Lebanon Stories


Jeita Grotto, Jounieh and Qadisha Valley

Today is my last day in Lebanon, and we are going to see the cedar forest in Qadisha Valley in the north, going along the coast and stopping at Jeita Grotto, Jounieh and Byblos. "You see that pickup over there?", Mike asks as we are driving towards Jeita Grotto. "In the war we used to put machine guns on the back of those and drive around with", he c...


A day on the streets of Beirut

I woke up this morning from the sound of car horns outside my window. Mike had warned me that during weekdays, trafic jams can be quite bad and everyone is using their horn to try to get where they are going before everyone else. For breakfast we had something called Foul, which apparently is a Lebanese dish made from chickpeas and fava beans cooked ...


Tour of the Beqaa Valley, and cow tongue

The day started with a breakfast consisting of Man'ouche Za'atar, a type of bread with a mixture of thyme, sesame seeds and salt on top. This is the most common Lebanese breakfast according to Mike, and the taste was strong, almost too strong for my liking. After this we hit the road. Today we are going for a tour of Beqaa Valley. The Beqaa Valley is...


Arriving at Hayete Guest House

It is Saturday evening and I have just arrived at Hayete Guest House in Beirut. Hayete is Arabic and means "my life" or "my sweetheart". The guest house is located in the Achrafieh district right in the middle of Beirut. It is a rather small building, more of a hostel than a hotel. But it feels very authentic, very Libanese for lack of a better descript...