Lebanon has surprised me. That is the first thing I would like to note. Actually Sanna and I were quite concerned to even visit Beirut due to the Middle East happening. Gosh were not quite sure why we were even worried. Lebanon is super welcoming and very easy. Most of the locals all speak English very well and if they don't speak English they know French.
We stayed in a hostel during our 4 night stint. At first thoughts the hostel seemed to be not the best choice but now looking back on it ... One of the best places we've stayed at! So many cultured people who stayed here and the staff was super welcoming! Made a few friends and new contacts for future travels!
The first night we got to the hostel around 5pm and we then ventured down this long staircase after a 5 minute walk to the most happening and hip street. The 2nd day we walked and walked around Beirut. We realized that walking around this city is not the safest as the sidewalks are very small and crowded and the cars park everywhere, it's actually really hard to get around. We got back somewhat early and we had dinner plans with a friend we made in South Africa who is Lebanese. He took us to this very posh restaurant where we tried plenty of local dishes. It was soooo much food but great experience, did I mention I tried lemon and mint shisha there? After of course having Apple for brunch! We hung out with a few people at the hostel and got our fortunes told By our new Turkish friend . When you finish Turkish coffee there is a residue the bottom and that holds your future apparently
The next day we did nothing really but sit at a cafe and do research and smoke shisha. I tried strawberry this time. The cafe was super cute and had the best desserts which Sanna really enjoyed (the ice cream). On day 3 we ventured off on a tour to Byblos and the grotto. Beautiful both of these. The grotto was this underground cave with natural artifacts and Byblos was this ancient roman feeling city. We got back to our hostel and just hung out with two of our new friends Adnan from Syria and Ahmet from turkey. We had a few drinks with them and then got a sandwich and hung out at the hostel and ordered a shisha. Ahmet made some delicious mint tea but no horoscope readings that night!
It was really nice to relax in Beirut and hang out, the city doesn't have too much to see but it has a lot of culture in terms of the people. Off to Jordan!
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