While Beirut didn't capture my heart and take my breath away the way Istanbul did, it was cosmopolitan and beautiful and surreal and I would love to go back (now a moot point after getting an Israeli passport stamp this past weekend, but I digress). I went to Lebanon for my long Easter weekend with lots of ideas but no concrete expectations. After my experiences in relatively homogeneous Egypt and Jordan, it was strange to catch strands of English and French in addition to Arabic on the street, see churches and mosques right next to one another, and notice women barring their legs for the world to see. Random soldiers holding large guns will, however, never be something that I will get used to seeing.
Following a multiple-hour hostel-searching adventure, our fearsome foursome piled onto a bus headed for the
Jeita Grotto north of the city. This was indisputably the greatest example of a natural wonder that I have ever laid eyes on. Pictures weren't allowed inside, so you'll have to take my word that the crazy formations of majestic stalactites and stalagmites were phenomenal.
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| Mountains near Jeita, for lack of photos inside the Grotto. |
Later, we spent hours wandering around Beirut, walking down the old Green Line from the Muslim-Christian civil war and along the Corniche at sunset. The dichotomy between the old and the new throughout the city was so bizarre. Everything (walls, buildings, sidewalks, whatever) older than me was riddled with bullet holes, but this was juxtaposed with scores of fancy newer buildings and empty lots filled with wildflowers. It was the first time I've ever been in a place with such palpable evidence of violence. It was hard to even imagine somewhere so beautiful being torn apart by something so terrible.
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Place des Martyrs (covered in bullet holes) with the
Mohammed al-Amin mosque beyond. |
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| The Mediterranean at sunset. |
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| Destroyed building near our hostel. |
One of the greatest things about the trip for me was the food. Amman has lots of delicious hummus and falafel, but lacks anything resembling a diversity of choices. I was completely overjoyed to have a burrito, crepes, and Thai food. Nom nom nom.
The next day, we piled back into a bus headed north and went to
Harissa and
Byblos. Harissa is a holy site for Lebanon's many Christians and features a giant statue of the Virgin Mary. We took an amazingly terrifying cable car (aka Teleferique) up the mountain and when we finally reached the top, we discovered that the statue is undergoing repairs and is thus blocked by a huge fence. So anticlimactic.
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| View from the Teleferique! |
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| Our Lady of Lebanon... shrouded. :( |
The ruins at Byblos were the coolest that I've seen so far--and after spending a semester in the Middle East, I've seen a lot. The castle itself looked much like the others I've been to (Karak and Ajloun in Jordan) and it was fun to poke around and explore, but what made Byblos special was the setting. It was surrounded on three sides by the glittering waters of the Mediterranean and was covered, and I mean
covered, in wildflowers. It was almost too picturesque to be allowed.
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| Brooke, Julia, Quinn, and I at the Byblos ruins. |
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| Coast at Byblos. Ruins should always be covered in wildflowers. |
This next part I really debated sharing, but I think it's important and I don't want to sugar-coat my experience. The Middle East is somewhat infamous for sexual harassment. The day-to-day in Amman can be bad; Egypt was much worse. By and large, it's just catcalls and uncomfortable stares. In Wadi Rum last month, I'm pretty sure one of the Bedouin guys was trying to negotiate for my hand in marriage with the guy leading my camel, which is funny but also really bothered me. It's a fact of life for women here (American and Arab alike), but you just have to take it with a grain of salt and move on with your day. In Lebanon, I barely noticed anything like this at all; the every day harassment was almost completely absent. But one point when we were walking around the city, a random middle-aged man that we passed suddenly grabbed my butt. I wasn't alone--I was walking with three other people, one of whom was male. I was stunned. In all of my time in the region and with all of the annoying crap I've put up with, no one has ever laid a hand on me and I've honestly never really been concerned that someone would. I guess it just goes to show that no matter the cultural norms of a country, there will always be creeps. For the most part, I've put it behind me and I didn't let it ruin my impression of Beirut, but I've been a little jumpy ever since.
In conclusion, Lebanon is beautiful, I didn't have any run-ins with Hezbollah, and have now officially touched the Mediterranean Sea on three sides. Stay tuned for an update on my weekend in Jerusalem later this week!
