Day 20: We fly back to Montreal

So this was my 5th time leaving Beirut, 4rth time from the airport. Leaving doesn't seem to affect me that much. It's arriving. It does not matter whether we arrive by air or land, once I my feet touch the ground in this particular part of the world I get overwhelmed by emotion. I mentioned it to my therapist, who was born in Israel and he was surprised. He said he feels the same thing and he'd always assumed it was because it was his home land.

I love landing in Montreal after being away. The longer I've been away the more I long to land in Montreal but I've never been overwhelmed by emotion landing in Montreal. The energies just don't bring that out of me. But Beirut does. And by my therapists comments I bet if I landed in Tel Aviv I'd feel very similarly.

The flight home was uneventful. I remember not sleeping and not finding much interesting stuff to watch since I'd watched it all on the flight out. Bill was waiting for us at the airport and thankfully I had 2 more days of vacation :)

It was an awesome trip. My mom in law was a wonderful hostess, and Souad was an awesome guide. Without her we woulnd't have been able to visit as much.

We still have more to visit, there is Tripoli in the north. I passed through it but did not see much of it. There's also Beit a dein in the Shouf and the Khalil Gibran Khalil Museum in Bcharre [and if we go back there, we should of course see the Cedars again and maybe other monasteries, I love religious buildings!] And there are other places too I'm sure as while Lebanon might be smaller then Cape Breton, each hamlet is unique in it's composition, be it because of the variety of mixture of religions and people, be it the passion of the land, but there is something new to explore everywhere you go.

Day 19: Beach in Sour & last day in Beirut

Souad took us to the beach in Sour early in the morning. It was nice, the water was great. I got to swim in the Mediterranean sea from Lebanon for the first time. I just left myself float in the waves for over an hour. I loved the water temperature.

After the beach we had lunch at a restaurant in Sour, I believe it was the RestHouse, right on the waterfront. I remember the food being really good.

We went back to Beirut and we were supposed to go see the outside of an old Synagogue but then I think all sorts of last minute visitors arrived. I tuned out for a while and took a long nap. This served me well when I didn't sleep at all while waiting to leave for the airport.

Day 18: Lunch at Amto's Dinner at Khalo's in Beirut

Samer Sandra and I went to Myriam's around 11:30 AM. When we arrived, Abu Samer's wife and her sister were there with her 2 children and Samer's half siblings. I got to meet my sister in law Layal - 10 years old and my brother in law Paulo, not quite 1 year old. I have family pictures which includes all 4 Beyhum siblings. Pretty cute ones of the sisters, cute ones of the brothers.

After Abu Samer's family left, Sonia came to join us and we all had a large Lebanese meal. Including delicious veggie side dishes.

We left we were so stuffed we could roll out :P We went back to Sonia's for a few hours and had dinner at his uncle Girard's. I got to see what used to be his grand mothers' apartment, and where the war had hit the building. Everyone was so stuffed unfortunately we barely ate Nouna's cooking which smelled awesome. I didn't get to taste the meat dishes, but everything smelt great.

We got so stuffed that day. Unreal. :)

Day 17: Arrival of Sandra and Robert

We stayed in Beirut and Samer's sister Sandra arrived from Abu Dhabi. Sonia went to the airport to pick her up with a friend. Later in the afternoon, Samer's khalo's Robert arrived from Paris. They both came without spouses, Lee had a contract that kept him in the Emirates and May is a teacher so travel in October is not ideal for her.

We had a nice dinner later in the day, which was attended by Bshara and his friend Rolland, a German who liked Beirut and a particular Beirut resident so much that he found worked and stayed. :) Souad, Tala, Gerard and Nouna also came for dinner.

Good food, lots of family and friends.

Day 16: Cooking in Beirut & Shopping on Hamra

We decided to stay home and cook for incoming relatives. I had decided to make Irish Stew and Ratatouille and Samer made his rosemary chicken. The first challenge was that we were out of water, it made things interesting. It sucked I couldn't bathe before getting started and of course could not clean the kitchen after cooking. The 2nd challenge is that the rotating electrical outages. When the truck with the water arrived, it took another 2 hours before we had water to bathe because the electricity was out and the water could not be pumped to the container on the roof.

Around dinner time I had managed to shower and I went shopping on Hamra Street with Sonia. We also went for a hot beverage at a Cafe on Hamra street.