The Metropolitan Palace Hotel Beirut

... how much longer. His response was, "Ten minutes." I reminded him ten minutes had already passed and all he could come up with was, "Oh, you want to go now?" No stupid a%*. I want to sit around on this faded blue velour chair in your 1970s lobby all morning. He told me I could walk down the road to find a taxi if I needed to go now. I thought people didn't walk here...<br><br>I found my cab and the driver asked if I was from Canada before we even settled ...

... br> Next day I went deep into Lebanon's south, to Tyre, where people were incredibly friendly. I walked through a Palestinian refugee camp with a local, which was more city than camp, although I wasn't allowed to photograph. Had the best humus ever at a shop run by a British expat and talked to some Germans who flew in to vote in the election, even though they don't have any family here. Saw the "Sea Castle", which is a small fortress a few yards into the sea, and spend an ...

... anyone enters, the head waiter drones very loudly WEELLCOOOME in the most beautiful monotone yet welcoming and voice carrying manner, which Sarah and I took quite a liking to AND the food there is also, AMazing..lebanese food is just plain scrumptous, and Le Chef does it perfectly..I dont really have any plans to eat anywhere else but Chef to be honest. besides, we're pals now. we're tight. Christmas was a lovely affair, I celebrated on Christmas eve with Sarah and Janus, (a ...

... describe it as a city within a city as I learned that the Lebanese authorities are not allowed to come into this area at all. I was told that if a Lebanese policeman or soldier came into the area, it would cause a lot of trouble. I couldn't understand this. The Lebanese government, at one point, must have accepted these Palestinian refugees into the country and provide an area where they can live yet now they aren't even allowed to go in there? This didn't make sense to me. I also ...

... 305;on. We saw no Westerners bes&#305;des the ones &#305;n our hotel, nor any other backpackers. M&#305;l&#305;tary tanks and decked out men w&#305;th mach&#305;ne guns stood on almost every corner. P&#305;erre and I walked to an area called L&#305;ttle Par&#305;s, wh&#305;ch could have d&#305;rectly come from Par&#305;s &#305;tself. Women sport&#305;ng Gucc&#305; and Fend&#305;, all th&#305;s sk&#305;n show&#305;ng everywhere even made ME stare ...

[Hey, so I wrote most of this when I had only been in town for a few days. I added some commentary.] It's a wild place. Everyone always talks about the "contradictions" of Lebanon, but that all meant nothing to me until I was here. It's true though. It's weird and unsettling to see shiny new corporate offices next to bullet-ridden abandoned buildings. As Matt put it, why don't they just make up their mind on whether or not this place ...

... south Beirut and, as such, there was no physical evidence of war here in the affluent northern suburbs, these impeccable and chic streets were almost entirely deserted; businesses clearly still feeling the squeeze of continual political tensions in this volatile country. The newly cobbled streets were lined on both sides with attractive (but somewhat fake) buildings, some of which housed luxury Western brand names such as Rolex and Versace, others were home to ...

... I painted one wall chalkboard green and the idea is that it's going to be a chalkboard the kids can write on. I hope it works! The room looks really good and I think the kids will like it a lot. That took about 2 hours and that whole time, Dave and Maher were trying to make brown for the cross to be painted in the long hallway. Maybe I give him a hard time too much, but it was kinda amusing the amount of time and effort put into getting just the right color brown! The way we ...

... undeniable economic and political success even more remarkable. After depositing our dingy backpacks in Naji's family owned hotel on Hamra street, Beirut's main commercial district, we made our way to the beating heart of the city to grab a bite to eat. At the time we had no idea that this would mark the beginning of our five-star gastronomical tour of the country that would completely silence those who have claimed that Steven has lost weight on this trip. The Beirut Central ...

... its current form since perhaps 1102. Inside is a mixture of architectural styles and features and it's quite pleasant to wander round, as it is built on a hill and so offers great views out over the city and to the Mediterranean. One thing I didn't like about it however, was that there was no guard rails at all. And in many places there were sheer drops. You could actually climb right onto the top of the wall of the main castle structure and I don't know how far you would have fallen ...