Lebanon

All the news about Lebanon has made me think about this country, which I visited for a wedding in 2003. Marco's very close friend Pierre-Yves, who's French, married his French-Lebanese girlfriend Maria there. Most of Maria's family still lives near Beirut and I hope they are doing well right now. My wishes go out to you and your family, Maria. I'm sorry that your beautiful city and country, just recovered from the past wars, is having to experience this again.

When we visited we were accompanied by about 15 of Marco and Pyves' school friends from France, a lively group. Now that I think about it we saw SO MANY vivid and memorable things in a relatively short trip. Here are a couple highlights:

- Visiting Roman ruins at Tyr in the south (now being bombed) and afterwards eating amazingly delicious grilled fish at a small shack on the mediterranean. It was serene and pretty there. We all watched Philippe swim in the sea.

- Driving down to Tyr, and taking the freeway, only to come to a screeching halt at a massive gaping hole in the freeway that was the size of a football field. Some other Lebanese folks also missed the sign that warned that this hole was there (if any sign existed?) and they helped us find our way to another route.

-Hiking in the Lebanon mountains through forests and grassy meadows, and ending at yes, one memorable tree (in the words of Wawan, "we came all the way here for that??"). Afterwards we had a MASSIVE meal at a mountain restaurant. There was a spread of all the great fresh vegetables and hummus and dips and olives and everything you can possibly find in Lebanese cuisine.(A few months ago I also wrote about this dinner, where Wawan created the talking grease ball man. It's described in my March 28th entry. Sorry this blogger program is lame and I can't put in a link.)

- Swimming in the Mediterranean north of Beirut, where we suddenly found ourselves surrounded by tons of large pale jellyfish. As we quickly headed towards the shore, with little tentacle pieces stinging us, Marco looked down and found a $100 American bill in the water, floating right in the middle of the jellyfish. Then upon immediately reaching the beach, a guy on the beach came up to Marco and asked him if he was interested in making a porn video with me and our friend Sophie! What an odd conjunciton of things - a $100 bill, jellyfish, and porn, all within five minutes of each other. Marco said no to the porn guy and the next day he used the $100 bill to buy lunch for all our friends.

- Driving to Baalbeck. We crossed the Lebanon mountains, and despite it being the middle of July we found a patch of snow. Our two cars immediately screetched to a halt and we had a big snowball fight. Then we crossed into the Bekaa Valley and Syrian-held Hezbollah territory (now a lot more meaningful given recent news). We had to pass Syrian military checkpoints and saw lots of white UN vehicles and signs and also portraits of Arab martyrs. Believe me, I was a bit nervous being an American there, and did my best to appear French like my friends. Before driving out there that day a guy at the hotel told us to just say the Muslim greeting "assalam alaikum" if we got stopped at a military checkpoint. We did get stopped and Marco, who looks rather Lebanese, said assalam alaikum. It worked and the guy just waved us on. I think we had all held our breaths for a moment. When we stopped for delicious lamb kebabs at one man's cafe, Damien (a good friend, but stupid right at this moment!) told the owner I was American, just as the owner was saying how Americans like to eat everything in sight. I nearly died of shock! I thought, "Damien what are you saying!!" I didn't know what they would think there of an American being there in Hezbollah territory. This was only three months after the US started the war on Iraq. Fortunately the owner kept talking and didn't appear to hear Damien. Anyway, then we went to see the massive, spectacular Phoenecian and Roman ruins at Baalbeck, some of the most complete in the world. There were massive Hezbollah signs all over the entrance. I found this excursion fascinating in a rogue adventurer sort of way but I admit that I remained uneasy and tense the whole day, until we finally reached the coastal side of Lebanon again in the evening.

-Swimming in the hotel pool in the hot summer evenings, where we played lots of water games and had fun. Then one evening (the 14th of July obviously) we went to a huge gala celebration at the hotel next door for Bastille Day. Lebanon was once part of France, which I actually had not known. So there are many French speakers and French people there still. And this party was big, although my friends generally agreed it was also quite cheesy. But it was a fun sort of cheesy and we joked around and danced until late at night.

- One night we went out to some nightclubs in downtown Beirut. Trendy cafes and clubs lined one pretty narrow street, shaded by ruins of buildings bombed in the 1980s that were still not rebuilt. We danced in one place with windows looking out over the busy street full of hip young people and at the dark silhouette of ruined buildings and at that moment it seemed intense, as if the history of this region was there in the music and the rhythm.

-Then finally there was the wedding of Pierre-Yves and Maria. They held the ceremony in an old stone church in downtown Beirut, then we all drove high up on the surrounding hills and had the reception in gardens that looked over the vast sparkling lights of Beirut. We had champagne and dinner in the gardens and danced until the wee hours of the morning. The music was quite good as I remember it, the weather was warm, and EVERYONE was into the party. It was ideal as wedding parties go. Just the right amount of energy and in a beautiful location. The next morning we just sat lazily by the beach, then shortly after we took the plane back to France.

So anyway, that's the highlights of my memories of Lebanon. I'm severely disappointed with Bush for refusing to condemn Israel for the disproportionate level of attacks they are waging against Lebanon. The average folks of Lebanon are not able to control Hezbollah or Israel but they suffer from the acts of extremists on both sides. I hope the country can return to the stability and normality that they were finally getting to enjoy.