Amy’s Journal

Yesterday I went on a little road trip with Carrie and Lisa. Carrie is our journalist friend who is probably going back to the US in a few weeks. I met Lisa beccause she is working at Association Najdeh for the summer. We rented a car (Carrie drove) and were off.

We first headed to the Chouf Mountains to Beiteddine, quickly stopping on the way to check out the very kitschy Moussa Castle. I’ve seen this place before, and it is listed in the guidebooks, but had never stopped in. I think there were more tourists there than anyplace I have been in Lebanon (a couple of busloads of Jordanians plus others). Mr. Moussa is an old man, whom we actually met. He had big dreams as a kid to own a castle, and I guess at some point, he made it big and was able to build this thing. The structure itself looks like a big, bulky carnival castle. Inside he has filled it with these sort of mannequin/sculptures which depict different scenes of Lebanese life and other random stuff, including a scene where he is being beaten by his teacher as a child. Some of the figures are mechanized and the whole thing is just bizarre. It also houses a huge antique gun collection.

We moved on to Beiteddine (House of Faith) where we enlisted a pocket sized and toothless guide. He gave us a tour in a mixture of English, French, and Arabic, so we only caught so much of it. The rooms in the palace are amazing. All we really got to see were reception rooms but they were lovely, with the ceilings and walls being ornately decorated. We also checked out the hammam (bath house) and wandered around on the grounds. There is a huge festival there every summer, and the stage was being installed.

Then we headed on to Aanjar, way over near the Syrian border (to give you an idea of how small Lebanon is, it is not much more than an hours drive from Beirut). The ruins at Aanjar form the only remaining Umayyad city in the Middle East. The Umayyads were one of the first Islamic dynasties, beginning in about 660. They were responsible for the Muslim expansion into North Africa and Spain. Aanjar was built very early on, so there is still a lot of Roman influence in the architecture. We had lunch in Aanjar city as well. Since the town is now mostly Armenian, we were hoping for some Armenian food, but the restaurant where we ended up turned out to be Lebanese. Lebanese food is fantastic, but it’s, well, everywhere. This restaurant was open air, with lots of flowers and a fountain, and even ducklings and baby rabbits wandering around the little landscaped area next to our table.

After a quick stop at Ksara for a wine tasting (and touring the caves where the wine is aged in barrels), and a re-visit of the town of Zahle, we picked up Ethan back in Beirut and drove to Broummana in Mount Lebanon for dinner. It’s so amazing that you can drive off the coast straight into the mountains, and half an hour later be perched high above the city breathing mountain air.