October 21 - 24, 2013
Despite only spending four days in the country and originally planning on lazing around Beirut, we hit many of the hot spot destinations in Lebanon. We arrived at our hotel around 3am on Monday morning, exhausted from almost 20 hours of travel. We weren't sure we were in the right place. Hotel Talal had no signs and had lost our reservation. We finally settled into our room for a short sleep.
Later that morning we hooked up with eight other people (mostly Australian and British) to head down to Saida (Sidon) and Tyr. This was our first experience in a mini bus...Beirut traffic is fast-paced and hectic. It was a good introduction to getting around as we understand zero Arabic and communication is difficult.
Saida was awesome! We ate falafel, browsed the souks, and weaved our way through the town to see ancient churches and mosques. We then hopped another mini bus to head down the road to Tyr where we visited a couple of Roman ruin sites. That night we dined at Le Chef, Lebanon's version of the soup Nazi :)
Tuesday we did a walking tour of Beirut to visit the Blue Mosque, St. George's Orthodox Church and the museum underneath, walked along the Mediterranean Sea, stopped at a cafe for Turkish coffee and knafeh (a Lebanese dessert), saw Pigeon Rock, and lunched at Abu Naim where we ate too much mezze and grilled meats. Yummers!
We spent Wednesday is Baalbek which is about a two hour bus ride from Beirut, on the border with Syria. The ruins were amazing and we hired a tour guide, Khalil, who provided a great narration with a little bit of comedy :)
Our last day in Lebanon was a short visit to Jetta Grotto (beautiful cave and nominee for one of the Seven Natural Wonders) followed by a slow-paced walk about in Jebeil (Byblos). The town is quiet and touristy with a nice souk and a relaxed feel. We ate a seafood lunch on the water at Bab el-Amin and walked around the nearby ruins. The crusader castle was cool but the ruins were not well maintained.
Lebanon left us tired and ready for some R&R in Jordan!
Later that morning we hooked up with eight other people (mostly Australian and British) to head down to Saida (Sidon) and Tyr. This was our first experience in a mini bus...Beirut traffic is fast-paced and hectic. It was a good introduction to getting around as we understand zero Arabic and communication is difficult.
Saida was awesome! We ate falafel, browsed the souks, and weaved our way through the town to see ancient churches and mosques. We then hopped another mini bus to head down the road to Tyr where we visited a couple of Roman ruin sites. That night we dined at Le Chef, Lebanon's version of the soup Nazi :)
Tuesday we did a walking tour of Beirut to visit the Blue Mosque, St. George's Orthodox Church and the museum underneath, walked along the Mediterranean Sea, stopped at a cafe for Turkish coffee and knafeh (a Lebanese dessert), saw Pigeon Rock, and lunched at Abu Naim where we ate too much mezze and grilled meats. Yummers!
We spent Wednesday is Baalbek which is about a two hour bus ride from Beirut, on the border with Syria. The ruins were amazing and we hired a tour guide, Khalil, who provided a great narration with a little bit of comedy :)
Our last day in Lebanon was a short visit to Jetta Grotto (beautiful cave and nominee for one of the Seven Natural Wonders) followed by a slow-paced walk about in Jebeil (Byblos). The town is quiet and touristy with a nice souk and a relaxed feel. We ate a seafood lunch on the water at Bab el-Amin and walked around the nearby ruins. The crusader castle was cool but the ruins were not well maintained.
Lebanon left us tired and ready for some R&R in Jordan!
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