Lebanon

Martyr's Square with the Al Amin Mosque

Last weekend I got to take a trip to Lebanon in order to present at the conference of the Association of Teachers of English in Lebanon (ATEL). As my plane landed in Beirut on Friday morning it was pretty hazy, but you could still make out some of the houses and trees on the mountainside. Now I've been to a lot of different countries (25 at this point), and it usually takes quite a bit for a new place to feel "foreign" to me. Where you can and cannot smoke is usually a good indicator. So when I was waiting to pick up my suitcase at the baggage claim and there were several people smoking there, I did feel like I was in a foreign country.

Upon collecting my bag and getting a taxi, I made a major mistake: I got into the cab before negotiating a price. I was under the impression that all the taxis at the airport were metered and honest, so when I saw that mine didn't have a meter, I immediately knew it was going to cost me. I asked the driver how much it would cost and he answered $40. This is like three times as much as it should cost. I immediately told him that was too much, but it was too late to negotiate. I suppose I can't feel too bad, since these guys are probably overworked and underpaid. I keep telling myself I paid him a fair price and an incredibly generous, 200% tip.

Once I got everything put away at the hotel I went for a walk along Beirut's long corniche (which is just what they call a waterside promenade in Arabic). Doha also has a corniche, but it's nowhere near as long, plus there were tons of locals out walking, jogging, swimming, playing backgammon, or fishing, most of which you also won't see in Doha. It was hot, but nowhere near as bad as in Qatar. I figure it was around the high 70s to low 80s with heavy humidity. With the occasional cool breeze from the Mediterranean it felt perfect.

Martyr's Square Detail

I walked about two miles till I made it downtown. I checked out Martyr's Square, which was where the Ottomans executed suspected Lebanese secessionists during World War I. During the Lebanese civil war from 1975 to 1990 it was a no man's land, as most of the fighting occurred downtown. Up close to the statues you could see how one was missing an arm, and all of them were covered in bullet holes.

St. George's Cathedral

On the corner of the square stands the Al-Amin mosque with its glorious blue dome. I took my shoes off and went inside briefly, then went next door to visit the Marionite Cathedral of St. George. What I thought was interesting was that all the icons of Christ, Mary, and other saints had their names written in Arabic, I thing I never would have considered but I suppose makes complete sense. At one point as I was walking around the area, I heard the call to prayer from the mosque followed by church bells ringing from the cathedral. It made me smile.

At this point I figured it was time to walk back and see if I could find my way back to the hotel. I had bought a map downtown, so I figured I was going in the right direction. I must have made a wrong turn someplace though, cause after about half an hour I realized I was nowhere near where I needed to be. What made things worse was that the map had the street names listed, but the street signs only listed street numbers. I had to navigate my way home based solely on the names of neighborhoods. At the no point was I terribly worried, it should be noted, since there were taxis everywhere and I could just have one take me back to the hotel. Needless to say, I felt really excited when I finally got back to an area I recognized and made it back to the hotel.

I stayed in the hotel a bit to cool down and chat with Lyssa on Skype before heading back out to find something to eat. I bought a lamb sandwich from a snack bar that was pretty good and walked around some more. It was around this time that it hit me that I was in Beirut--a city where for over a third of my life was synonymous with war and destruction, and I was just nonchalantly walking around. I never in a million years would have imagined that I would have had such an experience.

Pigeon Rocks

I headed over to Beirut's most famous natural site, the Pigeon Rocks. They're basically just two large rocks jutting out in the sea. I got there in time to watch the sunset, and wished that my wife and son were around. There were tons of people around snapping pictures.

I was planning to eat a lot of delicious Lebanese food on this trip, and expected to be able to find a place on every street corner. I was surprised to find that to not be the case. Yes, there are places for Lebanese food, but it seemed that cafes, pizzerias, and pubs were far more abundant (at the very least in the area I was in). So I figured I'd go with it and got a pizza for dinner. They made it Neapolitan-style--just the way I like it, and I had another introspective moment: I was in Beirut, eating pizza, being served by a guy named Hussein who speaking to me in broken English and French. I only ate about a quarter of the pizza and took the rest home with me and put it in my room's fridge. I heated it up and ate the rest of it each morning for breakfast (savvy travelers take note!) I got a good night's rest and got ready for the conference in the morning.