I had a dream last night that haunted pretty much all day - it was about the friends I had made when I'd lived in Sweden, and how close and strong our bond had been when we lived in such close proximity to each other. I felt a sense of loss that those times were past us, and had a strong urge to re-establish those bonds that have probably faded a little due to the events of recent years. Anyway... We spent that last couple of days checking out Beirut and its surrounds. We had the felafel of the tour (so [View Full Entry]

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Beirut is a pretty cool town - a little too cool in fact. Far too much hair product, turtle-necks and scarves floating around for my liking. However, this mysterious city has been our NYE goal for some time, so of course we were going to make the most of it! The booze in Beirut bottle shops is cheap and plentiful, in stark contrast to the ten-dollar beers in the pubs, so we decided to get on it on the balcony of our hotel before venturing into the city. After hammering a bottle of vodka and a few beers over a hand [View Full Entry]

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NYE in Beruit. This had been our goal and we had finally made it. So of course a couple of ciders were due. We had a few celebratory drinks on the terrace of our new digs. The terrace being much more preferable than the room. Kahlid the Jordanian hotel manager joined us for a few and listened to our tunes. Good guy but a touch high strung. Off we ventured into the night. Roadies in hand, hey were Australian. We cruised over to the main bar and club strip in Beruit. We were told previously that it was too far to [View Full Entry]

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Saddled up in the morning like a pair of caffenated olympic cyclists. Rode and rode and rode. The riding was quite good going. The Med spread past my head and onto the horizon. It was a deep blue colour, gentle soft waves lapping aginst the rocky shoreline. I was definately savouring the feeling of my legs pumping along like two little Thomas the Tank Engines. Choo choo choo. After a bit I found Spider in a ditch. He had crashed a bit. Was now more brown than before. Poor fella. Stopped for lunch. Met Saed, a helpful man he did proove [View Full Entry]

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The one thing that stands out in my mind about today is the absolute bedlam on the roads in Lebanon, compared with the relative "calm" of Syria. It was chaos - constant honking, people trying to get in front of each other or pull off or onto the road in the absence of lanes and anything remotely resembling civility. This was set to the constant nasal, whining "singing" coming from the mosques to commemorate the beginning of the festival of Eid. It seems the Lebanese are in direct competition with the Syrians for title of "World's Most Hospitable People". We were [View Full Entry]

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We set out early to get to Beirut as early as possible. We made good time, excited by the prospect of entering this city that we had heard so much about, but existed as an enticing mystery to us. After 30km we stopped for a feed at a roadside cafe where we got talking to a Lebanese guy named Saeed about the sights in the Bartroun area. He gave us his number and said that if we were heading back this way to give him a call and he would be happy to show us around, and that if we needed [View Full Entry]

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Punched out of Tartous with the wind behind our backs and a desire to get to Lebanon to see what there is to be seen. We rode along close to the Med Coast and were very much enjoying the sun and easy terrain. We stopped at a small Syrian town for some lunch and were promptly mobbed by about a dozen kids. So much for a quiete bite to eat. After feeling like a spectical we saddled up and hit the Syrian/Lebanese border. The crossing was pretty easy. The Lebanese guys even gave us a 1 month visa for free (beter [View Full Entry]

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D'you like the look of our swish hotel? Thought I'd push the boat out and treat wee Jules to some 5-star luxury, the gaping holes were good for catching the sea breeze during the balmy nights.... Most buildings in Beirut are pocked from the long civil war of the 70s and 80s but there's surprisingly scarce evidence of the recent conflict unless you venture into the Hezbollah-dominated suburbs in the southside; if you'd been hibernating you'd never know that Israel and Hezbollah had had a right square go. There are loadsa UN troops kicking about though, choppers regularly flying by and [View Full Entry]

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Samma dag som flygplatsen soder om Beirut bombas, sitter jag pa universitetet i Amman i Jordanien och forklarar for en grekisk kompis att det har ar forsta gangen under min resa som jag kanner att jag borde jobba. Sa jag ringer svt, de har team pa vag, men nat gar snett, de kan inte komma fram, kan jag ta mig in i Libanon? -Visst, sager jag tvarsakert, fast i sjalva verket har jag ingen aning om vagen fortfarande ar farbar. Israel har hotat med att spranga vagen mellan Damaskus och Beirut, och det ar min vag in. Jag packar och tankar [View Full Entry]

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Thursday afternoon after school was over 11 of us set out for Beirut. The trip didn't get very far because when we got to the bus station Erin had forgotten to switch her passport when she changed bags right before she left. So, Erin and Ashanti stayed behind and got the passport and came a little later. The trip hit another snagp at the border Dragana was not allowed into Lebanon because of her Bosnian passport. She had to get in a cab and head back to Damascus while the rest of us continued on. After another little hang up of [View Full Entry]

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