Chez Sami (Resturant)

The sea, the delicious food, the nice view... Everything fits perfectly, in Chez Sami, a great restaurant in Lebanon. The sea was quite rough, so don't imitate my silliness of getting in the sea... As the sun was going down, hiding under the crystal waters, we were have an amazing meal. It was really exquisite to have such an amazing restaurant that comes in a package, with tasty food, and a beautiful sea. I actually despise sea food, but my taste buds changed their minds with the splendid food. The best thing about Chez Sami is that it is close to Jeitta Grotto, which might fit perfectly in a tourist's schedule. It could actually be a fantastic place to swim, if you go there on a sunny day!

The River in Yahchouch

Instead of being obstinate and stubborn, insisting on staying at home, watching TV, we decided to take off to Yahchouch, (a small village in Lebanon) to look for a waterfall and a river. We all thought that we knew exactly how to get there, but I guess we were utterly wrong... When we passed the highway, we started to get lost. So, we climbed up and up, all the way to the top of a mountain. But then we started to get puzzled, thinking that we were not even on a road. It took us one hour more than it was supposed to take us, to get there, since we were clueless and went the long way. When we finally got there, our dogs did not wait a second and leaped into the river. Well, we did not find a waterfall... It was fun, playing in the river with one of our dogs having a blast, splashing everybody with water. An old bridge went across the river; it was quite beautiful but I had a feeling that it could collapse any second. We had to jump from rock to rock, to catch my dog who was having the time of her life, since she was swimming, nonstop. It was a good experience and a lesson: Whenever you decide to go somewhere (specially in Lebanon) you have to have CLEAR instructions.

The POSITIVE + The NEGETIVE

Have you ever visited Jeita Grotto? Well, I highly recommend it, if you're on vacation in Lebanon. Jeita Grotto consists of two huge limestone caves, which are nine kilometers long. I was quite content when I saw the beauty of the fragile stalagmites and stalactites. To me it was a natural splendor and a fascinating sight. The lower cave, actually had water in it. So, we went in a small boat around it on the icy cold water. The upper cave did not contain any water, but it had a small path going around the whole cave. Jeita Grotto is still attempting to become one of the 7 wonders of the world. When I saw the two magnificent caves, I had a feeling that I was going to vote for it. But as we walked out of Jeita Grotto I changed my mind. I saw a sight that made me sick to my stomach. There was a small monkey locked in a small cage trying to escape. Sorrow filled his face... And sadly he was not the only tortured animal over there... Two porcupines were kept in one small cage which can barely fit a hamster. I despise the thought of putting tortured animals in cages. Despite the tortured animals, it was an amazing wonder.

The Golf Club

The morning, the most advantageous time of the day to go and swim in the Golf Club. At that time the pool was clear with no crowds. Well, as the day passed by, more people started to come and that was when the whole pool was utterly crowded. The sun was blazing hot, so eventually all of the chairs emptied as the sun shined more beams on the pool. It was the only thing to do, in that kind of weather. Well, the people weren't the only ones having fun, small birds were pleased with all of the chips next to each chair. That was the highlight of the day... As everybody was having fun, on cloud nine, the cars were roasting in the sun. So, you can imagine what happened when we got back. We had to rush to get back home, because of our tight schedule. Well, paradise can't last for more than five hours. The Golf Club has everything, a pool, a golf course, a tennis court and probably much more. What else can it have?

The Hubbub of Adventures

My earliest memories of the past are a confusion of discovering Lebanon's beauty. Well, after the days faded away, I remembered all of the places I have been to, the caves: the forests, the fields, the rivers and the ruins. As you can see, the previous years have been somewhat of a hubbub for me because of all the wonders I have been to... This time we went in the other direction, to the South, to Tyre. It was a lengthy drive full of bumps and turns. And tell me how you would feel as you pass "Mount Garbage," a stack of junk, which I think will soon reach the height of Mount Everest! It was shameful to see all of the garbage, from not only the people living in Tyre, but also us. Well, as we passed that shameful sight that I despised, we got closer to the bright side of Tyre. We finally arrived at the restaurant (the only break that we got before we visited the ruins). I was absolutely impressed with the restaurant; it left me quite content. While we were waiting for the waiters to bring the food, I went with my aunt, who has the same personality of discovering like me, to explore the restaurant's surroundings. An old man, was building a boat, the old way, and he claimed that his son just made a boat much bigger than the one that we were amazed at... After, we finished eating at the magnificent restaurant, we went to the ruins. The ruins were really interesting. They made me realize how much history Lebanon has. The thought of people from a long time ago standing on the exact tile, I was standing on, left me speechless. What would happen if all the history in Lebanon got erased?

The First Sushi Bar in Beirut (Le Sushi Bar)

While we were on our way, flying through the mist of white fluffy pillows, my mom grabbed a lengthy magazine and began to read about all of the famous restaurants in Lebanon. I was sitting next to my mom, glancing at the magazine, looking for something fun to do. Then, my eyes caught on a fancy ad about a Japanese restaurant. It stated that it was the first sushi bar that opened in Beirut. So, I pointed it out to my mom and she recognized the name instantly, since she had been there a long time ago in a different location. Now, here we are today, trying out the Sushi Bar. To our surprise, the food pleased our taste buds so well that it was like a party in our mouth. Our aunt Rhanda, from Chicago, (the capital of delicious food), loved this restaurant. Plus, she never knew that Beirut is also famous for Japanese food. We just could not resist the feeling of eating the whole restaurant. It was by far the best restaurant that I have ever been to. For sure, we will be coming back often, but next time we will order even more...

The Perfect Country

Lebanon is the perfect place to live in for some people, because it has everything. It has wild forests with meadows, sprinkled with the rain of mother nature. It has a city with flashing lights and buildings, trying to reach the sky. Up in the misty mountains, the villages surrounded by rows of trees get the privilege to breath in God's most valuable gift, fresh air, and play in nature without using electricity or polluting. These are Lebanon's main traits that we should all be thankful for. But there is one big problem... Pollution in the sea. On Sunday we decided to go to the beach because of the sun, which was annoying us with too much humidity. This time, we decided to go to a beach in Beirut which was not far from our house. And we were lucky to choose a beach right next to the Pigeon Rock. But the bad news was that we could not swim because of the selfish sea who brought in too much garbage from the horizon. So, we ended up swimming in the pools. I wish that we can just send all of the garbage out of this precious planet, so we can all relax... But we still have to be thankful for what Lebanon has, that other countries don't have.

Soo Ugly... So Beautiful... Lebanon (Poem)

Walking around I see garbage,

I see old, old buildings that can't be called ruins,

I see the rich and the needy,

Up in Debbiye I see glittering, sparkling water,

I see trees and trees that symbolize nature,

I see the habitat filled with life,

A land with no rules,

A land with no use,

A land with tortured creatures,

In Beirut business is extreme,

Downtown is full of shops,

Full of riches, and luxuries

A place that you can call New York in Lebanon

Though we try, garbage is everywhere,

In the blue and blackish sea,

On the streets, everywhere.

The ruins up in Baalbeck are well known,

and famous,

The rivers, the joy of discovering,

Lebanon might not be the perfect country,

but it is perfect to me.

The New Park for Bicycling

Beirut is usually referred to "a bad place to go bicycling". But the new park disproves that saying. Of course if you go bicycling there you won't see trees and benches, it is just for bicycling. Over the weekend I went to that park to bicycle, the road (in the park) was sooo long, that it would take you about 1 hour to go around the whole road 1 time! But that is the best part! It was the first time I went bicycling in Lebanon, so it was really fun. The best thing was that there was a side (of the road) for walking and a side for bicycling and it was next to the beach. Still, if you want to hear about the negative side, here is a list of negative stuff: motorbikes were driving with the bicycles, I found a cat in the middle of the road and someone was about to run over it. Well I could write negatives all day but it was really fun!!

Al - Mandaloun

Over the weekend, I was searching for a restaurant to go to. Then I found a restaurant called "Al - Mandaloun". It turned out to be a seafood restaurant , which was next to the sea... It is in a place called Biel (in Beirut) which reminded me of Denmark.

We were planning to go to the beach that day, but it was good that we didn't. Since spots of white (jelly fish) were all over the sea. The check was high, but I already predicted that it might be expensive because of the Ferrari and Porsches parked in front of the restaurant. Or is it because we ordered too much shrimp? But the food was still one of a kind and delicious.

Downtown

We are going to Dubai soon for vacation! It is REALLY DIFFERENT THAN LEBANON. This is all in Downtown (in Lebanon):

Downtown is known for it's shops.
















It is know for it's old architecture.











It is know for it's ruins.'

It's known for it's TRAFFIC!

IS THIS LEBANON?

In the Beqqa Valley there is a big monastary. It is twice as big as the university ( A.U.B ). Getting there was unbelievable! We probally passed 20 trucks, because the road to the Beqaa valley is also the road to Syria. But it was all worth it, as you can see in theese two pictures. The place was like a little farm. They had cows and calfs that were adorable. I opened my eyes breathing in the refreshing breath of nature. Then I suddenly realized that this was not a dream. It looked like Sweden, it was amazing.

Then we saw a horse, we asked one of the guys passing "do you give horseback riding lessons here"? He answered "yes", so we decided to try and ride the friendly horse. The horse was gentle and absolutely calm. I realized that for sure we will be coming back. We went into the stall and saw them milking the cows. Then we saw rabbits in a huge cage and birds in another huge cage too. Then we headed off to eat in a restaurant full of Lebaneese food and foreigners. After we ate, we went to a lake in the monastary. It was full of ducks and swans. Directly one of our dogs named Shadow jumped into the lake, scaring all the ducks away. The lake was very big but that is not it's maximuim size. When it rains the whole lake get's filled with fresh water. When we came back to Beirut, I was sad.... my dream was over.

The Path to Nature

We wanted to do something other than staying home and our dogs really needed some exercise. So we decided to take the dogs with us and go to a path leading to a camp called Eco Village. Eco Village has small huts that you sleep in, a farm and a river. The houses over there are made out of logs and sticks. I never knew that the path would stay the same as it was a year ago. I thought it was going to be full of bullets and dead trees. But it was full of life. Our dogs enjoyed walking there so much, because it was full of different smells and they love walking. On the right side of the path there was a small pond. Trying to keep our dog “Shadow” away from the pond was a challenge. She loves swimming more than anything.

The Only Park

Sometimes I feel like I want to go somewhere instead of staying home all day especially on Sundays! That's why parks exist. Beirut has no parks, well there are some parks but they are really small. Beirut finally found space to build a park. This park is not finished yet but it's open. It's mostly for riding your bike; they built part of the park on the sea. I thought it was going to be small like the other parks but it was huge. It's perfect for running and bicycling. I wish they let dogs in the park, it would have been perfect for our dogs to run around and have fun. They still have to finalize it by adding grass and more benches. Well it’s still nothing like the parks in America!

Hamra Festival Parade

A lot of people go to places like Downtown and the Corniche in Lebanon. There is a small street in Beirut called Hamra. People decided to make a festival for Hamra. That includes a big parade and much more stuff like concerts! We went to watch the parade. I thought it was like the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, but it was not. It was fun but putting a limping horse with a bleeding leg in the parade was just shame! But it was cool and fun with the punchbuggies and Harley motorbikes. There were also cars with figures on them. At the beginning we watched a show including clowns fooling around on the street. It was a good idea to have a festival; I'm sure it will make Hamra more popular. Even the Lebanese army came to play Lebanon’s Anthem! At the end there was an amazing fireworks show that amazed us!

Mika's Concert

Live or not Mika is amazing, it's not just one song from him that is nice. All of his songs are great!!! Some artists just sing for the sake of geting money but Mika enjoys singing every single song he makes! When we arrived at the concert (in Baalbeck) we had to wait 1 hour for everyone to come and sit down, but it was worth it. Then the lightsstarted flashing and then Mika suddenly apeared on the stage! It started late and ended very late and nobody even closed their eyes! After each song Mika would talk about the song that he will sing next. He even tried to speak arabic!! He is a really funny guy! Every minute somebody would jump on the stage and try to touch Mika! So the bouncer's had a lot of work! Mika said that it was his second time at the Baalbeck Festival. The first time was when Mika was 15 and he went to watch Sting's concert! At the end the orginizers started to throw the pillows on the chair and everyone copied them! So the stage was filled with pillows but Mika had fun throwing the pillows back at the crew and the audience. At the end Mika said that he loved Lebanon! You have to agree... Mika is amazing!

Zahle

We took an exhausting 1 hour drive to Zahle planning to sleep in Zahle for one night. We got tickets to the Mika Concert in Baalbek that starts at 8:00pm and Baalbek is close to Zahle. Because it is not that smart to just go to the Concert at 8:00pm and go back home at 11:00pm! Meanwhile, we could enjoy Zahle before the Concert! We went to a church with a tower in Zahle, so we could see the whole town of Zahle from far! The view is nice but I didn't enjoy walking up the stairs to get to the top of the tower! Then we went straight to the river. It didn’t really look like a river. It looked like a canal. Around the river there were arcades, restaurants and stores! It was amazing, but the river was not that clean! Then we went to one of the restaurants near the river! The food was good but I didn’t enjoy it because I couldn't wait to go to the Mika Concert! I will tell you all about the Mika Concert in another post! The only thing I will say about the Mika Concert is that I was amazed!

Bezantine Church

This time, during my adventourous weekend, we visited the Bezantine Church in Jieh, where you can find the mosaic of the story about Jonas. This historical ruin dating from 800 years ago, is now wrecked. But instead of taking care of the church, the Lebanese authorites kept on blaming the responsibilities on others. If this ruin was in any other country, it would be clean, and full of tourists. But the ruin was nice. Before all of this, we were in a beach called Jonas, named after the prophet Jonas. For crabs, Saturday is always like a holiday. They were spread all around the beach. The waves were huge, throwing me off my boogie board.

Lebanon is...

In the Maldives I always heard my dad say: "I saw this before in Lebanon!" while we're staring at a tropical fish. But then, if there are tropical fish in Lebanon, why did we go all the way to the Maldives!! Well, there are sting rays in Lebanon, but tropical fish, no way! I never knew that there are dolphins and turtles in Lebanon until I got on a boat and I saw dolphins and turtles with my own eyes. It was unbelievable! It is hard to find dolphins in Lebanon. All those wonderful creatures hide in the Mediterranean waters. The water was so clear, I felt like I was in the Maldives. To me it is impossible to not swim when I see clear, clean water. Lebanon is now worth gold to me! This is where I belong! The best thing about Lebanon is that the mountains are close to the sea!! Lebanon is changing in a good way!! Press here to see a close up of the water. Lebanon is beautiful!

Back to Lebanon's Beauty

A foreigner might think that Lebanon is a dirty country with war, but that is totally wrong!

We went to a place in Lebanon called "Debiyye". We all hated it except my father! But now I got tricked without knowing by my father. He took me to an amazing river, it was also in "Debiyye"! I was surprised because last time we went to "Debiyye", I hated it, but now I like "Debiyye", just because of that trick! The river is super clean, with crabs, frogs, toads and fish!

We were taking a risk, going down the bumpy mountain to find a path to the clean river! I fell a billion times and hurt myself, but it was worth it!

The village of "Dibiyye" is also beautiful! All the people there are almost related to our family and have the same last name! "Dibiyye" is amazing!