Monroe Beirut

... and a Baptist Church can all share the same intersection without incident or war.<br><br>"Ten minutes" was the departure time of my van to Damascus and of course add a few ten minutes on top of that for the actual time. Forty minutes was a more accurate departure time and the first 45 minutes of the ride took us higher and higher above Beirut. Is there a building code that says every structure clinging to these mountains must be over 5 floors tall and ...

... account balance is eroding too quickly, and this entire country will shut down for 3 days to vote, so I've decided to leave for Damascus tomorrow, a day before the elections. But from walking around and talking and whatnot, it seems like things really are 50/50... I've met Christians for Hezbollah, plenty of Palestinians for Hariri, and vice-versa Everything is entirely peaceful at the moment, but there's clearly a certain tension hanging in the air, perhaps as strong as the ...

... porrige and mulled wine for dinner, then went to a midnight mass to see Christmas day in. The day was a drizzly miserable one, but the rain ceased and Christmas day was clear and had even warmed up a bit. Christmas day itself was a touch hungover, but wandered around the coast to pigeon rocks with an English guy from the hotel and generally had a quiet day, making the most of the returning sunshine (we had had a 4 day storm/bad weather). I took a day trip down to Tyre with ...

... saw quite a few kids playing in the dark streets half naked. A lot of the kids weren't even wearing shoes. The whole scene made me feel a bit uncomfortable (maybe even a bit scared) walking through the area. I didn't think there was any reason to feel afraid but I didn't know how the people here felt about foreigners walking in their neighborhood. I just couldn't believe that these people were all Palestinians living in Lebanon as refugees. I asked if a Palestinian couple had a ...

... and the g&#305;ant Br&#305;t&#305;sh bloke by the name of Tom, went out for a n&#305;ght on the town. These clubs were someth&#305;ng else. We tr&#305;ed to get &#305;nto one on the rooftop, but reservat&#305;on only was the story of the n&#305;ght! They couldn't even be ent&#305;ced by 'We are fore&#305;gners w&#305;th alot of money to blow'. The clubs are exclus&#305;ve just l&#305;ke LA. F&#305;nally after talk&#305;ng to 3 or 4, we came to a ...

... that these hipster kids were speaking Arabic, although it's true that they do pepper their little exuberant exchanges with pieces of french or english. I guess I expected this place to be more like Morocco, where the old people are traditional and the young emulate the West, particularly France. But Beirut is much more comprehensively Western, and the kids seem drawn closer to the straight land of the free, home of the brave. More ...

... of Sheikh Hasan Nasrallah. It felt so strange to see such a sight literally within a hundred metres of the ultra-affluent downtown area. Nearby lay another tent, this time home to the Hariri Shrine. As we entered we were greeted by a giant electronic board that bore simply a number: 873 - the number of days since Hariri's assassination. The imagery used in this shrine was a little much for my taste - pictures essentially portraying Hariri as a god or prophet - but it ...

... we put in. Dave outlined it and I filled it in with a darker salmon color (a second attempt at red) and Ed went back and touched it up. In the end, it almost looked more like a giant breast cancer ribbon than a fish! To the left of the cross, I finished penciling in my dove (I patterned it after the one drawn on the wall of the missionary house at Dhour Choiure (sp)) and Dave painted the outline blue. It was starting to take shape! There was no way we'd finish today though, so ...

... this area made the color green seem particularly appropriate even today. After a brief walking tour of the area, Naji ushered us to a centrally located dining establishment where our first feeding frenzy was to occur. The waiter brought three menus, but Naji instead asked if we had any objection to his ordering on our behalf. Given our limited knowledge of Lebanese cuisine we were of course more than willing to rely on his expertise, and we were soon very grateful for ...

... earth I was doing. However, I wanted to see the view right from the top, so after looking around the rest of the citadel, I managed to give the staircase another go - not for those with any fear of heights. Fortunately the second part of the staircase had a wall next to it, which I practically clung to as I walked up. The view wasn't that great at the top, so I had to get back down - again, very slowly. After that I was in need of some relaxation, so I did what every girl does when ...