Lebanon/Cyprus

Well, these are two Starbucks mugs I never thought I'd be photographing:



As we narrowed down our places to visit, Mike really insisted on some time in the Middle East.  I had the same reservations that probably many others would have--safety, especially for my kids.  But I knew there would be bigger learning potential here than in any other place, Mike had a friend that made our arrangements in Beirut, and in the end it comes down to releasing the worry and trusting God.  And what a  learning experience this has been.  I came to the Middle East IGNORANT and now I'm proud to say that I left it just ignorant.

My two big disclaimers:  1) I am not a political science/history/econ major for a reason. I do my best to remember and google but apologize for any inaccuracies or uninformed thoughts.  2) I really tried to condense this. Feel free to just look at pictures or skip it altogether if this doesn't interest you :)

So first, Beirut:

Pigeon Rocks, one of the landmarks of Beirut

Bizarre to see this shop in the middle of Beirut.  We felt right at home!

The Corniche--the promenade along the Mediterranean

I have this weird fascination with license plates in each country.  Lebanon's are in both the Latin alphabet and Arabic, and they call themselves Liban.

The hookah pipe (shisha, in Lebanese) is everywhere.  Nearly every table in the restaurants had at least one by it.  We asked our waiter about it and he offered us one free to try.  Well, we're not smokers, but we ARE Dutch...

We visited the National Museum of Beirut, which was very interesting.  It amazes me that all these museums have numerous items from many centuries BC--just an everyday thing in this part of the world!

It was sad to see this mosaic which had been damaged in the LH bottom by a sniper during the Lebanese Civil War.  Another plaque explained that the museum director at the time encased exhibits in concrete so they would not be destroyed during the war.

We also visited the Robert Mouawad Private Museum.  This was originally a private residence of  a Lebanese politician and art collector, and later purchased and opened as a museum.  It was a fascinating collection of old books, china, tapestries and other artwork.  The girls were most excited to touch a gem studded bra worth millions of dollars--designed by Mouawad Jewelers for the Victoria's Secret runway show.

Lunch at Barbar--the Subway of Beirut, where we could choose our sandwich meat and toppings.  Sheep brains, anyone?  Or maybe just chicken :)

These guys really want their picture to make it to Obama.  Maybe through six degrees of separation we can make that happen?

We also visited the American University of Beirut.  I remember hearing a lot about this campus during the war.

And what's the first thing you see as you exit this American university's campus?  Figures.

This is Mike's friend, Roger and his wife, Youmna, who extended the offer to visit Beirut.  They set up many of our arrangements and invited us out for a great dinner.

 A note on all of Mike's international friends:  Mike has been involved in a three year training course for business owners or managers.  People attend from all over the world and he has formed some great friendships.  Many of them have offered open invitations to visit, so we took some of them up on that as we were headed to their parts of the world.  The intent was just to have someone local who could give us advice, but of course they've done so much more.  And it's been really fun for the girls and I to meet some of their families and learn more about life in different areas.

Roger set us up on a day tour with their family friend, Rosy, a tour guide.  She was such a sweet lady who was born in Egypt, moved to Lebanon as a young married woman, and now has a passion for Lebanon and its history.

We visited the town of Byblos.  The town has been continuously inhabited since 5000 BC and is thought to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world.  Our word Bible comes from this name.

On the way home we talked with Rosy a little more about her personal life.  She's 72 and uses her ipad for everything.  Here she's demonstrating a little Candy Crush.

We spent another day visiting the cedars of Lebanon, mentioned in the Bible especially as Solomon used them to build the temple.  They grow slowly and many have been wiped out, so we visited a reserve that's trying to increase the number.

Interesting factoid:  The difference between Lebanese cedars and others is that the pinecones grow up instead of down.

Our driver suggested this little local spot for lunch where they serve the manoush, a kind of Lebanese pizza.  They top them with an herb combination called za'atar, a cheese-like topping called labneh, or vegetables.

And then we spent the rest of our afternoon at one of the beaches outside of Beirut.  This one had two pools and a large swimming area in the sea.

 How can I possibly write about Lebanon in just a couple of sentences?  There is so much going on there and I know so little.  But I do remember hearing a lot about the war in Beirut and seeing news footage of fighting in the city.  The war officially lasted from 1975-1990.  You could say it was a war between Christians and Muslims or Palestinians, but there's always much more going on.  A lot of other interests got involved as well and even today Lebanon is sort of used as a pawn in the Middle East.  Many political candidates are supported by outside countries who would love to be able to influence Lebanon. Interesting to us is that Lebanon is one of the only Middle East countries that is still open to Christianity, so we're surprised we don't hear more in terms of helping them maintain this freedom.  Also interesting is that there are 4 million Lebanese in the country, anywhere from 12-20 million (depending on who you ask) outside the country, and the country also contains 2 million Syrian refugees.  As the world debates how to handle the million refugees that are flooding the borders now, just imagine a tiny country like Lebanon trying to support a refugee population that equals half of their own!

The people of Lebanon were great.  As we walked by, many would ask where we were from and then say "Welcome!".  They are also very proud of their country and sad at all the destruction and corruption that remains.  It was also sad to us to see the long lasting effects of a war's destruction.  Many things have been rebuilt but there are still so many buildings and areas that are abandoned and marked by bullet holes.

There is still a real tension in the city.  There had recently been (peaceful) demonstrations called You Stink in response to a trash crisis which really was a lack of confidence in the country's leaders.  The government response to this was to barricade the entire city center which includes the government buildings (but also many of the tourist sites!) so the people couldn't unite to demonstrate.  Of course, on our first day there as we were walking around, we ended up in this area and suddenly realized there were only barricades and soldiers there other than us.  But this was really the only time I felt uneasy during our entire stay.

This is the old Beirut Holiday Inn (the larger building in back) which was the center of fighting during the Battle of the Hotels.  A number of high rise hotels were used in the fighting.  The building, like so many others, still remains but is abandoned and you can see the bullet holes.

On our last day in Lebanon, we took a day trip south of the city to Sidon.  Sidon and Tyre are mentioned frequently in the Bible and I had no idea they were located in Lebanon.

Sidon's Sea Castle, built by the Crusaders in the 13th Century.

Old Sidon and new Sidon

Under the bridge leading to the castle were puppies.  Our driver said we could just take one for the day.  Sounded fun, except we had a pretty good guess what would happen to the poor puppy at the end of the day.

The old market (souk) area in Sidon.

One of our great surprises of this trip was a two day stay in Cyprus.  We didn't fully understand all the quirks of the Middle East.  Our goal was to go from Lebanon to Israel, but Lebanon is not a fan of Israel (Israel occupied parts of Lebanon for a while) so there are no direct flights.  Instead we had a required stopover in Cyprus first.  Cyprus is also an interesting place.  It's an independent country and part of the European Union.  However, the south side of the island is Greek speaking.  Northern Cyprus is a self-declared state called the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is only recognized by Turkey.

Faith wins the prize for load carrying.  Her suitcase handle broke so she now just slings that big beast onto her back with the backpack on the front.

Our fun rental van on Cyprus that had facing seats.

Cyprus was absolutely beautiful.  We only had time to explore a small corner of it and wished we could have stayed longer.  We spent one afternoon at this beach--Kronos Bay.

 We spent one night in southern Cyprus, but then traveled north for one night to get the Turkish experience.  This side of the island required a border crossing and was much less prosperous than the southern Greek part.

This is an area called Varosha, commonly called the ghost town.  This was an absolutely gorgeous white sand beach and used to be the hot spot for the rich and famous.  The lounges are on the last usable part of the beach.  Beyond that, the area (including a large area inland) has been fenced off.  In 1974, when Turkey invaded, the inhabitants fled.  They thought they would go back when things settled, but instead Turkey allows no access except the military and holds on to it as a bargaining chip.

We randomly chose a place to stay in Famagusta, Cyprus.  Turns out this is a huge walled city with much of the wall and the citadel intact.  We had fun exploring and were impressed that even the school football field used the old walls as its enclosure.

As I'm writing this post, we're in Kenya, following a short time in Israel and Jordan.  Still on the list is a stop in South Africa and then we'll be ending our adventure with a month in Mexico before returning to the US in time for Christmas!