Baalbek pictures

Siobhan and Dom are at the bottom of the first picture!!

Our first visitor...

Before I moved out to Beirut I thought about the sort of jobs I might like to do while I was here. One job I thought might be fun was being a tour guide. I'd learn a bit of history, learn a bit of Arabic et voila! I would be a fully fledged tour guide! In truth, the Arabic is taking its time to progress to fluency level, and the history of this country is very complex. So, when my sister Siobhan came out last week I decided to wait a little longer before testing my tour guide patter on her, and just have a fab week.

And I did! Siobhan was our first visitor, and I think I can safely say that she had a great time - we certainly did, and she assures me she did too! She negotiated the flights, visas etc with ease and everything (minus a couple of snowboarding-induced injuries) went very well!

As always, photos follow below. (I am going to try to load them onto a sister site so the posts don't look too long but I fear that may need html and my html is even more pitiful than my Arabic). We kicked off the weekend with a couple of snowboarding sessions - we got an instructor who was excellent and kept yelling at us to get up and try the turn again... even after our fiftieth fall - and by the second day we could both negotiate the turns reasonably well. Snowboarding does make you look cool and although I found it harder than skiing at first, I think I will keep at it as it is really fun. It is also easier to get up when you fall over!!

Well, the week wasn't all about twenty-first century sports, we also got a bit of history in. Lebanon is home to Baalbek - known as Heliopolis in Hellenistic and Roman times. It is, to put it simply, incredible. The second, and smaller temple (which is almost whole) is bigger than the Acropolis. The larger temple, of which only 6 columns remain standing, must have been huge. One of the photos show Dom and Siobhan standing at the bottom of the columns which gives you an idea of their height. (Not an original idea for a photo, I must admit, but it still looks good).

Siobhan and I also went to Byblos, the oldest continuously inhabited town in the world. (Their claim, not mine!). The first example of a written alphabet (the Phoenician) was found here on the tomb of a king. The tomb is now in the National Museum which reminds me a lot of the British Museum except it is smaller, and doesn't consist of things we have nicked. The site at Byblos consists of a Crusader Castle, a Roman collonade, some burial shafts, and evidence of settlements in Prehistoric times (I think). It also has a great Mexican restaurant and some souks that sell fossilised fish. Slightly bizarre but all very interesting. Despite the fact that it was a lovely warm day there was no ice cream for sale as they only sell it from March onwards. This is because many Lebanese are convinced that it is still winter and wear heavy coats and wooly hats even for a short walk outside. I was even told yesterday that the weather here was "just like London". It was grey, granted, but it was also 15 degrees walmer!!

Siobhan left yesterday, and by happy, but slightly late coincidence, Dom has gone to a conference to learn how to increase tourism to Lebanon. I await its conclusions with interest... I might even get some tips for the next visitor!!!!!

And here are the photos...

Looking Back, Looking Forward

As anyone who follows current affairs in Lebanon will know, Tuesday passed off peacefully. So peacefully, in fact, that I had a lovely little wander around the demonstration and was able to sample the atmosphere, take some pictures, listen to the nationalistic songs and generally look like a tourist, albeit a tourist who attends demonstrations. (On a "actually I do not feel like a tourist note", I bumped into someone - and a Lebanese someone - I know on the bus on Wednesday. Clearly I am now a local).

But back to the demo. At the top of Martyr's Square, where I started my wander, it felt like a family day out - lots of children and a generally chilled out atmosphere. Further into the demo, nearer the Mosque that you will see in the photos I am about to upload, the crowd was more energized, but the good natured atmosphere prevailed. As a caveat, I left around 12.30, so I am not sure if that was maintained, but I believe it was pretty peaceful all day. The police and army were out in force and much searching and looking into handbags was going on, but I certainly didn't feel intimidated at all.

So there you have it, a 'not much to report' shocker. And even the cars weren't hooting as much that evening! Fab!!

So instead of trying to analyse what that means for Lebanon, I will now go on to give you a narrative of what I have been up to this week. Walshe-James towers has been quite busy. I have worked two full days (very hard for a part timer!) and the social life has been full. Dom went to a birthday party last night where he was the youngest one there!!! I have been bonding with my work colleagues and have had a Lebanese haircut. Pretty similar to a British haircut, as you would imagine, but much speedier!!

However, the main news is that my sister Siobhan is coming over today to stay for a week - my first guest! We are going to learn to snowboard (clearly I am hoping that my prowess on skis is to be repeated - hopefully minus the long, embarrassing trudge down the hill this time), visit some Roman ruins, eat food, drink wine and bond!

As promised, I close with some pictures of the demo and of Dom in front of a fire truck.

Ski Success!

Thanks to the unique way that internet access can come and go in Beirut, I am blogging a day later than I planned. This means that for those who were looking for an insightful analysis of what may happen tomorrow, you will have to wait because a) I do not know - in fact, I don't think anyone knows and b) I am far too proud of my new-found ability to get down a ski slope to let my descriptions of this occasion go unpublished.

Dom, I and a few others went up to the Cedars at the weekend. Thanks to the wonderful bank holiday system here, where there are more bank holidays than hot dinners at the moment, we went up on Friday morning. I was determined to face the nemesis that was the red run at the Cedars, and lay the memory of me walking down the slope to rest. The Friday was bad. The snow was not good, and the skis we hired of poor quality. In fact, my friend Michelle managed to end up with skis that were different lengths! We persevered however, and I did make it down the red run once. But v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. I then kept going up halfway on the draglift to practice turns... but I kept falling off and I find it very difficult to get back up again. I know it is the first thing you are supposed to master but I appear to have zero upper body strength.

No matter, after a good evening out singing karaoke (I managed another Bonnie Tyler, a Mamas and Papas song and Alanis Morrisette - very eclectic!) I appeared to find better snow and some skiing ability! I got down the red run several times with only slight pressure on my hamstings and a slightly overworked backside from the effort of not falling over, even when headed in wrong directions!

Now, before readers of this site think that I am either very boastful or a late candidate for the winter olympics I must add that the skiing style I have developed is functional, not elegant. Purists would raise their hands in horror at the technique I have adopted. But, as the ski season in Lebanon is due to finish in a few weeks, I fear that the Walshe-Crouch, as I think I may term it, is here to stay, for another year at least.

Sunday was spent back in Beirut, listening to a variety of vans with loudspeakers broadcasting a mixture of political entreaties and pop music. And it is LOUD! Not only do have have to listen to people honking their car horns on a normal, everyday basis (as Lebanese drivers are wont to do), but everyone was honking their horns in a pattern yesterday. (The pattern is familiar to all who watch football matches: duh duh, duh duh duh, duh duh duh duh, DUH DUH). I am pretty pleased that I didn't have a hangover!

Anyway, this is continuing this evening. Beirut is gearing up for tomorrow, but for what, we won't know until then...

More pictures of Sunday...

I've uploaded some more pictures of Sunday. As I wasn't venturing out, they are all taken from different vantage points from the flat. They show men being chased by the army, people gathering in Sassine Square, and the scenes in my road after the police and army had closed off Sassine Square to prevent counter demonstrations. It is certainly a lot quieter now. I'm going to head past the Danish Consulate today to see the damage (what a voyeur!!) but it is likely that there will be a few more demonstrations over the next few weeks. There was one yesterday, for example, by some Christians. However, the fact that a lot of the more violent demonstrators were not Lebanese (many were Syrian, Palestinian or Bedouin - no nationality) seems to confirm the fact in a lot of people's minds that it was a minority of troublemakers, out to discredit the Lebanese government and give an impression of instability, who began the riots on Sunday.

The View from Here

My plan for today was to get up, go to the gym, take some pictures of Beirut, go for a walk along the Corniche (by the sea), have nice food, read my book and go to bed.

My actual day consisted of getting up, getting a call that basically said "don't go out", switching on the news, watching the Danish Consulate get torched, seeing the tanks and a few demonstrators go past the flat, seeing some trouble in Sassine Square, hearing about it on CNN a few minutes later as the reporter also seemed to be nearby, seeing an angry mob in our road, taking some pictures of said events, popping out to the supermarket when it all seemed a bit calmer, then rapidly realising there is still a lot of tension out there, quickly going back home and I am now about to make some not so nice food, read a book and go to bed.

We were out meeting friends in the area near the Danish Consulate last night. (We went to a really nice bar called Kayan.) The army/police were present then, so they clearly knew something was likely to happen today and it appears that there was only serious intervention by the police/army/fire engines after the worst had happened. We could see the smoke from the flat, and after a while it became apparent that some people were heading our way. As I said, the tanks, which I think actually were more like armoured personnel carriers (in any case they really damaged the road) were on the way. To give you a nice little snapshot of what the traffic is like in Beirut, even on a day when you think most people would be indoors, the tanks were then stuck in a traffic jam outside our window for about 10 minutes! They then took up position in Sassine Square and then people just stood around looking at the soldiers for an hour or so.

Then it appeared that another group of men were making their way to Sassine Square, presumably to demonstrate against the actions of the people who had torched the Danish Consulate and who were rioting. They were blocked by the army and police, and herded down our road. There was a bit of shouting, but it all seemed peaceful. Sassine Square has a bit of a reputation for being the place people congregate to either be pro Christian, or to antagonise Christians, and I would imagine the police/army were trying to stop that before another flashpoint occurred. Well, their tactics seemed to work as everyone dispersed after a while.

About an hour ago when we popped out to the Supermarket, there were two smallish tanks on the road, and, as I said, a bit of a tense atmosphere, but it does seem to have quietened down. I don't know where the demonstrators outside the Consulate went, I guess they were dispersed. All in all, a bit of a scary day. More for others than us, I know. A couple of friends had cars being torched outside their apartments, but everyone seems to be safe and are just keeping their heads down.

Anyway, a couple of photos of the days events to close, a view of Sassine Square with the smoke from the Consulate behind, and the tanks in the traffic jam. Sassine Square is like a smaller version of Trafalger Square before it was partially pedestrianised, without any National Galleries. Saying that, it is a very useful location as every taxi driver in Beirut knows where it is (and that is saying something!!!). I will try to upload more photos, but am not quite sure how to do it yet without completely crowding out my post. (I will have to do this separately, my computer is not liking the images at present!)