I Go Places: Lebanon
Favorite bits from Lebanon:
Beirut! It’s amazing, gorgeous, tragic, and fucking hardcore. Swaths of it are still annihilated from the civil war. You’ll have a shelled-out building next to a pile of rubble next to a fancy café next to an under-construction luxury condo hi-rise next to a crater next to an adorable little restaurant, with a platinum-plated Bentley idling outside. The food is uniformly delicious–even overlooked staples like pita and hummus are next-level “you can’t get this in the states” sorta fare—and often shockingly cheap. We had falafel and shawarma from Barbar for about five bucks, and tooth-crackingly cold Almaza beers were like two bucks in our hotel’s bar. And maybe we were just lucky, but other than cabbies, everyone we met was nicer to us than my grandma. (My grandma, mind you, loves the hell out of us and is sweeter than pie.)
Baalbeck! Holy fuck, this is a great daytrip if you dig ruins. We dig ruins, and, having seen no shortage of them on the trip prior to arriving in Lebanon, were still blown away. Baalbeck a small site, remarkably well preserved, easy to navigate, and in the middle of Hezbollah country. This means you’ll be treated, as we were, to the sound of automatic weapons in the distant hills as you stroll through some B.C. temple relics. You can also buy a Hezbollah T-shirt or onesie from the many Hezbollah-friendly souvenir shops on way in to the site. Also worth seeing is the Palmyra hotel, directly across from Baalbeck. They’ve got plundered relics hanging out there on the porch, inside in the foyer, and randomly strewn about the place. It’s the definition of “faded glory” and has, in addition to the antiquities borrowed from across the street, a series of Cocteau originals humbly hanging on the wall by the dining room. Also, cheap beer and a very friendly staff that’s happy to show you the room where Charles de Gaulle stayed. Of course, the paint’s peeling and there’s some water damage here and there, but, whatever, it’s not like we were staying the night.
Kaffiyeh! God, I love these things. They’re way better than hats.
I’d go back in a minute. Who wants to foot the bill?