Lebanon and Sharm el Sheikh...Amazing Spring Break

Sooo it's been quite some time since my last post, partially due to laziness, partially end of semester shenanigans such as papers, presentations, and the like. I have a lot to write about and might not get it all done in one post, but I'll try to catch up on the past couple of weeks festivities in the next couple of days or so and still the events that are going on now.

So April 7th, Me, Mae, Kayla, Deb, Kaitlin, Alex, and Jackie all left to go to Lebanon for spring break. Somehow we were all on the same plane, even though we all booked our tickets on different days and did not do it intentionally at all. Good luck on our part I guess. The first night, Kayla, Deb, and Kaitlin stayed at the Embassy Hotel in Hamra which was about 10 mins drive or so from where Jackie, Alex, Mae and I stayed. Jackie found a great deal on this hostel which was only $9 per night that we stayed, and the other girls who stayed at the Embassy ended up joining us after their first night there which was really nice because then we all got to be together, especially since we couldn't really use our phones to call each other because the rates were 4 LE p/minute to call and 2 LE p/text which is really expensive.

So the first night we got there, we were excited and it was still pretty early since our flight was only about 45 mins or so (less time that it takes for me to get to school in the morning!). We decided to walk around a bit and the guy who ran our hotel, Talel's, gave us a map and some directions and told us a few places that we might like to check out. So we set off on an adventure, first mission: exchange money. The exchange rate was the craziest thing I'd ever heard of.... 1500 Lebanese Lira per $1 US dollar! I felt so rich when I went to the ATM and it gave me 50,000 bills. So we were using the ATM at this gas station and the first thing that we notice about our surroundings is that half of the store is filled with liquor which was pretty shocking because in Egypt hard liquor is barely sold, only in one shop that I know of.

So after leaving the gas station, we decided to walk along this street Gemmayzeh which is supposed to be famous for its nightlife. Walking to get to this street, and even once we get there, we notice how rich people in Beirut must be. I've never seen so many Mercedes-Benz, BMWs, Corvettes, Porches, and even Masartis and Bentleys in my LIFE! and especially not so frequently. All of the clubs and bars that were on the street were so nice and upscale. So we walked around for a bit and ended up at this one place 55 where we hung out for a little bit taking in our surroundings.

The next morning, we wake up to the sound of Kaitlins voice which made all of us happy because since we split up at the airport for us to go to Talel's and them to go to the Embassy, we had no clue of their whereabouts and what they were up to. After they got settled, and got themselves a room at Talel's as well, Jackie and her wonderful Lonely Planet found tons of things for us to do over the next couple of days.

I can't exactly remember every single thing that we did or on what day but for the most part the breakdown went like this:

April 8th: We went to the Jeita grotto which was probably one of the most amazing experiences of my life. They're actually trying to make the Jeita grottos one of the new 7 wonders of the world, so if you ever get the chance to go to Lebanon, you KNOW you have to visit it! The guy at our hotel called a driver to take us to 3 different sites for about $10 each, or 15,000 LL which was better than taking the public buses but it was definitely more uncomfortable. Being the shortest, everyone decided that it would be best for me to lay across 5 peoples lap in the backseat of a normal sized car for the entire time we drove around...thanks guys if I haven't said so already :-p. So in total, there was 8 people squashed in this regular 4-door but somehow we managed.

The weather was pretty sucky this day... it rained which was amazing because we haven't seen or smelled or felt the freshness of it in so long, but on the other hand, Mae and I had just gotten our hair done about 2 days before, so you know I wasn't happy getting my hair wet (luckily I managed to salvage it for a few more days). Back to the grotto! So we paid for our admission and decided to take one of those air rides, like at Six Flags, to the upper grotto. We weren't supposed to take any pictures so they tried to make us leave our cameras in lockers, but most of us took them with us anyway. The inside of the grotto was a cave with lots of stalactites and stalagmites everywhere. It looked half like the movie The Descent, and half like the Mario Brothers movie because some of the rocks were covered in the same looking slime. It was still amazing, and even the way it was excavated and set up is really impressive. I don't know how people can do things like that without destroying the valuable history inside. Once we finished the path and got a few pictures (which we did get in trouble for taking, even though we tried to be discreet), we went down to the lower grotto which was almost the same thing but instead of walking, it was a body of water and we got into boats which took us around and we got to observe the walls and ceiling of the grotto while in the water. It rained the entire time we were there which gave the place an almost chilling effect but it was definitely the perfect day for it to rain.

After the grotto, our next site to visit was to this place where we took the gondola lift, the Téléférique into the mountains of Lebanon. It was also like the car at Six Flags which you take from one side of the park to another, except this car took us straight up into the mountains which was an AMAZING view of the entire landscape. At the top there was the Lady of Lebanon statue on top of this long, winding staircase that you could take to get to the top. There was also a church there which me and Deb went into for a little while. It's amazing how peaceful and quiet it was and it felt really nice to be in a church again after so long.

We never made it to our 3rd site, I forget exactly why, but pretty much everyone wasn't really in the mood because of the rain so we decided to go to Spinney's instead (a large hypermarket...almost like a Wal-Mart, but more food selections) to get some food to make for dinner and possibly breakfast the next day. We were trying to be conservative since we knew we'd be spending a lot of money going to see different sites. While there we stocked up on meat, cheese, tortillas, tomatoes, and peppers, so you can guess what we had for dinner.... Yep, fajitas!!! They were amazingly good, probably more so since we were starving by the time we got back to the hotel. We also got some pancake mix, eggs, and syrup for the morning so that we could make some breakfast. Oh and yes, we did have an open kitchen while we stayed there which was pretty cool so we didn't have to keep eating out all of the time.

Perhaps I should elaborate a bit more on our living situation, since I know you are all probably confused by the concept of a hotel having an open kitchen for its guests. Our "hotel" was more of a big house, and the entrance was down a little alley, and our rooms for some reason were always damp. We also had no windows in our room (which the 4 of us shared) so we would wake up in the mornings....damp, cold, and sunless only to go outside where it was hot and dry with lots of sunshine. It was very deceiving. When we got there one of the first things that we were informed of was the 15-minute showering policy which we got in trouble for once in a while for not adhering to. The bathrooms consisted of a toilet space as well as the shower in there, just connected in the wall. So just imagine going to your local public bathroom (it was almost the same size as one) and there being a showerhead on the wall as well. Of the two bathrooms on our floor, only one of them had a mirror, so for the most part we all had to share one bathroom, 7 girls...imagine. So that is Talel's New Hotel in a nutshell, but it was also very fair for the price that we paid and the people who ran the hotel were really nice and even more accommodating.

After we ate, we went back out to Gemmayzeh, back to 55 where we hung out for a little and then we all went out for shisha at this sports club a little while away.

April 9th: Today we went to what was supposed to be Byblos, but apparently we all slept on the bus ride PLUS our driver didn't stop so we ended up in a completely different city, Tripoli. Byblos is famous for the crusaders' castle there and while there we also visited the crusader church of St. John the Baptist. The drive there was a little long, it was supposed to take around 45 mins or so but ended up taking double that because we ended up in Tripoli, but it was another adventure nonetheless. We didn't stay at the palace for too long because Alex had to take a midterm online that her professor wouldn't budge on (and then didn't even post her questions on time!) but we got to see pretty much everything in the time that we did spend there. While at the castle though, surprisingly I bumped into a few girls from my class at AUC which was so funny because we weren't even in Beirut which is where we were all staying...but in some random location at this palace!

We went to eat after that at this little restaurant which had really good food (I got a cheeseburger, yum!) and then we went to walk around a little bit more. We needed to find out what time the last bus ran, so everyone besides me and Kaitlin went to figure that out, and us two stayed in the little shops looking at jewelry and such. We had to leave soon after that so we just stopped at this little sweets store on our way to the buses and I got these little cookies, some filled with chocolate and others filled with this sweet, orange stuff (but they were really good!) and the others got ice cream. The ice cream was so fresh though and sooo delicious. I've never had ice cream fresher and that actually tasted like it came from the fruit it's supposed to.

Getting home was quite an adventure, and probably our most daring the entire time we were in Lebanon. So we go to what we were told was the bus station to get our tickets to go back to the hotel only to find that there is no bus that takes you back to Beirut. So the guy who was there instructed us that we pretty much had to hail a cab off of the highway and hop in to get back. Sooo instead of taking the long way around the parking lot, we decided to take the shortcut which meant trailing down through the grass and then jumping off of the ledge onto the freeway. Really safe, I know. On top of that, I was wearing flip flops which made for an even better time. Once everyone was down a minibus pulled up almost immediately and imitated for us to get in, but not knowing exactly what we were supposed to do we waved him off. The next bus that stopped, Mae asked him if he was going to Beirut and he said yes, so we all piled in and was finally on our way back!

After we finally made our way back to our hotel, everyone was a little tired, so most took naps but Kaitlin, Jackie and myself headed out to find the beach and relax a little. We headed out and of course didn't know where we were really going and ended up wandering onto what we thought was a resort but I guess must have been some type of military place because the guard wouldn't let us through. Then we tried wandering off into the desert and got yelled at by another guard so we gave up and just kept walking. We passed some cool architecture and saw some stores that we could never imagine going into, like Versace and Rolex but perhaps one day...

We went back after a little while and ate dinner with the rest of the girls once they woke up from their nap. We ended up having breakfast for dinner which was still yummy all the same.

We went out to this club called Chocolate that night which was a lot of fun. The place was set up really original with mini stages and open areas where people could dance. They played a lot of techno and house music which I didn't really like, but all in all everyone seemed to have a good time for the most part which I was happy about.

April 10th: This morning we went up to the mountains of Lebanon, which were still covered with snow. Surprisingly it wasn't really that cold even though there was snow on the ground and again, I went in my flip flops because I didn't bring any other type of footwear with me to Lebanon. It ended up being alright though since it wasn't freezing and we had a little snowfight, beating each other up and having a nationality driven snowball fight. Colombia vs. Egypt vs. America vs. St. Martin. Apparently there is no peace in the ME and the UN "makes no treaties" LOL. After we left the mountain we stopped at this fountain which produced fresh water which came directly from the mountain and there was a beautiful view of a waterfall. We hung out at this place around there for a little while but then Mae of course got in trouble for debka-ing and we had to leave.

We all went back to the hotel and rested after this since we were all sleep deprived, but then went out again at night to explore the nightlife once again. We walked around for what seemed like hourssss looking for this one place Crystal which we couldn't find for the life of us. We did pass by a Facebook Pub though which was pretty interesting. Also while walking we came into contact with a really weird individual which we literally ran from, 7 girls, most of them in heels. Fun times. We couldn't find any good places to go to within walking distance so we ended up going to this club B018 which was the craziest place I might have ever been to. At one point in the night the roof of the club opened up and we were dancing under what was about to be the morning sky. The place was underground which was really cool, and of course they played techno music as well all night.

April 11th: On our agenda for today was Baalbeck, in the Beqaa Valley, which was Roman and Byzantine influenced. We visited the temple ruins during the Roman period which was amazing to see and take in. Deb and I got our ticket for the Egyptian price because we used the little Arabic that we know...everyone else (except Mae) paid the full amount for their tickets. Thanks mom and dad for my ethnically ambiguous looks ;). The ride here also took quite some time and we only stayed for a few hours because Jackie and Alex were leaving that night for Cyprus and she had to be back in time for her flight. Kayla, Kaitlin, and Deb were also leaving this night but a little later for their flight to Jordan. So we spent a few hours there, climbing different rocks and taking lots of pics. Kayla even got a battle scar from her date with the rock lol. The rest of us managed to leave unharmed. After leaving, we collected a few souvenirs from some women including Hezbollah shirts and K got a Palestinian scarf. And Mae got watermelon ice cream....

The rest of our trip is TO BE CONTINUED for a time when my fingers aren't about to fall off from typing...so until later tonight or tomorrow!