Bon voyage, Beirut...

After three and half action-packed, sight-filled, highly-fulfilling days in Beirut and beyond, it's just about time for Ben and I to wrap up the first leg of our journey and move on to Part II, Syria. But first, a recap of our last day in Lebanon and our overall impressions of the country and its capital city.

Today was a day simply devoted to wrapping up a few loose ends and seeing all of the sights in Beirut we hadn't quite gotten to(as well as those we'd seen at night and hadn't been able to get quality pictures of).

Our first order of business was printing out our hotel reservations for Aleppo, Damascus, and Amman, as a precautionary measure to help our chances of crossing the border into Syria successfully. Although you are "officially" supposed to acquire a Syrian visa from the embassy in your home country, many travelers have been able to obtain them at Syrian border crossings. It's not necessarily a guarantee that you'll get in, but it's a gamble that we were willing to take, especially considering that visas at the border cost $100 less than ones obtained from the embassy. Don't ask me why. Having proof that we would be staying at hotels in Syria and, perhaps more importantly, would be exiting for Jordan after only three days, would certainly help to facilitate the visa-approval process, which can apparently takes about 5 hours on average. Fortunately, we've devoted an entire day to crossing the border.

After that busy work, we grabbed some cheap breakfast (a cooked cheesy wrap for 2000 LL) and took a cab to the National Museum of Beirut, a "most see" according to our Lonely Planet travel guide. The museum didn't disappoint. It was an astounding collection of art work and artifacts from the ancient world, much of it coming from 2nd century BC through 4th century AD. Although the sculptures and images had a recognizable Roman or Egyptian or Byzantine flair to them, it was interesting to note that they had all been produced in the Beirut vicinity. In fact, many of them had been discovered in Byblos, the town 30 km to north that we had visited just two days before. The fact that so many different types of artwork had been produced in Lebanon highlights the great variety of imperial influences that have shaped the country's history and culture over the centuries. For some great pics (and a movie) from inside the museum, head to the Beirut album and scroll about halfway through.



Next on our agenda was a trip to the Robert Mouwad Museum (spelling is off), a private mansion that houses an impressive collection of jewelry and impressionist art. However, though our Lonely Planet guide was spot on with regards to its recommendation of the National Museum, its directions to the Robert Mouwad Museum were very poor. Despite being convinced that we had arrived at the location the book illustrates, there was no museum to be found. Although, to be fair, we did discover an old mansion, not in use, across from a office tower entitled "Robert Mouwad Building." Perhaps the museum was once housed in the mansion and had simply closed?

Though a little disappointed, we moved on and attempted to locate another museum. We eventually came across this one (name escapes me), but it was unfortunately under construction, and not open. Bummer. We had spent over two hours trying to track down museums that were either closed or non-existent.

Our wanderings had been fruitless, but at least they had placed us smack dab in downtown Beirut. We were able to revisit many of the sights that were unphotographable a couple of nights before, such as the al-Amin Mosque and St. George's Maronite Cathedral (pictured right next to each other in the picture below), although we were prevented by security from taking pictures of the prime minister's residence, a bit of a disappointment. We headed back to Hamra, grabbed some dinner, and called it a day.



Beirut, and Lebanon as a whole, is a highly complex place. Throughout my brief time here, I was overwhelmingly struck by the dualistic nature that defines this country and its capital. For instance, although many areas of Beirut carry a distinctly European vibe, walking a few kilometers from downtown will bring you to an area that is far more similar to Cairo than it is to Paris.The Muslim-Christian dichotomy is also very noticeable. For the most part, the two religions seem to come together to form the complete picture of Lebanon, as I've attempted to illustrate with the image above. Churches and mosques are spread uniformly throughout the city, and Muslim and Christians live side by side in relative peace. However, it is difficult to forget the sad consequences that have emerged when the country's religious factions were unable to resolve their differences. Also striking was the contrast between the new glitzy and glammy developments in Beirut and the scorched and bullet-ridden buildings that often stood a few feet meters away. A similar visual of this apparent paradox is the sight of Porsches and Ferarris driving down streets lined with razor wire and guarded by armed guards and a tank.

This type of dichotomous relationship also defined our experiences in Lebanon. On the one hand, there were several highs, most notably our day trips to Byblos, the Jeita grotto, and Baalbek, the delicious food we had in Beirut, as well as the sense of accomplishment we developed when we could use the mass transit with ease or make our way back to the hotel from kilometers away on intuition and sign-reading alone. But there were also some low points, including getting overcharged for our taxi ride from the airport, getting denied entrance at a club on Thursday night, getting ripped off at a bar, and staying in an expensive, but inadequate hotel. As Ben (who I'm beginning to realize is very wise) said, it's important not to weigh our overall time in Lebanon based on a few individual incidents, but instead, to reflect upon the overall experience. With this in mind, my Lebanese experience has been phenomenal. I've gotten to see several breath-taking, one-in-a-million sights and I've been able to get somewhat of a feel for this truly unique culture and country, that is distinctly Arab and European, Christian and Muslim, at the same time.

With this reflection fresh in my mind, I prepare to say good-bye to Beirut and Lebanon as we depart for Syria tomorrow morning. We're not entirely sure how it'll work, but we're planning to catch a bus at 7:30 am, get dropped off at the border, acquire a Syrian visa (God help us!), and make it to Aleppo by night-fall. Feel free to wish us good luck...we'll probably need it.