Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Lebanon

After another long absence, I'm back. I'm just about halfway through my second year as a teacher in Madrid, and I've done quite a bit more traveling and had some great adventures. In this entry, I'm going to update you all about my Christmas vacation trip to Lebanon and Israel.

First, you may ask, why Lebanon and Israel? Well, after studying in Egypt I've always wanted to return to the Middle East and do some more traveling. Israel has always been a country that's intrigued me, and I had heard fabulous things from friends about Lebanon. So, after some flight-wrangling, a failed attempt to obtain a visa to visit Syria from the embassy here in Spain, Katie and I decided on 11 days in Beirut, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Tel Aviv.

We arrived in Beirut at night, after about an hour of flight delays, and were met by 2 guys from our youth hostel. We start chatting with the driver on the way to the hostel, and it turns out that he speaks Spanish fluently. Immediately he jumps into saying "I don't like America." Fantastic. Then he clarifies, "I have no problem with American people, I just don't like the government." OK, I can live with that. We arrive at our hostel, a dingy multi-story building quite close to the ocean, right next to downtown Beirut. We collapse into bed, trying not to disturb the other 10 girls in our dorm. The next morning, we awoke to a spectacular, warm, sunny day in bustling Beirut.

Over the next few days, we explored Beirut. I won't give a blow-by-blow account, but rather will share some of the highlights. Several things really caught my attention in Beirut. First, it doesn't take too much imagination to see Beirut as a war zone. Although there has obviously been a huge reconstruction effort in the past few years, the damage done by the 2006 war with Israel is still very visible. While wandering Downtown the first day, we stumbled across the bombed-out shells of several buildings, most notably, the former Hilton Hotel. It's indescribably strange to see the concrete skeleton of a building with gaping holes on one side of the street, then turn around and see a new high-rise of luxury apartments glimmering in the sunlight on the other.

Beirut is also a much more diverse city than I was expecting. I already knew that Lebanon was home to Sunni and Shi'a Muslims, Armenians, and several sects of Christians, and that their government posts are designated for specific religions, in a strange, affirmative-action-type power-sharing arrangement. But Beirut truly is a city shared by Muslims and Christians. The Mohamed al-Amin mosque sits right next to St. George's Cathedral, a Maronite church. I got the impression that Muslims and Christians live side-by-side, work together, are friends, and there's generally little ill-will. Obviously, things aren't perfect, and memories of the Civil Wars still sting, but compared to Egypt or Morocco, Beirut was a much more accepting and diverse place.

Another unexpected thing about Beirut was the high degree of Western influence. I had been told by friends before going that Beirut was once known as the "Paris of the Mediterranean," and that it was the most cosmopolitan city in the Middle East. This was definitely true. For example, the first day, as we were walking through Downtown, I saw a sign for the "Souks of Beirut." Immediately, my mind conjured up images of the teeming, colorful, sweltering souks of Alexandria or Cairo, with local vendors shouting out anything to get you into their shops, and donkeys passing by carting their goods. Finally, I thought! A break from the new skyscrapers, and a little local flavor. Alas, the "Souk" ended up being a new open-air shopping mall featuring top-end designer shops like Gucci, Valentino, and Cartier. Beiruti women strutted around debris-cluttered sidewalks in impossibly high-heels, and if they wore head-scarves, the scarf matched their Fendi purse perfectly. These were some high-fashion women. In my comfortable tourist clothes I felt like an utter slob. Beirut was cosmopolitan and modern in so many ways - the American University of Beirut campus could have easily been a private college on the California coast. The hip bars and clubs of Gemmayzeh and Achrafiye could belong in Madrid, Paris, or New York. I barely got to dust off my rusty Arabic, because nearly everyone we talked with spoke English extremely well. Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, McDonalds, and Hardee's were everywhere. Beirutis, like MadrileƱos, eat dinner late (10pm), and go out partying until the wee hours of the morning.

That being said, there were definitely more conservative elements to be seen in Beirut and Lebanon as a whole. Within Beirut, on our last day there, we stumbled upon a much more conservative Muslim neighborhood, where every woman on the street was wearing the hijab, and little boys gawked at the small group of foreigners wandering the streets. This neighborhood also clearly had not seen the same amount of investment into rebuilding after Lebanon's various wars as Downtown had, and was full of beautiful old buildings partially destroyed by mortars and stray bullets. We also took a couple of day trips outside of the capital, and that made it pretty clear that the Lebanese countryside was very different from liberal Beirut. We traveled to Harissa, Byblos, and Baalbeck. Baalbeck might have been my favorite part of the trip; it is a small town east of Beirut, quite close to the Syrian border. It is a popular tourist destination because of its spectacular Roman ruins, but it is also smack-dab in the middle of Hezbollah country. During our minibus ride to Baalbeck, we were stopped at various security checkpoints, and at one point were asked to present our passports. We arrived in Baalbeck on Friday around noon, right as the main Muslim prayer of the week was being read out over the mosque's loudspeaker. At the entrance to the Roman ruins, beside the usual "Palestinian" scarves and tourist trinkets, were Hezbollah t-shirts in all sizes! A very nice Lebanese vendor tried to sell me one after he caught me staring at them, even after I told him I was American and didn't think it was a great idea. Hezbollah, although seen as a terrorist organization by the US, is quite popular in this part of Lebanon because they provide many basic services for the people living in rural areas, like education, health care, etc. After a couple of hours romping around Roman temples dedicated to Jupiter and Bacchus, we picked up some sfeeha baalbeki (a tasty meat-filled pastry typical of the region), and headed back to Beirut.

Finally, the two best things about Lebanon had to be the people and the food. The people were unendingly helpful and kind, and most put up with (and some even complimented) my Arabic. One episode stands out in particular: on the return trip from Baalbeck, a Lebanese soldier sat down next to our Dutch travel companions (a nice couple we had met at the hostel) on the minibus. They struck up a conversation, and when he found out which part of the city we were staying in, he told us that he was also headed there, and that rather than take the minibus all the way back to the bus depot, we should get off with him and take a city bus, which would be much cheaper than a taxi. He chatted with us for a while, and showed us exactly how to get back to our hostel - without us even asking him for any help at all. This is just one example of many of the wonderful treatment we received from the Lebanese at every turn. And lastly, the food. Ahhh the food. I have often been mocked by Arab friends for saying that I thought the food when I lived in Egypt was quite good, and was consistently told that Lebanese food was the best in the Arab world. And they were all right. Everywhere we ate, I was delighted by the fresh flavors and simplicity of Lebanese food. Lebanese hummus is the most flavorful and creamiest I've ever had. Lebanese fuul blew the Egyptian version out of the water. Katie and I (with the strong recommendation of Anthony Bourdain) even tried raw kibbeh (ground lamb meat with spices). It was quite tasty, although I couldn't quite get around the idea of eating raw meat and fully enjoy it. One night, we splurged on a bottle of Lebanese white wine, which was delicious and perfectly complemented our fattouch (Lebanese salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, and sumac). Here's a photo of a particularly nice meal at Abdel Wahab al-Inglizi

Overall, Lebanon, and especially Beirut, was a colorful, flavorful, vibrant mix of East and West. The kindness of the people and the breathtaking countryside left me wanting more.

Next update: the second part of our trip - a brief stint in Jordan, a long border crossing, and Israel!

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