Found: Weekend [1 of 3]

Amy generally does a much better job of the travelogery, but I thought I’d give my own account of the weekend.

Friday I did a long work day. It is definitely an indication that I’m getting soft that 10 hours constitutes a heavy day. We attempted to grill steak for dinner, but something about our meat just wasn’t right, so we abandoned ship. After a dinner of greenbeans and potatoes, we watched Grey Gardens. It was a doc about the eccentric aunt and cousin of Jackie O and the life they lead in a decrepit E. Hampton mansion. By way of review, I would say that the directors thought that their film could be carried by the intimacy of their material alone, as opposed to an over-arching story or statement. The result was a 1.5-hour plus patchwork of the Edie Beales arguing; the charm of which is lost after the first 30 minutes or so. Don’t get me wrong, their material is great, but there’s just so much of it….

Saturday morning we were picked up at 6:45am by our friend Joumana and, after meeting up w/ our friends Matthew and Mary Ann (as well as their two darling daughters), we made the trek to Baalbek, convoy-style. We were there in 2002 right after a blizzard, so the town and the ruins took on a considerably different dimension than that which we remembered. Under any circumstances, however, the ruins are a wildly impressive site. We have many visitors coming from the States in the late summer/early fall and we’ve vowed that this should be the last historical site they see. Anything else by comparison is just a pile of rocks with some acanthus leaves carved in them.

It’s commonly accepted that the the ruins are of Roman origin, but Joumana had a lot of interesting information about an alternate theory suggesting that they are actually of Lebanese origin, borrowing heavily from Roman and other styles.

Photos don’t really do it justice, but I’ve borrowed two of Amy’s.

After leaving the ruins, we more or less successfully dodged the post card and “antique Roman coin” merchants and visited the Amawi Mosque, which was really quite beautiful in a simple and elegant way. Also, Amy had to dress like a Jawa to go inside.

It should be noted that Baalbek is also something of a Hezbollah stronghold and Hez’B merchandise is available everywhere. One of our party–who shall remain anonymous–bought 4 tshirts for his/her Bush-lovin’, conservative relatives back home. The fact that the merch was more than happily sold to an American just ads another layer to the irony.

Before leaving Baalbek, we paid the obligatory visit to the Palmyra Hotel. The Palmyra is over 125 years old and is Lebanon’s first Western-style hotel. It boasts a prestigious guestlist, including Charles de Gaulle, Kaiser Wilhelm, Amy Campbell, and Ethan Holda. I have to mention that when we stayed there in Dec. ’02, we were plenty steamed that they refused to turn on the heat. I believe I remarked at the time (in a blog we were keeping similar to this one) that Charles de Gaulle would never have stood for that shit.

We winged it home in the early afternoon and upon being dropped at our apartment, promptly lapsed into naps. We’d been up since 6am and still had a music festival to attend.

[ PS: I found a dog or sheep skull in the grass, but much like the ruins, pictures don’t really do it justice. ]