Spring Break: Southern Lebanon

The day after the cedars and Tripoli, we went to southern Lebanon. I found this day to be the most interesting of my entire trip. This area has a heavy Shi'a population and with the elections in June, there were Hezbollah and Amal (the two major Shi'a political parties) signs everywhere- they are actually a part of the opposition coalition with each other. Lebanese politics are very interesting..

The first place we went to was Saida. There was another crusader castle:




ArcSoft has sent me a cease-and-desist letter regarding the mentioning of a certain photo-combining software, sooo... some large pictures:


After the castle, we walked around Saida's markets and went in this thing:

After Saida, we went to Tyre. Once we got off the highway, we had to go through a UN checkpoint- my first. Southern Lebanon is where a lot of the fighting took place between Hezbollah and Israel a few years ago, the UN peacekeeping force is a result of this and a few other conflicts that have happened in the region.

The white, UN APCs:

..also, the yellow flag above the KFC advertisement is a Hezbollah flag

After the checkpoint, the road went through citrus groves with Hezbollah flags and signs lining the street:

Various Hezbollah leaders:

As mentioned, Hezbollah and Amal are apart of the coalition representing the opposition. On the left, Hasan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, and on the right, Nabih Berri, the leader of Amal and current speaker of the Parliament:

We drove through Tyre, saw some more UN patrols and election signs. Then we went to a Roman ruins site:

At the time, I thought we were right on the border with Israel and so I took this photo thinking it was Israel. Later, I looked at a map and realized we were not that close.

..so yeah, this just a photo of a random town in Lebanon

HUGE KFC! 2 stories + a rooftop dining area!

I am pretty sure this is just a 'don't forget to vote' sort of sign:

A sign for the Amal Movement. Amal is an ackronym for 'hope'

Heading to the town of Qana, another Amal sign:

This is a picture of Imad Mughniyah, a founding member of Hezbollah and was considered head of security for the group. He has been tied to a number of attacks, including the bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut in 1982 and the US Embassy bombing in 1983. He was on the US Most Wanted Terrorist List with a $5 million bounty, until he was killed by a car bomb in Damascus in February of last year. Soo yes, we were going to Qana, where it is thought that Jesus performed the wine-into-water miracle.

There was a nice little building by the path that takes you to a cave where it may have gone down:

"Is this it?"

There were people-like figures carved into the rocks. I want to say they were supposed to be the 12 diciples and Jesus, but that may not be right:

Qana scenery:

Mughniyah and Nasrallah:

We came back through Thyre from Qana and went to another ruins site. We could not find the main entrance, but we found a gap in the fence, so went through that..

There was a large hippodrome among other random ruins..

The ruins were next to a Palestinian refugee camp. You can see some of the housing in this photo




After the ruins, we decided that we needed another huge Lebanese meal. Our driver called a friend and asked what was good in Thyre. We ended up going to a hotel..

..where the UN was based/staying, apparentlyA unit of French UN soldiers were eating there, too. Darren and Jess with the unit in the background:


In the parking lot, this car had a Hasan Nasrallah air freshner- seriously:..it's good marketing

In hindsight, it may not have been a good idea to eat where the UN was eating....

On our way out, we drove by another UN patrol

We passed by what I think was the Amal headquarters. It was a large compound with Amal flags surrounding it and there was a strong UN presence there.



One thing I noticed, but did not get a picture of was this missile-looking object that was suspended, but pointing toward the ground. Around it were several Hezbollah signs. I assume it is marking a location where an Israeli artillery shell/bomb/missile landed. What I do not know and am curious about is if Hezbollah put it up as a reminder of 2006 and how they took on Israel, like a campaign prop, or if the markers are all over the place, at all times. I managed to get a picture of another one we drove by. It was bomb-shaped, instead of missile-shaped and had another Hezbollah sign behind it. It is hard to see in the picture, but it is that black thing on a pole to the left of the center:

A sign at the UN checkpoint about the use of cluster bombs

I think we just relaxed afterward..

Spring Break: Cedars and Tripoli

The next day (Friday, I think) we would head to the mountains to see the Cedars! I forgot to mention that Jessica's family had one of their employees drive us to these sights. That was also extremely nice of the family and of the employee. We were able to see so much more of the country than we would have otherwise.

We stopped at this random castle on the way there:

I don't know what this is- it was in some town we drove through:

I loved the mountains in Lebanon!

You could be at a beach in Beirut and then drive...

...an hour or two into the mountains and...

...be in snow!

The towns in the mountains were very interesting. This is a cliff-side cemetary:

I have no idea what the significance of this is:

That's a lot of snow!

Cedars!

While we were driving around, trying to find the entrance to the Cedar park, we passed a few groups of people that looked like they were going skiing or sledding. It's amazing- you can be on the beach and then drive an hour or two and go skiing.

We found the entrance, but it appeared to be closed. The gate was locked and no one was around. What to do, what to do..

..climb the fence!

I am pretty sure there are a number of cedar reserves in Lebanon- I do not know which one we were in..

It should be noted that we were not dressed for the snow. (Jessica's picture):
..so cold, so snowy (Jessica's picture, again)
There was quite a bit of snow covering the paths.. I don't even know if we were on the path here:

Jess took a shortcut down a hill:

Oh yes, it's that time again:
Fun with ArcSoft Panorama Maker!

..like you didn't know it was coming

After we saw the cedars, we went below the snow-line and to the Khalil Gibran museum.

..I think this statue/sculpture makes Gibran look like Vladimir Lenin
just for comparison:

At Gibran's request, he was buried under this monastery (which is now the museum) that is on the side of a mountain in his hometown, Bsharri. It is a very cool building, rock randomly comes out of the walls inside. Unfortunately, no photos allowed.
The beautiful view from the museum
Upon looking up the spelling of Bsharri, I found out that this town was seen as a "bastion" of Christian resistance against Syrians during the Lebanese Civil War and that "Bsharri natives are often referred to as the defenders of the maronites in northern Lebanon". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bsharri

After the museum, we drove to Tripoli, but not without stopping for some food. We went to a random little place in mountains that served only what I think was Manakish. It is similar to pizza in that it is dough with a spread-topping. I had kashk on mine- at the time I had no idea what it was, but now that I can look up what it is, kashk is a dried mixture of yogurt and cracked wheat. I like it.

Tripoli!

The only thing we did in Tripoli was go to a Crusader Castle. It was the biggest castle we went to while in Lebanon.

I don't know what Jessica is doing here, but I like how you can see colorful-Tripoli through the window:

It's election time:

There was this spiral staircase that just kept going and going. At a certain point there was no light and I tried using my camera to light it up:

I only went so far in the darkness, but then it got way too creepy and I went back up

We were going to go to a market in Tripoli, but it was prayer-time and everything was closing. So we went back to Beirut.

We stopped at this:

I do not know the significance, but it is on top of a mountain near Beirut and there is a huge church next to it. I suspect it is some Maronite-related thing (I think that is what Jessica's blog said, at least)

The view from the top:

That evening we stayed in and relaxed.