Reliving Lebanon

So…Lebanon.  I have intentionally waited a really long time to write about my spring break trip to Lebanon.  I could have finished it up in a few summary posts and been done with it, but I knew I wouldn’t be doing that.  I wanted to give a day-by-day travellog of every place we went, where we ate, and who we met for the entire trip.  Every moment of my stay in Lebanon was exhilarating and new for me, and I wanted to share it all.  However, I knew that if I ever wanted anyone to read anything of mine ever again, I should probably avoid that, so I waited, hoping that certain memories would fade, leaving only the times that were truly worth rehashing for an audience.  That hasn’t happened.  Now that I’m back in the states, I am thinking about Lebanon even more from doling out souvenirs or asking that repeated question, “So which place was the best?”  Lebanon was the best.  It was the one country out of the four Arab nations I visited that I could really see myself living and being very happy.  I loved the paradoxes of Beirut and the religious sites of the nearby mountains.  I was blown away by Jeitta Grotto, and I fell in love with the piles of history in Byblos. 

Flying over the Sinai Desert on the way to Beirut from Dubai.  Flights were being rerouted to avoid flying over Syrian airspace.  Maybe if I'd done this 3,700 years ago, I'd have seen Moses on one of these mountains.

Today, I’ll start working through my catalog of memories from Lebanon to hopefully give some decent insight on the country.  I felt like we (me and my boyfriend) were the only tourists in the country at certain times, and we had access to experiences that few travelers do, from visiting a closed-invitation horse race in Beirut to descending a black pit to stand next to a tomb in an ancient royal necropolis.  I hope that my laziness and other obligations don’t rob this blog any more of the attention it should have been receiving since I’ve returned from Dubai.  And, finally, some posts can support my name-choice and at least appear to be ‘due by Sunday.’