On Friday the 4th, Sophie and I traveled to the village of Kharfoura which is north of Beirut but south of Tripoli. The neighbors of Jemal had a luncheon for us outside (Eddie's sister in law who is widowed due to her husband being killed in the '82 war) Here are photos from that. [View Full Entry]

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Dan says... This trip started out with a lovely little jaunt down Beirut's equivalent of state highway one. The open road driving here is the undisputed worse either of us has seen. If a car is passing a car, which is already passing another car and the only option for this first car is to drive on the extreme wrong side of the road to get past both cars at once, even if there is another car coming the other way, provided it is smaller than the first car, then its all go! After half an hour or so we managed [View Full Entry]

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If you take a look at the map of Lebanon, which is situated at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, bordering Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, you will realize that Lebanon is pretty small. Most people will be surprised that there are, unlike most other countries in the Middle East, no deserts in Lebanon. The landscape varies from beaches at the coast to mountain ranges with snow white peaks. It sounds amazing but it's possible to swim in the Mediterranean Sea in the morning and to ski down 3000m high peaks in the afternoon! [View Full Entry]

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Apparently Che used to summarize the past month in his diary, so I'll try to do the same about my 2 weeks in Lebanon. This should serve to go some ways towards satisfying those who have requested "a bulleted summary" of where I've been and what I've done. Lebanon is a beautiful country, with mountains seemingly rising right out of the sea, a gorgeous coastline, and great hiking. The people in Beirut are cosmopolitan and indeed one feels like in someplace like America rather than the middle east while in Beirut -- that is, until you notice the bullet holes in [View Full Entry]

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