Putting spring break to rest...

Well, I am now officially back in the swing of things here in Egypt's capital. I completed two days of school, had four servings of koshari in less than 72 hours, and spent an entire day doing nothing mention-worthy. Man, it's good to be back!

Anyway, I'm going to do one last post reflecting on where I've been over the past two weeks and what I've been up to, before finally closing that chapter and moving on. But rather than do a big write up, I'll make it a little easy on the eyes and whip up some lists. So without further ado, I present to you the highs, the lows, and everything in between of Spring Break '10.

The Five Best Food Items

1. Kafta wraps from University Sage, Beirut: located right across from the beautiful AUB campus, University Sage is one of many tasty eateries that line Bliss Street. It sets itself apart with its hearty, delicious, and fairly cheap (2500 LL = $1.65) kafta wraps. We had them on three occasions during our time in Beirut.
2. Soft serve on the streets of Aleppo: Walk through the streets of Aleppo, and it's hard to go more than a minute without spotting a vendor whipping up soft serve vanilla ice cream. Though it wasn't anything exotic, it was a sweet little snack on the very cheap side (5 Syrian pounds = $.10)
3. Chocolate filled croissants in the Old City of Damascus: While on our way to a minibus station, we stumbled across a bakery serving fresh goodies straight from the oven. The pastry itself was quite good, but tack on the fact that its warm and fluffy and the chocolate is gooey and at 10 Syrian pounds you've got yourself a winner.
4. Ice cream from Bliss Street, Beirut (pictured): Just a few meters away from the kafta wraps of University Sage was some of the most decadent and delicious ice cream you'll ever see. Of course, since it was on our way back to the hotel and we'd just finished dinner, we had to stop and indulge ourselves frequently.
5. Pizza bread Damascus's Old City: These mini-pizzas, coming in cheese, veggie, and meat varieties, were the perfect option for a light afternoon snack. At 15 Syrian pounds (= $.30) a piece, one could afford to get a few.

The Three Worst Places Stayed In

1. The New Swedish Hostel, Jerusalem: The only thing Swedish about this place was the name, unless you consider grumpy staff and bathrooms with ceilings so low you can't use them to be Swedish. I understand that prices go up during the Easter season, but charging $22 a night for a bed in a 16 person dorm is blatant piracy.
2. The Regis Hotel, Beirut: The Regis was actually the nicest hotel we stayed at; it was also the most expensive. It was nice having free internet (when it worked), but the apathetic, impatient, and irritable nature of the young man who ran the place was a major turn off. Plus, the bathroom always flooded whenever the shower was used.
3. Al-Rabie Hotel, Damascus (pictured): At Al-Rabie, you get what you paid for. In our case, that happened to be a roof top bed. While the building itself was very nice and had a cozy little lounge downstairs, between the cold and the calls to prayer, roof-sleeping was a pretty uncomfortable and inadequate experience, at least for the first night. 

The Nine Most Favorite Attractions 

1. Crusader castle/Roman ruins of Byblos: Perhaps it was the picturesque Mediterranean backdrop or the fact that we had the whole place to ourselves for a couple of hours, but I absolutely loved Byblos. It may not have been quite as expansive or awe-inspiring as some of the other sites, but I explored every nook and cranny of it, doing my best Nathan Drake impression along the way.
2. Baalbek's Roman ruins: Maybe my ignorance of all things Roman is to blame, but I was simply dumbfounded by what I saw in Baalbek. Not only was the number of ruins impressive, but the sheer size of some of them was astounding. I've said it once, but I'll say it again, if you want to see good Roman ruins, come to Lebanon.
3. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem: Attempting to explain this place is a futile endeavor. Simply put, it gives off an ambiance that no other place in the world can match. Its hodge-podge assembly, dimly lit corridors, and embarrassment of holy sites leaves those who enter bewildered and taken aback, but undeniably imbued with a sense of awe. Truly one of the most bizarre and mystifying places I've ever set foot in.
4. Petra (pictured): The admission fee at Petra is pretty steep (33 Jordanian dinar = $46). However, since it's entered the ranks of the new Seven Wonders of the World, I suppose its earned the right to be overpriced. And it's not like we didn't get our money's worth: we spent a whole eight hours hiking and climbing. While the ancient structures weren't as numerous nor as impressive as I thought they'd be, the natural beauty of the landscape was worth it. It was if an artist's palette of a multitude of reds, oranges, yellows, pinks, and browns had been carelessly spilled on the barren rocks, without any rhyme or reason.
5. The Krak des Chevalliers- The Krak is the absolute epitome of a childhood fantasy castle. It's massive, it's foreboding, it's perched amongst the clouds atop an barely-scalable mountain.The passages inside the castle were vast and provided us with ample ammunition for exploring. However, the fact that they were shooting a film there, and the place was littered with cheesy Pharonic-themed set pieces was a bit of a detraction. Nonetheless, the view of the castle cast against a cold, gray sky was priceless, and provided me with a mental image I won't soon forget.
6.  Jeita Grotto: Nestled in the valleys of the Mt. Lebanon mountain range, the Jeita Grotto is a startling place of natural beauty. Here you'll find rock formation formations of every shape and size, each individually molded by time and the steady drip of water. Inside, it felt like walking through some type of Gothic-style cathedral one would encounter in a dreamworld. Not being allowed to take pictures kind of stunk, but the boat ride in the submerged lower cavern was certainly a highlight I don't need visual documentation to remember.The 
7. Aleppo Citadel- "Duh-duh-DUN...dun-dun-dun!" That tune, straight out of Lord of the Rings, was instantly playing in my head the second I saw the Aleppo Citadel's epic ramp.Stretching across the now-empty-moat to the citadel's gatehouse, it's no wonder enemy forces were never able to penetrate this fortress atop a man-made plateau. 
8. The Ummayid Mosque in Damascus: The Ummayid Mosque is a sprawling complex, easily the biggest and most impressive mosque I've been to yet. The art work that adorns its courtyard, over a thousand years old, depicts simple daily but in an ornate fashion. It also doesn't hurt that the mosque is home to the final resting place of none other than Salah al-Din, as well as the Prophet's grandson, Hussein, and the head of John the Baptist.
9. The National Museum of Beirut - Simply put, one of the best museums I've ever been to. The extent of its of collection of Roman sculptures and artifacts was impressive, yet the museum wasn't cavernous enough to lose a sense of approachability and warmth. I would've loved to see what wonders it housed before the Lebanese civil war.

The Six Lowest Low-Points

1. No Escape from Israel: We were feeling pretty good about skipping out of Jerusalem a day early and getting back to Egypt in time for a day of rest and relaxation before classes resumed. We'd been traveling for 12 days at this point and were ready to be done. When we learned that no public transportation would be active the next day because of Shabbat, I was honestly distraught. In the end, we did manage to make our way back to Cairo (expensively), but at that moment when I thought we were stuck in Jerusalem for another day I was at my lowest point since being over here in the Middle East.
2. Stuck in Karak/Missing Jerash: We had a fool-proof plan devised to see both Karak and the Roman ruins of Jerash in one day. Unfortunately, we didn't account for transportation alterations due to it being a Friday. As a result, we ended up waiting on a bus in Karak for over two hours before it even began moving. Not only did we not see Jerash, but we didn't get back to Amman until after most of its attractions were closed as well.  
3. Dinner at Kababji:  It was our last night in Lebanon and we thought we'd celebrate a little by taking it easy and going to a sit down restaurant, Kababji. The place looked nice, but not too expensive. They had "platters," which, although at 15000 LL were a lot more than we typically paid for food, sounded pretty filling. They ended up being entirely inadequate, a reality that stunk even more considering filling kafta wraps for a sixth of the price were right around the corner. It may sound a little silly, but we beat ourselves up for
4. The Days after Petra: Not going to lie- Petra ravaged our bodies. Apart from the damage done to our joints and muscles from the grueling eight hours of scaling mountains and climbing over ruins, our skins was in serious distress after being exposed the the hot Jordanian sun sans any protective ointment of any kind. This one day of severe exposure had long-lasting ramifications: I got tired more easily, was constantly itching, and experienced sharp pain whenever anyone touched my shoulders or neck. My skin is still peeling.
5. Lost in Beirut:We'd enjoyed a pretty productive afternoon getting acquainted with beautiful city of Beirut. But as night set in, we ran into some complications returning to our hotel. After walking for an hour in what we hoped was the right direction, we made the mistake of thinking we were home free after coming across a familiar landmark. However, one wrong turn took us at least a half hour out of our before we came to terms with the fact that we were lost. I'll never forget opening the book after we learned we were at the Pigeon Rocks, locating ourselves on the map, and wondering How the heck did we end up here?
6. Complications at the Airport:Being detained at the Beirut airport for 45 minutes was no way to begin a trip. It turned out to be just a minor bump in the road, but at the time, I was scared our entire two-week vacation was about to be derailed.

The Four Greatest Surprises/Disappointments Encountered

1. Syrian Hospitality (pictured): Our Lonely Planet guide book certainly didn't lie: the people of Syria were warm and inviting. Whether it was the man who tried to give us his sandwich in Aleppo or the worshipers at a Damasucs mosque who practically dragged us inside to observe their celebration of the Birth of the Prophet, Syrians demonstrated a kindness that you wouldn't expect from the rap their country gets back in the US. While I definitely feel that the Syrian government is anything but peaceful and harmless, the Syrian people certainly deserve a classification of their own.
2. Israeli Craziness: It should probably be expected around Easter time, but Jerusalem was bonkers. It wasn't really the sheer amount of people rushing to and fro- I was actually expecting that. Rather it was the absurd expensiveness, the irritating street vendors, and the over-zealous commercialization of spiritual sites. Plus, shutting down the entire country on Shabbat was a little irritating. I understand you've got your religious tradition, but seriously...can't the Muslims or Christians drive the buses at least?
3. Middle Eastern Diversity: It was extremely refreshing to see that no city we traveled to was like Cairo. In fact, no two cities we traveled to were the same at all. Beirut was highly swank and cosmopolitan, Damascus was stately and vibrant, while Aleppo was charming and calm. Each place had its own distinctive feel to it, and each gave off a different vibe. A pleasant surprise to find that not every Arab city is noisy, polluted, chaotic and full of professional scam artists. Which leads me to...
4. Epytian Scamming: You mean to tell me that despite the fact that I'm a student in your country, I've already paid $30 for visas on two separate occasions, and I'll be living in your borders for the next four months, I have to pay a 75 LE entrance fee? While this was certainly a disappointment, it shouldn't have been a surprise- Egypt is more or less the land of the scam.

Well that's that. Funny how I chose to write in list-format to avoid excessive writing and then end up sitting at my computer for two hours. Oh well.

My two week journey through Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Israel was an amazing adventure, one unlike any I will ever experience again. There are some things you can only do when you're young and carefree and I think this was one of them. I made some memories and saw some things that I won't soon be forgetting

Before wrapping this up, I want to give a final shout out to my partner in crime, Mr. Benjamin Michael Gavel. Simply put, if I had gone with anyone else, this trip just wouldn't have happened. Ben and I had the exact same goal in mind: to see as much as we possibly could, as cheaply as we possibly could. And boy did we live by that mantra: we slept in dumps, took public transit everywhere, ate almost exclusively from street vendors, woke up by 7 am almost every morning, walked whenever the opportunity presented itself, and beat ourselves up for days when we mismanaged time or over-paid for food. It was an ironclad partnership founded on shared desires and mutual respect, which saw its way through plenty of tight spots and rocky passes, but no worse for the wear. There were times when I felt like slowing down or taking a day off, but Ben pushed me to press on and I like to think I did the same for him. We both helped each other to get the most out of the experience and had a great time while doing it.

So as corny as it sounds, not only did I have a heckuva trip, making oodles of memories that will last a lifetime, but I also forged a battle-tested friendship along the way. Not too shabby.

In case you're wondering, this is my happy face in pictures. I actually do like the guy.