Remembering Beirut

Not surprisingly, the horrible accident in Beirut has me thinking about the trip I made there years ago. It was when I was on my sabbatical at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi. It was the first that Laura, my girlfriend and eventually my fiancee, ever went away for a trip - or, as she charmingly put it, a "jolly." It's so strange to think about now. The city has such a tragic modern history, and we managed to sneak in during a lull in various troubles. It's devastating to think of the suffering of those people, who were very kind to us on the trip.

My own personal feelings matter very little in the face of the tragedy, but I'd also be lying if I didn't add that thinking about how happy we were then and how it later all fell to pieces moved me quickly from wistful to remorseful to crushingly sad.

"Quick to anger, quick to smile"

Those are the words of a Beirut taxi driver describing Americans - and I would be hard-pressed to come up with a better description (at least of me).  We were driving to a museum and carrying on a wide-ranging and free-wheeling discussion of Lebanon, the US and life in general.  It's one of the international conversations that I'll always cherish (and I've been fortunate to have many of them - unlike a lot of Americans I actually talk to people overseas).  Of course, barely two hours later Lebanon was forced to witness the other side of that rule when I blew up at another taxi driver for blatantly cheating me.  In the end, however, it was my own fault because I broke two cardinal rules of international taxi travel: 1) I didn't get him to agree up a fixed price before we took off (which is really important in some parts of the world where they don't use the meter - and I just had a feeling that it was a dodgy taxi from the beginning so I should have trusted my instincts), and 2) I only had large bills on me so I had to depend upon him for change.  Still, I did get my heart rate up, which I think is supposed to be good for you.

Fleeting Bliss

An absolutely delicious mango ice tea that I enjoyed in a nice restaurant right next to the ruins in Byblos, Lebanon. The shot was taken right before I managed to knock the entire thing into my lap. I may have said bad words.

Everybody Comes to Pepe's

Guess I've had the film Casablanca on my mind (another obscure reference). If you're ever in Byblos, Lebanon, you have to stop at Pepe's Fishing Club Bar. It is located right on the beautiful little harbor and very easy to find. If you're at the ruins on the hill (more on that later), which is where everybody usually gets dropped off, you just retrace your steps down the winding road and you end up at the harbor. So, watch the sunset from the dock and then work your way to Pepe's for dinner and drinks.

Apparently Pepe was quite the character and the wall is full of pictures of him and various celebrities, including his very good friend Marlon Brando. My good friend (and ex-student) Lara says her mom knew him. The first picture is of Pepe's from across the harbor, and the second is looking out from Pepe's (check out the pointsetta in the corner). I'm also including a sadly very blurry picture of the menu, mainly because it must be a reproduction of Pepe in his splendor.

Corniche of Beirut

If you visit Beirut, and you should, be sure to check out the Corniche. I know that we think in the US that no sane person would ever go to the Middle East, it is really a very short-sighted and utterly fatuous view. Granted, there are places where you might stumble into trouble, but that could also happen in New York or Chicago, of even in Burlington. As I've often stated, I've been all over the Middle East and have never had a bad experience. The Corniche winds around for a couple miles and it is a lovely walk. I suspect it would be a lot livelier at a different time of year, but it was actually pretty nice to be there at a time when it wasn't insanely crowded. So, let me post a few more pictures. The first is of my first view of the Corniche, as it stretched out in the distance. Eventually it takes a sharp left and you end up down my Pigeon Rock.

The second picture is turning back the other direction and zooming in a bit. You can see the mountains in the distance, including the snow covering at the peaks. And, yes, there is skiing in Lebanon.

The last picture is one of those shots which has no great value other than the fact that it makes me smile. I took it at the little seaside cafe where I stopped for white coffee (detailed earlier). There are a lot of fishermen along the entire Corniche, and one is in the distance. Up close is a beautiful black cat, who sort of reminds me of my old cat, Alex the Droog, from my Cincinnati days. He determined to get my attention (and part of my lunch).

Christmas in Beirut

"In the unlikely event of a Christmas tree landing . . ."

I don't know why I find this picture so funny, but I do. It is the Christmas decoration that is centrally located in the Beirut airport. It doesn't really inspire a lot of confidence.

Picnic at Pigeon Rock

And I even had some cake (now there is an obscure film reference). Beirut itself does not have many areas of natural beauty, although the Corniche itself is quite pretty. However, if you follow the Corniche along you eventually come to Pigeon Rock, which is a very lovely place to watch the sun go down (although not as pretty as Byblos). There is a nice little cafe right on the Corniche called Bay Rock Cafe, where I snapped this picture. The Corniche itself is rather odd in that although there are buildings that run along the entire way there are not many restaurants (I counted about four) and only a few coffee shops. So, be sure to grab something to eat at the Bay Rock Cafe before heading a little further inland for a drink. At the other end of the Corniche there is a cute little hotel called the Bay Watch Hotel, which has a nice, albeit completely deserted, outside bar on the 7th floor which has a great view of the Corniche. I went there twice and both time it was completely abandoned in an almost spooky fashion. The folks working there would not have been nicer and it was very clean with good food and drinks, but I couldn't quite figure out why I was the only one there. Weird.

Byblos Sunset

I guess after that last depressing post I needed to put up something a little happier before getting back to work. Well, maybe posting pictures of the ravaged Holiday Inn is not really that depressing. Maybe, as my good friend Sandy would propose, it is really a story of redemption (although he will usually follow that up by opining that it always ends in tears). For all of the horror Beirut is still standing, and I am really looking forward to getting back for a longer visit. Here is a picture that I took as the sun was going down in Byblos, which is a lovely spot about forty kilometers north of downtown Beirut. I'll have a lot more to say about it later. At this point I just wanted to post this picture, which may be the nicest one I've ever taken. Of course, the sun was going down over a beautiful little Mediterranean harbor, so it would have taken some effort to muck that up. Still, as I sat out on the end the dock watching the sun disappear in the west, it was about as serene a moment as I can ever recall.

Ghosts of Beirut

Holiday Inn. And, sadly, not the Christmas-time classic movie. While in Beirut I stayed right around the corner from the iconic Holiday Inn, made famous/infamous during the dark days of the civil war. It was just about completed but never occupied, and it became a favorite location for snipers (as you can tell from the bullet and rocket holes). Many building around it (including a shiny new building which almost touches it, which you can see on the right in the last picture) have been rebuilt/rehabbed, but the Holiday Inn itself remains untouched.

Its only inhabitants today are soldiers and tanks. It seems that they intend to leave it as a sad reminder of a horrible time in Lebanon's past. I got pretty close and busily snapped away with my camera, and finally one of the soldiers, politely, told me not to take any more. I apologized and he just waved me along. There was much less of a military presence inside the city that I thought there might be, just the occasional small grouping of soldiers on key street corners or above sharp bends in the road.

At no point did I feel in danger, except when the taxi drivers were taking me somewhere at breakneck speed (but that's another story).

White Coffee

Here are a couple shots from a pretty little seaside cafe in Beirut where I stopped for a cup of coffee. You can get a sense of the sweep of the corniche, and also of the mountains in the background. I ordered a white coffee, which is usually code for coffee with milk. However, in this case it was just a cup of hot water, which, with the color of the cup, did turn out white. It wouldn't have been so odd if they had brought along some tea bags, but it was just hot water (although with plenty of sugar). The waiter seemed a little mystified that I sent it back.

Beirut

I am very far behind in my blogging duties, but have absoloutely no time to even think about it now. Between two new preps and administrative chores - and Mike Lange just sent me the college football bowl pool form - I am buried. So, I'll just post a quick picture as a place-holder and get back to this later. Many things have happened lately, but the one that is freshest in my mind is the trip I just took to Lebanon. I have always wanted to visit Beirut, and I took advantage of the long National Day weekend here in the UAE, and a cheap flight, to fly over to Lebanon for three days. I had a lot of fun, and the requisite screaming match with a taxi driver, and can't wait to get back. Several of my friends back home were concerned about me flying to Beirut, but it is an odd result of the Arab Spring that Beirut is now one of the "safe" places to visit in the area. And they certainly would love some visitors. Right now a visa, which you can pick up at the airport easily, is free. Here's a fairly nice picture I took as I was walking along the Corniche looking out at the Mediterranean.