Spring Break: First two days in Lebanon!

Here is the picture of the Nasser mug that I promised:Jealous?

From the same market/store, Jessica bought pre-US invasion Iraqi money. Saddam Hussein's picture is on it.

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We had to fly from Amman, Jordan to Beirut, Lebanon. Nobody in our group wanted to deal with the potential-issues that can come from having an Israeli stamp on our passport and getting a Syrian visa for Americans can take an outrageously long time.

Lebanese money. 1,500 lyras equal $1, but the prices are adjusted to everything costing about the same as it would in the US:

Jessica has family in Beirut and they let us stay with them, that was extremely kind of them! They also arranged for us to be picked up at the airport. The drive from the airport to where we stayed was fun- it is election season in Lebanon (Lebanon has some of the more competitive elections in the region, I am in the midst of a project on this) and campaign ads are everywhere! I will probably devote an entire entry to this at some point.. I took so many pictures. Also, the President of Romania was in Beirut at the same time as us and there were Romanian flags everywhere celebrating this fact. During our drive, I think we passed the Romanian President's convoy. It was a long, long group of all-black SUVs and cars with little Romanian flags on the front of the vehicles and massive police escortage. Just a hunch..

This is the road to the Lebanese presidential palace:

After we settled in and unpacked, we went back out to explore Beirut. We went to the American University in Beirut's campus. It is BEAUTIFUL! I was filled with an envious rage. The campus is built on the side of a mountain and goes all the way down to the Mediterranean where they have their own private beach (Beirut is simply a beautiful city- it is built on mountains right next to the sea).

Satellite view of the campus:

The AUB track & field with the Mediterranean in the background:
We were walking around while there was still a good number of students there, so in my attempt to not stick out, I was shooting from the hip:
I am a big fan of the campus.

After that, we went to meet with Jessica's cousins who were going to take us out that night. Beirut is known for its nightlife (It was also #1 on the NYTime's top 44 places to go in 2009 list). Jessica's cousin explained how a typical night goes: you eat a late dinner, go to a cafe from 10ish to midnightish, then go to the bars until 2:30 or 3, and then go to an after-party club until 7ish- nearly every night. I think I was in bed by 2 that first night.

We went to a restaurant where we had a huge meal consisting of every Lebanese dish known to man- all in mezze-form (similar to tapas). Tabouleh. Fattoush. Baba Ghanhoush. Batata Harra. Kibbeh. Kofta. Shish Taouk. And many others that did not fit the descriptions on Wikipedia's Lebanese Cuisine page. All eaten with pita bread, of course. Delicious. I had a couple meals like this during my stay in Lebanon. I never had hummus or lamb, though. That surprised me. Hummus was everywhere, but I guess I was too busy working on the tabouleh.

After dinner we went to Gemmayzeh, a bar-heavy part of Beirut. I tried Almaza, the Lebanese beer. I didn't care for it, but I don't really care for beer anyways. We did not too long as the gigantic dinner set in on top of us just being tired from the nature of our trip (lots of walking) and we went to bed early for Beirut's standards.

Gemmayzeh:

The next day, we went to Byblos, which is one of the many cities in the world that claim to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world.

It was a lot of ruins:Lots of fun with ArcSoft Panorama Maker:

It started raining while were there, which was nice since I had not experienced precipitation in some time- it was a good reminder that it exists. We then went to a restaurant and had another huge Lebanese meal. That is really all we did that day.. That night we went out again, but I think we only made it to 3am..

EDIT: We did more that day, but I did not take pictures! After we ate, we went to two Maronie-Christian monasteries/shrines/churches/I am not exactly sure what they were. They may have been a combination of those.. Lebanon has a large Christian population- Darren's blog says they make up about 40% of the population and I trust him. Maronites make up the largest Christian denomination/sect within that number.. The first place we went was a combo-building for St. Maron, the fellow the Maronites are named after. It was a neat little building up in the hills. Then we went to another building for a guy that was a famous Maronite hermit. So we did that, and then went back to Beirut..