Lebanon Day 6
Breakfast
Just like every other day, we started out morning in the hotel restaurant for breakfast. We are treated like celebrities during breakfast because David is cared for by his favorite waiter, Tony. As soon as we walk in, Tony jumps into action and hooks us up with Turkish coffee.
hakel
Our first stop of the day was in Hakel, an area know for their fossils. We hiked part way up the mountain to a little valley where fossils can be found in abundance. They give you a chisel and a hammer to try and break the rocks along the fault lines. We were actually able to find some nice little fossils. Our guide, Sara, was very sharp. She is studying to be a medical doctor and will get her M.D. at the age of 25.
Byblos
Next we made our way Byblos for a nice visit and lunch. Byblos is a small port city that has been continuously inhabited for over 8,000 years and controlled by 17 different cultures. Lunch was local fish at a restaurant right on the water. The place was super busy, but of course, Ismat made sure we were well cared for and she charmed the waiters to the point that they were putty in her hands.
In Byblos we saw the following:
- Churches
- Mosques
- Crusader Castle
Assam
At the end of the day, we met David’s friend, Assam. They have known each other since they were 6 years old.
Jounieh
On the way back to Beirut, we stopped in Jounieh to ride the cable cars and the, teleferic to Our Lady of Lebanon Church. The cable cars are built right in between the apartment buildings. After arriving at the top, we took the spiral staircase up to the top of the Virgin Mary sculpture only to be presented with a very disappointing finish to our small journey to the top. As David complained, there was no celebration to the fact that you made it to the end. There was just a very small termination where lovers would place locks on the railing.
Social Media
Instead of heading out for the night, we hit up the hotel bar, Duke of Wellington. We met a father and his daughter sitting at the bar. The father studied physics in Mississippi before coming back to Lebanon to teach. His daughter was born in the US, but left before she was 2 years old. She really wants to return to the US based on what she has seen on US social media. We told her that most of social media in the US was a bunch of bullshit and she really needed to live in the country a while to know what the US was really about.
