There are definitely some common themes on my blog. 1. Long postings. 2. Sketchy hotels. 3. Insane adventures. I have a feeling this posting will live up to all that you would expect, and then some!
Where do I begin? Well, on Saturday the 20th of December I got in the car and headed for JFK airport in NY, to meet Wendi and Jess there for our direct flight to Amman, Jordan (actually called the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan). That was the plan anyway. Unfortunately due to the winter weather from Friday, Jess' flight from St. Louis to JFK was delayed two days! How crappy is that?!
I spent the afternoon with my cousins Jason, Lydia and their son Tyler before heading to JFK to meet Wendi. She got to the airport ten minutes before me, checked in, headed through security, and went to the gate. Naturally they closed all security lines five seconds later and I had a horrific experience. I had just enough time to have a beer with her and then we waited for our flight.
We boarded the full flight which wasn't full. They told us we were waiting for 20 more people. Apparently after about an hour they decided those people were not important and we got in a two hour long de-icing line. We didn't actually take off until 1 am! The flight attendants were all blatantly hitting on people and Wendi was chatted up by a flight attendant with suspiciously moussed hair. We got a first class kit out of the deal! But with the help of a shared Ambien and as much food as Delta can stuff in your face, the flight passed really quickly and we arrived to Amman around 6 pm on Sunday. The whole thing was really uneventful, really, other than being told we could not stand up or go to the bathroom as we passed over "disputed territory". Israel, perhaps?
Wendi had arranged a hotel for the first night and they sent a taxi for us. He drove us the 45 minutes to central Amman, and all around we could see palm trees and gorgeous architecture (white stucco, balconies, gates) that made us really feel like we were in the Middle East. We went to our hotel called "Palace Hotel". In the guidebook it's touted as being clean, comfortable, with A/C and satellite tv. In reality? One of the scariest places I've ever stayed - and you know that means it's SCARY! No toilet paper, no towels, no shower curtain. We never took our shoes off. But we didn't know where else to go because Wendi had accidentally left the Jordan guidebook (checked out from the NYC Public Library no less) on the plane! But we figured Jess would be arriving in two days and we would have her book.
Our hotel was so gross that even with our jetlag we dropped our bags and hit the streets. We figured we'd find some dinner. As we were walking down an alley, a man at a falafel stand stuck pieces of falafel in our hands. They were delicious so we agreed to have a falafel sandwich and a Fanta with him and his two friends. They refused to let us pay! They took us to a "bar" to have a drink - the bar was basically a hidden room off the street that was filled with men drinking scotch and chain-smoking. Of course two American girls were a bit hit there. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming, but it did feel slightly odd so we didn't stay long.
We wandered around the city and saw the Roman Coliseum that is in the middle of downtown. Everywhere we walked, everyone said "hello" and "welcome!". After sort of sleeping in the nasty hotel, we had quite a good breakfast. They eat pita, butter, jam, hard-boiled eggs, nescafe, tomatoes, olives and cucumbers. It's a great way to start the day. The hotel reception told us they could find us a rental car so they called "Ali". Ali rolled up in a 2005 Chevy Aveo with 130,000 km on the odometer. Apparently it is built in China and it was sort of a beater! Have you ever driven a car that seems like it has possibly never had service? That's how this felt! But we navigated out of Amman...it was complete chaos with people randomly walking into the street, cars/trucks/buses stopping without warning, no one using turn signals, and two lane roads are more like four lane motorcross courses. I love it, naturally!
Our first stop was a town about 50 km from Amman called Madaba. It's a mosaic city that is famous for it's colorful rugs. Madaba has been inhabited for 4,500 years! We saw the sights there and then went for a late lunch. It was one of the most delicious meals! We had labenah (thick yogurt with spices), fatteh (fried bread, garlicky yogurt, chicken and hummous) and a salad of chickpeas and mushrooms. We also had a glass of local wine. We figured we could spend some time in Jordan with meals like that!
After lunch, we rolled out to the car and drove to Mt. Nebo, on the way to the Dead Sea, with wonderful views of the Promised Land. It's hilly and rocky and you can see Bedouins camped out along the way. People in cars and trucks waved to us constantly. There were various police checkpoints along the way and the police would say "hello and welcome!" and then wave us along.
After passing "The Baptism Site" (and I mean Jesus, not just any old baptism!), we arrived to the Dead Sea. When we got there (sans guidebook) we had no idea where to stay. It was surprisingly undeveloped, with miles and miles of coastline. You know in the US that would be filled with Mariotts and McDonalds! But we ended up spending one night at the extremely nice Movenpick Hotel. The saddest thing is that we couldn't swim in the Dead Sea - it was too cold. Due to the sea being four times as salty as a normal ocean, there are only three types of bacteria that can survive. I wanted to check out the floatability (is that a word? or do I mean bouyancy?) but we could only sit beside it and have the local beer, Amstel, brewed in Jordan! Interestingly, The Dead Sea is the lowest point on earth.
We slept really well in our comfy rooms, had an awesome breakfast, weathered a fire alarm/evacuation, checked out and headed back to Amman to pick up Jess from the airport. As we pulled out from the Movenpick, Wendi said, "We should really check our email and make sure that Jess' flight wasn't delayed again due to bad weather". I didn't think that was possible, but I agreed. After looking for an internet cafe and even checking if the police station would let us use their computers (they didn't have computers but they were very friendly and invited us in to sit down and have a chat!) we ended up back at the Movenpick. Horrible news awaited us - Jess was not coming. Weather had canceled her flight again and when she was rerouted through another city, the pilot didn't show up. Can you imagine? It was so horrible to even contemplate...for us and for her. The entire trip has consisted of us periodically sighing and saying "oh, poor Jess".
Instead of heading north to Amman, we headed south along the scenic King's Highway to Petra. We drove along the Dead Sea, through the mountains, past Karak Castle...through various villages and towns and the ever present police checkpoints...and then we reached a detour. 30 minutes past the detour, we are on an unmarked road (I called it a cowpath but Wendi said I was being dramatic) in the darkening late afternoon and I am starting to feel nervous! 30 minutes later, we are at the exact same detour sign! This time we made sure to ask a lot of people and we were pointed in the right direction.
So after a five hour tour of Jordan, we pulled up to the Valley Stars Inn in Wadi Musa, 255 km south of Amman, where Moses supposedly drew water out of rocks. We felt that staying at this hotel was meant to be, since (without a guidebook) we had both been searching online for hotels in Petra and at the exact same time, suggested this one. It's run by a guy named Ibrahim who speaks perfect English and is a great businessman. He is one of 20 children. Yes, 20 children. All by one dad and two moms. I said, "Your moms must be great women!" and his reply was, "My dad is very powerful!". I guess it all depends on the perspective!
The following morning we woke up and headed to Petra, one of the new ancient Wonders of the World. It was cold and windy. But Petra was more amazing than I could have imagined. Yes, for those of you who have seen the Indiana Jones movies, Petra was featured in one of them. Wendi said it rivals Machu Picchu. You literally walk along some mountainous cliffs and then pass through a gorge entrance (es-Siq, 1,200 meters long with 80 meter tall cliffs on either side). Bedouins on donkeys and horses pass by offering rides (there is a ton of walking at Petra). The best slogan was, "No woman, no cry. No donkey, you die!".
The tombs, the theaters...everything there defied logic. Petra was built by ancient Arab tribes, the Nabataeans, who came from the Arabian Peninsula 2,200 years ago. After the 14th century it was somehow lost until it was rediscovered in 1812. How this could be lost is beyond me. I hope the pictures do it justice. As you can imagine, we have run into very few American tourists on this trip. I think our favorites would have to be the American family on a guided tour of Petra. The guide was talking about the Bedouin lifestyle, of living in tents and moving when resources ran out, and the mom said, "Oh yes, that's like something we do in the US, called camping". Can you imagine comparing camping to a nomadic lifestyle? Wendi and I ran the other way before anyone would think we were from the same country... After a day at Petra, we were windblown and exfoliated! We had heard a lot about a place called Wadi Rum (but having no book, had no idea what it was). It seemed to be about an hour away so we hopped in the Aveo and headed there. Now, granted, we are not the most inconspicuous of drivers in Amman. Two American chicks behind the wheel of an Aveo that is missing two hubcaps, has a cracked windshield, and is scratched and dented everywhere. But imagine our shock when we were pulled over on the road back to Wadi Musa by the police. They were smiling and friendly and miming that they had seen us going by in the opposite direction. Not surprising, since as I said, we don't look Jordanian. But imagine how shocked I was to find out that I had been speeding in the opposite direction and an hour later I was being pulled over for it! In typical Middle Eastern fashion, they could not have been nicer and even after we paid the $20 ticket we were all friends, waving and smiling. We were so grateful to shower off the dust from Petra and eat a home-cooked meal made by Ibrahim's mother. She made magluba, a delicious chicken and rice and vegetable dish. That night, Ibrahim took us to the one bar in town, an Irish Pub nearby. We were drinking Petra beer, which our waiter "Joseph" (likely Yusef since he was Egyption) kept telling us "8%!" (alcohol content) every time he handed one over. We spent the first part of the evening talking to Ibrahim about life in Jordan. I didn't realize that Jordanians need visas for the Gulf states (due to the income disparity) but they can travel freely to Egypt, Turkey, Syria and Lebanon. Then I struck up a conversation with two guys next to me at the bar. They were Chad and Justin, two Americans who live in Kuwait doing security. Poor Justin had been nicknamed "Brokeback Petra" because when he accepted a horse ride at the site, his horse keeper jumped on the back of his horse. We laughed with them for hours. They were so interesting and so fun to hang out with, and when the bar closed at midnight, even though we should have been exhausted, we still wanted to hang out. Christmas we were up kind of early (which was kind of painful after the drinking and nargileh smoking of the night before). We didn't know how long it would take to get to Amman so we wanted to have extra time. Thank god - it was such a gray and foggy and rainy day that the visibility while driving in the mountains was about 20 feet. As always, we had to stop ten times along the way to ask directions. Luckily we were guided to the more direct Desert Highway (instead of the scenic mountainous route) and we made it back to Amman with plenty of time to spare. We basically navigated ourselves directly to the disgusting Palace Hotel in downtown Beirut, and pretty much felt like rockstars for having done so! We found a place to park the car and found a random restaurant for lunch (remember, no guide book!). When we walked in, we were ushered to a table. The menu was only in Arabic and no one spoke a word of English. Luckily we knew about magluba, the dish Ibrahim's mom had prepared for us. It was almost as delicious at this restaurant! They even packed us up some baklava to take with us. I have to interject here that miming really works wonders for us. We have been forced to mime "hot", "cold", "airport" (arms waving), "We need toilet paper" (I let Wendi tackle that one and she really did squat and mime wiping), "winery" (we were directed to a supermarket so I suppose we got the drinking across but not correctly), "onion" (a cut and then wiping tears from your face)...it's quite impressive, really. Anyway, we took a taxi to the airport and checked in for our flight to Beirut on Middle East Airlines. They ask you at check-in if you have an Israeli stamp in your passport because you're not allowed into Lebanon if you have a stamp. I was originally in row 3 (first class) but they switched me to row 22 with Wendi. It was so bizarre - the plane was mostly empty but all the passengers were clustered together in a few rows and no one moved seats! In the 50 minute flight they served a three course meal and dessert! What service - you definitely don't find that in the US anymore! Let me give you some background on Lebanon. First of all, it's only half the size of Wales - my best guess is that it's about 80 miles north to south and 40 miles east to west! Lebanon was under French rule until 60 years ago. After gaining independance in 1943, it was unfortunately the site of a massive civil war from 1975-1990 which pitted Christians against Muslims. The country used to be 50% Muslim and 50% Christian and now it's more 60%/40%. Some Lebanese friends we met were telling Wendi about the war years, when bombs would drop and everyone would have to head into the mountains. One leftover relic from this time is the Holiday Inn in downtown Beirut which is structurally intact but still littered with bomb and sniper holes. We politely declined all forms of transportation, lowered our heads against the wind and blowing sand, and toured the site. The buildings carved into the walls are beyond incredible. Al Khazneh (The Treasury) is beyond imagination.
Wadi Rum is a nature preserve where they offer tours via camel and 4X4. We didn't have time to do that, having booked flights to Beirut for the following day, so we headed back to Wadi Musa, catching a phenomenal sunset along the way.
Wendi and I swear we are going to find the recipe and attempt to make it. There was also mlazlh, a lamb and eggplant and cheese dish. All of this was accompanied by various salads. It was amazing.
Luckily, the taxi driver they kept on retainer for the evening also wanted to continue the fun, and this is how we found ourselves spending Christmas Eve at a nargileh cafe.
Emily, Wendi, Justin, Chad, Ibrahim and 14 other Jordanian men. Looking back, I can't tell you what specifically made it the best Christmas Eve on the road ever, but we had such a great time with them! I don't remember the last time I laughed like that night!
As Lebanon tried to recover from the Civil War, it was the site of the 2006 Israel vs. Hezbollah War. What makes the country so amazing is that even with this history, the people are overwhelmingly positive and so friendly, it's unreal. That being said, many Lebanese people want to leave Lebanon to work in the US, UK, Gulf States etc. in order to have the opportunity to earn better salaries. Supposedly the ratio of men to women is something like 1:5. Although the costs here seem to be pretty American (dinner for 2 is $30), salaries are not equal. You can have a live-in maid (Philippino, Indian or Ethiopian) for $200 a month.
On a totally random note, did you know that the shoes that were thrown at Bush were by a Lebanese shoemaker. His business has increased exponentially!
Ok, after that brief history lesson, back to our arrival in Beirut. Only Wendi and I would arrive to a new city and somehow find ourselves in a gypsy cab heading to the city center. It was pouring rain and late so we decided to take the night off and recover at our hotel in the Hamra area of Beirut. The Mayflower Hotel had nice rooms, nice bathroom, satellite tv...and flying spiders. Of course - we can't ever find a really nice place!!!
Our first day we spent walking around the city. Beirutis make up 1.5 million of Lebanon's 4 million people, but the city is really walkable. We went to the American University of Beirut and wandered around the campus. The buildings are gorgeous and it overlooks the Mediterranean Sea. There are really old, beautiful trees on the campus too.
From there we went to the Corniche, or seafront. We walked to the lighthouse and sat outside to have some hummous and a beer. Almost everyone speaks English and Arabic and French - switching back and forth in one conversation. People everywhere were smoking nargileh - it's quite a popular pasttime here. Our guidebook says that it is very culturally acceptable, but due to how long people sit and smoke it, some people can smoke the equivalent of 100 cigarettes in one session! We continued to walk along the Mediterranean and finally came upon Pigeon Rocks, these natural offshore rock arches.
That night, we followed the Lebanese mantra of "Clothes - less is more" and "Make-up - more is not enough" and got ready to go out on the town and meet Rania for drinks. Rania is a girl I met on couchsurfing.com which is a website my Spanish friend Susana turned me onto. You can meet up with local people from almost any city in the world. Rania suggested a bar on Gemmayzeh St, which is a street FILLED with bars and restaurants. After a few drinks at the place she suggested, we tried to go to another bar, but it was booked. We opted to go back to a place we had passed called "Biscuit" - which is probably 10 feet wide and 15 feet deep. It's run by Mounir (a Lebanese guy) and his Aussie wife Lynda. I have no idea how we were out until 4 am with them, but we tried every drink they had to offer and met their friends. In typical Lebanese hospitality, they arranged for us to get rides home and wouldn't even hear of us taking a taxi (which was so nice!). The following morning Wendi was somehow up at 9:30 and hellbent on getting breakfast downstairs. I asked her to bring me back a piece of pita or a banana and went back to sleep. When I got up at 11, she wasn't back. I showered and got ready and took delivery of our rental car we had arranged the day before. At noon, it was time to check out and still no Wendi! I realized she had probably died and was sort of at a loss of what to do. Luckily she came back to the room at 12:15 and told me she had been downstairs the whole time, talking to the male version of her! She had no time to get ready, so we checked out and hopped in the car. Let me preface this by saying that when we discussed renting a car in Lebanon everyone said, "WOW, really? Driving in Lebanon is kind of crazy. Are you sure?". I of course took this as a challenge. So we took our Skoda Fabia (a definite upgrade from the Aveo) and headed south. There are no traffic lights or stop signs in Beirut (remember, this is a city of 1.5 million!). Our first destination was Sidon (Saida is the Arabic name) which is Lebanon's third largest city. We passed a ton of police checkpoints, but rather than feel afraid of men in camo with guns, it's quite a safe feeling. They all smile and wave and welcome us and wave us through. No one even ever asks us for our passport. Sadly, we weren't that impressed with Sidon (it just seemed like a big city) so we continued south to Tyre (Sour). Tyre is only about 10 miles north of Israel, but I swear on the map it looked like a huge distance (this was before we realized just how small Lebanon really is). And this was on the first day of the Israeli offensive so it hadn't escalated to the point it is now. We had lunch in the old port area overlooking the fishermen and their boats. The weather was sunny and warm (60s) which is phenomenal for December (in our opinion). We finished our walking tour on Rue Hamra, passing boutiques selling very nice clothes, jewelry, shoes and purses. People in Beirut are dressed to the nines! It's not uncommon to see a mom in a fur coat pushing a stroller with her child wearing a fur coat! It is such a cosmopolitan city.
Imagine a four way interesection of people going straight, turning left, and turning right from each direction. Well, you better be agressive and nose your way in, or you will never get through. It's not uncommon to see a car driving towards you in your lane! Wendi said that if she was supposed to drive in Lebanon, she would have never pulled away from the curb. I thrive on it!
Our restaurant owner/chef was a nice, chatty man. He also runs the Lighthouse. Well, Wendi was smart and ordered fish but I ordered shish tawook (chicken). When it was served up, I knew it was sort of sketchy, but the man was so nice, I couldn't offend him by not eating it.
After touring the town a bit and seeing some ruins, we checked into a pretty nice hotel. The desk clerk asked if we were with the UN. I mean, do random people from the UN show up without a reservation? But being in the UN gets you $10 off per night, so too bad we didn't lie :) There are currently 13,000 temporary military people from the UN in Southern Lebanon. We left our stuff at the hotel and went to dinner in the downtown area. Our restaurant of choice seriously could have sat 500 people but there were only about 20 people there. After dinner, we were stuffed but we walked to a nearby bar for a beer. They were of course insanely friendly and made us a special plate of tomatoes filled with some sort of mayo and herb concoction. I made Wendi take one for the team and eat it/push it around on the plate. When we got back to the restaurant, a Mercedes had double-parked and we were trapped. Of course NOW there were about 350 people in the restaurant! Some guys on the street were nice enough to take a camera phone picture of the Mercedes' license plate and find the offending diner.
Remember that slightly sketchy chicken I ate in order to not offend the nice lighthouse keeper? Well, I was cursing him to hell at 3 am while I was violently vomiting with food poisoning...not my finest moment.
Obviously I couldn't fathom a roadtrop a few hours later so Wendi had a day to herself. I think it was her favorite day! She, unlike me, likes "alone time" and so she walked around the city and read the guidebook along the Mediterranean. I slept and luckily quickly recovered from the food poisoning. The following day we took off again in our trusty Skoda Fabia. We planned to go spend the day in Lebanon's prettiest village, Deir al-Qamar, in the Chouf Mountains. Ok, remember how small I said Lebanon is? It took us about an hour to get there, and it truly is a village. We saw the mosque and the gorgeous stone churches in the center of the village. But that took about half an hour. Meaning it was 11 am and we were at a loss what to do.
So we got back in the car, asked the usual police checkpoint people and gas station attendants for directions along the way, and headed east towards the Syrian border. We passed the incredible Beiteddine Palace and stopped in a town near Zahle for lunch. We ate at a pizzeria, where the nicest waiter chatted with us and offered his number in case we had any problems in Lebanon. Imagine how mortified we were when we ordered two pizzas - you know how in Europe each pizza is like a personal size, with thin crust? Well, at this particular restaurant they were like extra large doughy pizzas and so we left with quite a hefty box of pizza! The worst part is that Wendi had passed through the kitchen to use the restroom and SAW them preparing it, and still asked for another one. They must have thought we were crazy. And we had a greasy pizza box to tote around in the backseat!
Late afternoon found us at the Ksara Winery, Lebanon's oldest winery. As luck would have it, we timed it exactly right and met up with a tour just in time for the extensive wine-tasting. Neither of us particularly wanted to spend 45 minutes seeing oak barrels and vines, so we were happy to just do the tasting. There was a Lebanese girl on our tour who had gone to University of Michigan. What a small world.
From Ksara, it was a short hop (as is all travel in Lebanon) to Baalbeck, in the Bekaa Valley, the "Sun City" of the ancient world. This is where Lebanon's most impressive Roman ruins are. Our guide book said that it has long been considered one of the wonders of the world. Well, Wendi and I can't exactly attest to that. See, we rolled into town in heavy rain and there were an obscene amount of police checkpoints. I guess we should have read the sidebar in the book that Baalbeck is a stronghold of Hezbollah? Judging by the tanks rolling out of the city, I think the pandemonium had to do with the war in Gaza.
Unbeknownst to us, we tried to check into the "recommended" Palmyra Hotel. Here is what the book says about Palmyra Hotel: "The Palmyra is one of the most wonderful colonial-era relics dotting the Middle East. During WWI, the Palmyra was used by the German army and in WWII it was the Birtish-army headquarters in the area. The guest list includes General de Gaulle and Jean Cocteau". Our experience was a little different. We trudged in with our backpacks on and were greeted by two elderly men in the dark foyer. The furniture was likely the same as when Charles de Gaulle visited. After quoting us a price of $84/night, one of the men led us up a pitch black staircase, down a long and gloomy hallway, and into a freezing cold, damp, musty room. We waited for him to turn on the light. Nothing. We asked him to turn on the light. "6:00! 6:00!" he said. It was 4:30, starting to get dark, and there wouldn't be electricity for another hour and a half? Wendi and I started laughing hysterically at the thought of even staying in this haunted mansion and ran out of there.
With no other options, and having seen how small the country is, we decided to return to Beirut, make the city our home base, and do daytrips from there. We snapped a few pics of the ruins (which were, admittedly, quite impressive). After a harrowing drive through the mountains in the dark and the rain (anyone who has traveled in Lebanon knows this experience is enhanced by drivers without headlights, people passing at mad speeds as you go around precarious, curvy roads, and very few road signs), we rolled back into Beirut.
Our hotel (that of the flying spiders) was full. We were sent to a different hotel in Hamra called El Sheikh, which is actually sort of nice. The following day (is anyone still reading this? Seriously?) we spent the day in Beirut. It was a beautiful, sunny day and we walked from Hamra to Downtown Beirut. The original downtown was the site of much sniper fire (see Holiday Inn picture above) and was basically destroyed in the 15-year civil war. But the government has done an amazing job rebuilding the downtown and now it's pedestrian-friendly, filled with cafes and boutiques. There is also the gorgeous Mohammed al-Amin mosque, which is kind of like a small version of Istanbul's Blue Mosque.
We wandered the streets and had coffee at a cafe with coasters showing all the popular Syrian/Egyptian/Lebanese pop singers. Imagine going to a cafe and having Britney Spears and Rihanna coasters? It was too funny!
We had African food for dinner (peri-peri, which I tried for the first time in Charlotte over Thanksgiving, ironically). Our third to last day we did a daytrip to Byblos (Jbail in Arabic), an adorable fishing town on the Mediterranean Sea just north of Beirut. We got a little lost leaving the city and we were able to see a different Beirut - nothing like the glitzy Downtown or the fashionable Hamra district. Unfortunately the sun from the previous day was hidden behind rain clouds, and we couldn't do as much in the city as we would have liked since the rain was pouring down. Byblos is one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited towns and the birthplace of the alphabet. It's been in existence since the 5th millenium BC!
New Year's Eve, in keeping with our travel tradition, was a lowkey event. I think there is so much expectation around it that it can never live up to the hype!
Our last full day in Lebanon was amazing. Since the whole country was apparently sleeping off a hangover, the roads were clear and we drove to Tripoli, on the Mediterranean Sea north of Beirut, in about an hour.
The north of Lebanon seems to be less populous and is very mountainous and green. We could see the snow high up in the mountains. Sadly, Tripoli has weathered a lot, being the site of the 2007 Israel/Hezbollah War. The tourist industry hasn't yet recovered so needless to say, we were quite a curiosity there. Wendi and I parked the car and wandered the souks.
We met Ali, whose family has a homemade soap business. We smelled every soap they have (cinnamon, strawberry, lilac...there must have been about 20), were invited for coffee, and were given gifts by him. He was the most upbeat, positive person and it being New Years Day, he was full of great predictions for 2009.
Tripoli is known for it's sweets so we stopped at another small shop to try their goods. The sweetest little man served us up delicious, gooey honey cakes and baklava. As always, Wendi and I have no shame in asking for directions and as we tried to find our car, a man decided it was easier just to lead us to it. I accidentally turned the wrong way on the street and he said, "Not there! That is the hotel for horse". I said, "Oh? A hotel for horse? Like a barn?". He looked at me seriously and said, "It is a hotel for whores". That's a totally different hotel, right?! Wendi was hysterically laughing and I continued to question the man, trying to determine if it was a hotel for horse or whores. We never did find out! We found our first souvenirs of the trip and now I have some things from Lebanon...a gorgeous wall hanging and a vase to be exact. We ate lunch at a hole-in-the-wall cafe that served only hummous and fatteh (the fried bread/yogurt mixture). They rushed to bring us fresh, hot bread out of the fire.
When we safely returned to Beirut on that final day, I breathed a sigh of relief that we had made it for a week with no accidents! Ironically, when the car rental place sent someone to come and pick up our car, HE had an accident and couldn't pick it up. We took it as a sign to leave it in the garage...
We had dinner on Gemmayzeh Street and met Rania (our couch-surfing friend) for drinks afterwards. She brought along two British guys she had met on the site. I seriously recommend everyone join this site and meet up with people along the way as you travel. They were fantastic and our last night made us even more sad to leave.
