half high and every 15 feet or so you have to step up or down. Doing a stairmaster workout in the humidity was not my idea of fun and honestly the city was just absolutely filthy and unappealing so I cut my losses and decided to move on. <br><br>So this is the Paris of the Middle East? Whatever. At ...

... for the most part - my hotel, for example, lost power every day 1-3, but on one morning it went out at 8AM, another evening it was out until 9PM, and one afternoon it was out when I got back at 6PM. Anyways, at the bar I met a fantastic older gentleman who told me about his experience living in Lebanon's south. He had a restaurant in Sour and was friends with the Maronite Prime Minister Bashir (later assassinated- see Waltz With Bashir). He told me about one evening, around ...

... hold up, and create a whole new one!! It is nice to see here that they also will speed (albeit at 140kmph) and slow right down to the 80km speed limit when they see the traffic police, or if someone ont he opposite side oft he road flashes their lights at them (its universal!!) It has been a great time, on arrival I met Sarah, a beautiful canadian girl sharing my dorm, who was here to do research for her PhD. We ended up spending a few days together, visiting markets (and seeing ...

... of the mosque and not the checkpoint, he said I could leave. I didn't take any more photos of the mosque after that. The next stop was an area called the Corniche. The area basically has this main road that is parallel to a beautiful stretch of the Mediterranean Sea. After a relaxing walk in this area, I did like Forrest Gump and just turned around and walked back to my hostel. When I arrived in the lobby of my hostel, I ended up meeting this young Japanese photographer named ...

... of military personnel around every corner, were all new sights to me, but they became commonplace pretty darn quick. The landscape was so d&#305;fferent than any of the other Arab countr&#305;es. It was GREEN!! And notably, &#305;t was the f&#305;rst t&#305;me I'd seen clouds s&#305;nce I left Seattle. As we drove over the mounta&#305;ns, the hum&#305;d&#305;ty shot up and I remembered what &#305;t was l&#305;ke be&#305;ng st&#305;cky &#305;n Tha&#305 ...

... hours and left the hotel after the breakfast to get our bikes. All the local organization committee are very helpful. Italian team came with all in designed uniforms; flags, they even had two press members. Palestinian team is also very proffesional, they singed and dance, kept eveybody entertained and motivated while we were waiting for the bikes. In the afternoon we visited Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps. The ceremony they prepared for us was worthed to see. The ...

... amid the many luxury apartments, hotels and plush glass-fronted restaurants, but it stood as a graphic book-mark to this painful chapter in Lebanon's fraught history. The billboards, the bridge, the bombed-out hotel - it was a little morbid perhaps, but profound with it, and emphasised just how immensely strong and volatile politics are in Lebanon. And I for one was intrigued and excited by it! Having dumped our bags at the hotel and changed into something lighter ...

... sites, still has 4 walls and Pillars on all sides resulting in significantly less squinting and looking at artistic impressions to see what it would have once looked like. The whole city also held that ora of a place that was once very important. And 3rdly simply being up in the mount Lebanon mountain range (stupid named I know, mountain and a range) with snow capped mountains and teracota tiled roffs . so to concluded and answer my question ...

When we left Colorado on the 7th of September, we had a general idea of where we were heading, but we also knew that geopolitical events and our equally unpredictable whims may cause us to alter our course. Never have we been more thankful for this flexibility than in our decision to divert to Lebanon. Although CNN and its baited breath reporting of recent political protests at the Danish embassy in Beirut nearly caused us to forego the trip, now that we have been there we can ...

... out in front of cars and hoping they won't hit you! Buses are something of an experience too. There are no bus stops in the country, or at least, none that I saw. To catch a bus, you simply hail it from wherever you are standing. This applies as much in town as it does on the motorway! It is therefore not uncommon for minibuses to in the overtaking lane to suddenly slam on the brakes, veer over to the outside lane and screech to a halt. But strangely, passengers wait for the bus to ...