Zoukotel Jounieh

... us to take the road back to town, in the hope that we'd catch a ride along the way. Maybe the dehydration was starting to have an effect, because to their surprise we decided to take the goat track short-cut up a nearby sun-beaten rock face back to town. Despite being a bit of a grind we definitely cut some time off the return journey, and the views on the way up were staggering. As we saw the houses of Bcharre appear above us we began to feel (in the ...

... all over Mix FM that this is the best pool beach party in all of lebanon with all the coolest people. We left at 5:00 pm for Chris to pick us up as we are heading back to Aoun in the evening. We grabbed five chicken sandwiches and some water after gassing up and headed back home to get showered and ready. We are going to go to Faqra for some strolling through the village before we head to Aoun to cuddle and watch some movies in the mountains. It is going to be very relaxing.

... expecting Dad to come home tonight since her Mom and Daughter were arriving, but they decided to drive down, pick them up from the airport, and drive back up to Aoun because there was still a lot of tying of the tomatoes to do. Addie and Chris slept at about 2:30 by the time they got back from picking up the house key from dad and picking them up from the airport.

... the Sainsbury's flavour for some time. Oh dear what a shameful admission! Time flew by and the day of the rave was upon us before we knew it. After changing into our party gear we met up with Anthony then went back to his house to have some food and an interesting conversation with his parents about yup, you guessed it, religion. His father was a funny character who had worked in Russia for a few years. He recounted a story of how he used to walk down the street then ...

... middle of nowhere!) or have to ask somebody where to go because we didn't want to get too lost. There was one point after driving for probably 2 hours and feeling like we went in a circle that we both wanted to cry, but we cranked up the music, looked at the amazing sight all around us, and just kept driving through the mountains. We got so high up into the mountains that for awhile we were actually in the clouds or looking down on clouds ...

November 28, 2007 Beirut, Lebanon November 28, 2007 We've actually been in Beirut for a while but we want those little pins on our map to be neat so we're putting the Beirut part in here. From Beirut we are making day trips to archeological sites of Byblos and Baalbek. Beirut is one of the nicest cities we've been in since Istanbul. It is very modern and sophisticated. The people here are friendlier and seem to smile more than the people in Syria. And that is ...

... my accomodations for my 1st night in Beirut. However, my telecom skills were very weak as I was unable to get the roaming to work on my Jordanian mobile. Luckily my negotiation skills via sign language were up to par as I was able to get a kind lebanese man to lend me his mobile and I secured a bed for the night. I felt much better as we entered the greater Beirut area at about 9PM ...

... and I got the ticket. Checking in and going through security almost took longer than the flight. As soon as the plane landed I entered into a euphoric excitement that would last for the next five days. I had done it...I had made it to Lebanon. But there were still the details of daily life and at that particular moment I needed to get us a cab to the hostel. A very helpful money changer recommended a particular cab driver and we blindly accepted his advice. Forty ...

... scape!!!! The mount Lebanon mountain range is quite incredible, rising straight out of the sea to some 3000 metres in altitude. The suburbs of Beirut are a couple of 100 metres above downtown, as the Damascus - Beirut highway winds in and out at what seems like a 1 in 4 gradient!!! Tripoli was no different, within one hour we went from spitting distance of the Mediterranean, into Bannana palms, Olive groves and then Grape vines. The houses ...

... 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 ...