Lebanon - Byblos, Enfeh and Tyr

Byblos is a small city from the UNESCO Heritage, situated on the Mediterranean coast and is known to be the oldest constantly inhabited city since its creation in 8000BC. By mere chance we arrived there right on time for the sunset and we managed to find the old harbor with the perfect spot to enjoy the breath taking burning colors of the sun setting in the sea. I love when everything turns out perfect without any plans :)  

The old harbor bathed in the yellow colors from the setting sun

The perfect place for saying goodbye to the setting sun is the pier by the old harbor and more precisely the ruins of the medieval wall used to protect the city


Byblos has a small and beautiful center with a lot of ruins from medieval temples and on the coast we could see the remains of the old crusaders defensive fort. During the night the city bursts with life and all the small streets get quickly filled with souvenir shops, music and lights. An amazing place for a beer or a delicious pancake - there is no need to mention we tried both.

In order to see the other face of Lebanon and check how does it feel to go there for a summer tourism we decided to take it easy and visit the beaches around Beirut. Not that there are no beaches in the capital itself but we were told that we should not go there for swimming as the water is quite dirty. That is why the first stop was 11 beach. This name reminds me constantly of a comedy joke with two Scottish guys trying to get to the 11th floor of a building using an elevator with voice commands :) But anyway, we paid the entrance fee and and enjoyed the warm sun. Yes, in Lebanon you have to pay in order to go to the nice and clean sand beaches and they think about your health as there is always a restaurant with cold beer and 'shisha'. The diversity of the beaches in Lebanon is quite big and some of the places are so hidden that there is no way you can find it on your own. It was great that we had our 'local' friend to show us around as we would have never guessed where to go. For one of the places you had to drive through a banana plantation, for the beach in Enfeh you have to go through the graveyard and after that through people's balconies. The sand beach in Tyr is huge and there are 59 restaurants right next to each other and each of them was full of people. We passed by one of the free beaches with the car and there were mainly Muslims there. To be honest i felt sorry for the women. They had bathing suits according to their religion that covers the whole body and looks like neoprene and in the unbearable heat they looked like a pack of penguins piled under the shadow of the umbrellas.

Enfeh beach - if you want to sunbathe you can lye right next to the table. if you want to eat - no problem the food is amazing

Entrance

The place looked like Greece as everything was white and blue but the music that was playing was from Serbia


After the sea we climbed high uo into the mountains to Deir Al Qamar, a small village that is know as the 'capital of the emirates' It was very calm and pleasant place from where we continued to Beiteddine palace - The palace of Faith. It has been built in 1788 and according to the legend after it was completed the emir ordered that the hands and legs of the architect are to be cut off so that he would not be able to build another palace more beautiful than this one. Of course the emir did not pay to the workers as well but at least left them intact. Now the palace is quite trendy among the newly weds as while we wandered around we say a lot of weeding photo shoots.
As we expected the ruler had a harem and amazing bath. most probably he has been a maniac for clean feet as there were at least 20 places where you can wash your feet and only one toilet for example.

According to the legend the emir looked towards Deir Al Qamar and saw a light coming out of the hill. He ordered his solders to dig there and if they find an Islamic symbol to build a mosque but if it is a Christian - a church.They dug a rock with a cross on it and under the rock the symbols of Moon and Venice. Now the rock can be seen over the old door of the church.

on the left on the square is Fakhredine Mosque - the oldest mosque in Lebanon built in 1493г.

Let us feel like royalties for a little bit :)

 the amazing bath

One really small part with the foot sinks.most probably they have a special name but there was noone there that could explain anything

The last stop for the day was Tyr a city that is only about 20km from Israel border. They have really long coastline alley that is mainly used for riding motorbikes and where you can find small vans selling coffee and fresh. The people did not speak any english but we managed to ask for an umbrella for some shadow and the coffee they served us was awesome. The old city of Tyr is a maze of small narrow streets where we got lost with pleasure while looking for the 'old market'. By the time we managed to find the market most of the shops were already closed as it was Sunday.
But for me and for all the people that like 'stones' the best place was the old ruins from Roman times. Besides the stone paved streets, the remains of ancient churches, roman baths and columns we saw the biggest arena for horse chariot races. At both ends we could still see the columns marking the end of the track. Also part of 480 meter long tribunes where 28000 spectators used to sit are also standing.

Part of the arena

Full house - me and Joro with our hosts Vihren and Tihomir. With the beard and the suntan all people thought that Vihren is local.

Part of the hallway from where you could reach the tribunes.






We said Goodbye to this day and Lebanon with another amazing sunset

Lebanon - Jeita Grotto & Baatara Gorge

One of the biggest attractions in Lebanon is Jeita Grotto cave. It has two levels and in the second level you have to go in with a boat and if you can go depends on the water level as very often it is closed during the winter. Luckily it hasn't been raining in Lebanon lately so the whole cave was open for visitors. We bought tickets and quickly went on the queue for the first attraction a gondola with four cabins that go back and forth and not in a circle as we are used to. This turned out to be very common in Lebanon as later on during the day we were on a lift that was going backwards - it was really fun actually and we felt like small kids.
But lets go back to the cave - very unfortunate but they gathered all our phones and cameras at the entrance as it was strictly forbidden to take pictures and it was so beautiful inside. I was speechless..For now Jeita Grotto is number one for beautiful caves for me especially the water part where the guys that were driving the boat were amazing, the literally past only a few millimeters from the walls.

The cave man in front of Jeitta Grotto

From under the ground we climbed quite high for the next attraction which we accidentally found out. While we were driving on something like a road through the mountains we saw a statue high up on the ridge of a rock and stairs leading to it. Of course we could not resist the temptation to check it out and started climbing the stairs. The heat was brutal and the stairs were never ending but finally after we were up. And it was definitely worth the effort as there was not only a statue with awesome view towards the whole valley but a small path carved in the rock with small sculptures of saints all the way to the end point which turned out to be a monastery. The name 'stairway to Heaven' that we gave to the staircase turned out to be quite exact. Unfortunately everything was is Arabic so we could not read any of the signs but we think that it is a Maronite sanctuary, one of the religions with the biggest number of followers in Lebanon. Maronite are Christians and it is believed that the name of the religion comes from St. Maron, a Syrian priest that lived during 5th century.

 Last part of the stairs - vertical

 And finally

The road is way down

The small path that leads to the monastery

And this is me on this amazing place :)

I almost forgot to tell you about the restaurant where we had lunch and that was one of the most authentic ones during the whole trip. It was right by a small waterfall by the road with huge terrace where a family of about 15 people were also having lunch. But they also had all their stuff scattered all over the restaurant, the kids we constantly running back and forth and on every table or chair there were wet towels, bathing suits or clothes. At first I thought that this is not a working restaurant but private house but when we sat they gave us menus, luckily with pictures, and took our order. Right behind us there was a goat that was just killed and while we waited for our lunch they put the body on a hook, skinned it and cut it into pieces. After this quite messy procedure one of the guys took a hose-pipe and cleaned the floor. Meanwhile the oldest man put his prayer rug on the floor, prayed and then sat with the rest to smoke hookah (or as they call it 'shisha' ) while the fresh goat meat was cooking. We could not have found a more authentic place than this and on top of this the food they brought us was unbelievably delicious. To be honest i think they just gave us from their home made food as we were the only 'outsiders' there.
After that colorful lunch we took off for the next attraction which was supposed to be a beautiful waterfall Baatara Gorge. As we ate quite a lot at the restaurant we felt really lazy and as soon as we saw that there is a chairlift we did not hesitate for a second but got on it to get us down to the waterfall. We thought that it is included in the price of the entrance ticket but when they started calling - Mister, mister, miss when we took off it became clear that we have to give some money. But it was not some money but whole 10 USD per person for 50m chairlift, pure robbery in my opinion but where else can we use a lift that is actually going backwards :)
Unfortunately we were not lucky with the view here as when we visited Jeita Grotto we were happy that it hasn't been raining for a long time but when it comes to a waterfall lack of water is definitely an issue - the waterfall was dry. Yes, it was beautiful again but compared to the pictures we have seen in internet this was just a bare resemblance
It was quite scary on the rocky brigde

With or without water we are still having fun.

Lebanon has been very famous with the cedar forests in the past but unfortunately almost all of them has been cut down and now there are just a couple of protected nature parks where you can see cedar trees. According to the GPS that Joro had only 7km away there was such park. Well 7km are nothing so we decided to go and check it out. Well after just a few minutes drive the road became very narrow and really steep with a lot of U-turns. I am not sure that anyone was using this road at all as the only movement we saw was a shepherd who was sitting on the road and did not even try to move away when he saw our car coming by so we just tried to pass by him without injuring him. A lot of turns later there was still no sign of park or trees or even civilization when Joro decided to mention that these 7km were straight line on the map but the actual distance via the road was completely different. OK, that would not have been a problem if our gasoline was not almost over and there was no mobile coverage. At one point we even had to stop and look if the road was continuing as the hill was so steep that you could not see the asphalt. Finally we reached the bottom of the hill and the next challenge appeared - the other side was as steep as the one we just passed but this time we were going up and i was really worried if our small Kia will be able to manage it. Well we stopped the air conditioner at one point in order to have all the needed power for the uphill and suddenly after a turn we found ourselves in some peoples backward. It was not our fault it was the road that was going through there and they were quiet surprised to see a car coming out of nowhere but at least the civilization was reached. Cedar trees we did not see but you have no idea how happy we were when we saw the gas station :)

the Hero:)

Almost in the civilized world.

Lebanon - Beirut and Harissa

Thanks to a friend of mine who was sent to Lebanon for a few months i got the idea to pay him a visit (thanks Vihren). Just when i found who will accompany me Bulgaria Air announced a direct line Sofia - Beirut. Well this was definitely sign from destiny. Everything happened really fast - we bought two tickets and a week later we found ourselves at Beirut airport. First impressions: 28 degrees at 4AM are a little startling making you wonder what is the temperature like during the day. Well it was the same during day but with shining sun :) During the next few days we discovered that the temperatures are almost the same 24h a day. 
As real tourists we started with a walk in Beirut. Vihren dropped us off on the alley by the ocean and said - wander around, there is a map in case you get lost. And we trying to feel the local atmosphere but besides feeling the pouring sweat nothing else happened as there were almost no other crazy people walking in the midday heat. When we were pretty close to having a heat stroke the main attraction Pigeon Rocks just appeared in front of us. and We managed to take a few pictures and hurried to find some cafe and a shade. This relatively easy task turned out quite difficult at the end. It took us almost an hour until finally - the place was found. It's not that we were picky just in Beirut there are neither parks no benches under a tree where you can sit and relax for a while.

 Very tall buildings on very tall rocks. Their favorite place to build was on the edge of a rock.

The Lebanon coffee and the relaxing shadow gave us some energy and we were ready for Harissa. The town was very close to Beirut but the time needed to get there was quite long due to the unimaginable non stop traffic. And as i said traffic i really have to mention a few things and explain the madness on the road:There are almost no rules or at least there is no one that follows them. The traffic lights are somewhat obligatory during the day but i really wonder why they still work during the night as nobody gives a sh** what color the signal is. The markings on the road are just for beauty as if they show three lanes this for sure means that there will be five lanes with cars, and if you have to go through a city then the sidewalk is the perfect place to drive and pass everybody else waiting in the traffic jam on the road. As far as for the motorbikes even the direction of the lane is of no meaning - you can drive in the opposite direction, perpendicular of the traffic or on the walking alley. And despite all this chaos i did not see a single driver getting mad, there was no beeping with the horns and everybody was driving really calm and looked relaxed

In order to get to the cathedral on top of the hill in Harissa you have to take the gondola and then just enjoy the magnificent view towards the bay. A huge statue called 'Notre Dame du Liban' with its arms reaching towards Beirut is also open for visit there. It is said that this statue of Virgin Mary is one of the most important sacred places in the world and is also a very famous place for prayers. There was a wedding when we went and we were wondering if we could stay for the party after the ceremony but i really doubt that with shorts and flip flops we would have blended with the guests :)

Somewhere there Beirut ends but where exactly no one can say

They gave me a scarf to put on my shoulders - we have to respect the sacred places

And the funny crew :)

The clouds and the sun made the view even more beautiful

I really wanted to stay for sunset up there but the gondola was closing before that so we had to go down