Safir Heliopolitan Beirut

... mostly organic food, you even can eat raw meat). <br><br>Beirut is amazing, so many different people, open-minded, new houses beside ruins, the biggest and most expensive cars I´ve ever seen (Mercedes SLR and so on)...such a progress...walk along the corniche....<br><br>Back to Frankfurt we flew business, was quite comfortable....

... take a little pod that is suspended by cable all the way up the mountain till you reach the top. Let's just say that for someone that's afraid of heights, it was a challenging thing to do by myself, but totally worth it! I will post a video of it as well to show exactly what I mean. But the view of Beirut from the top was totally awesome, really amazing. Once it was all said and done I was back in the hotel around 6pm and taking a shower to go out for ...

... la tranquilité de la corniche, la beauté du bord de mer ; l'énergie de la ville. Ces mots pourraient être ceux utilisés pour Nice, Venise ou je ne sais quelle autre grande ville européenne bordant la Mediterranée. Là où Beyrouth sort une nouvelle fois de l'ordinaire c'est dans son quadrillage par l'armée, les tanks et ...

... into Mary, the Irish girl I met in Esfahan and later on in Damascus. It was the third time we ran into each other. She was on her way out of Beirut which was too bad as it would have been nice to chat with her again. I ended up taking a city bus to a town called Jounieh. This is where I was supposed to meet up with Jacquie and Nadine. When I entered the bus, I told the driver where I needed to go. I could tell he didn't understand me. People on ...

... signage in the Middle East so we always had to guess on where to go. We never made it to a big statue but we did make it to a place with an amazing view of the mountains (see pictures). After being awed by the beauty we just encountered we followed our path back down the mountain to try and figure out our way back to the hotel. En route, we happened upon what looked like a flea market and decided to check it out. It was your typical flea ...

... exception to the rule]. It's ****ed up to say so, but it's the idea of killing all these cool, vibrant, young people that made the tragedy of Lebanon real to me. I think that, unfortunately, people instinctually care more deeply about the lives of those they can identify with. And I can identify with these rich, Western-styled kids. You know, except for the cool part. They don't want any part of a civil war, but here they are, on the brink, dancing.

The Jeita Grotto (caves) of Beirut, Lebanon. These caves were spectacular and a "must-see" should you ever find yourself in Beirut. After touring Egypt and Jordan, visiting caves was a refreshing change from all the temples, ruins and ...

... recess with the younger kids, a tour of the school, recess with the older kids where I talked for a while to some girls from Texas. We ordered lunch at the school before leaving (spinach pies, cheese pies, mini-pizzas, and fried rolled up cheese things) and it was very good but very bready. South Beach Diet would have a hard time over here! One more recess then we took a taxi to the Dekwaneh YFC (Youth for Christ) office. We met Maher and Scott (Scott is from Illinois) and ...

... geography this smaller temple was extremely well preserved. With the exception of a few crumbled sections and a few missing roof panels, the temple to the most hedonistic of gods had definitely stood the test of time. Original paint is still evident on many of the temple's interior walls and the level of detail preserved in the temple's carved stone walls is amazing. Somehow, even the structure's acoustics have been well maintained because several vocal performances have ...

... waving flags and carrying photos of the former prime minister hariri, who was assassinated in a car bomb attack last month. the site of that has hardly been touched, and so i saw the ruins of the st george yacht motor club, and many cars which were damaged in the attck, all still lying as they were. it was really eerie, particularly as the area was guarded by security guards, some of whom looked as young as about sixteen or seventeen, carrying ...