Expected and Unexpected: Beirut

First I want to say thank you to everyone who has been reading and commenting on our blog. Also for those of you who havn't picked up on it the blog is now speaking for both me and my cousin Paul, hense all the 3rd person references. I also have not been responding to comments because of the time factor, keep up the comments though, its nice to hear from all of you. And now the blog proper:

Beirut - like nothing either of us expected. Trev was suprised by the modern, westernized Beirut. I, fully expecting the modern and the western, was suprised by its incompleteness. I suppose I have no notion of the effects of war. Still heavily under construction, Beirut still rebuilds. That said, incredible strides have been made. Walking from the Talal New hotel - where we stayed three nights in dormatory style - We passed the elite shopping districts and high priced car dealerships. We spent that day swimming and sunning at the beach. Maybe too much sunning. After a quick hike to the Rawsah Rocks - or "rock rocks" if you translate it - we took a cab ride home and had a terrible dinner. Trev found out the hard way that spilling beer all over locals is not the way to start a meal.

Next day, the food gods smiled upon us.  We stumbled upon one of the best breakfasts of the trip: Torino in the Gemmayzeh neighborhood.  We would return there on our third day.

Again we hiked across town to the American University of Beirut.  Easily the most beautiful campus either of us have ever seen, the campus overlooks the sea.  Green and flowering, the campus too is under heavy construction.  After wondering around, we took an official tour.  then we sauntered along the sea shore.  We had an excellent French dinner at La Rouge and called it a night.  THe next day we flew to Cyprus.