Day Twelve

Baalbeck Day.

Though I had said I was going to Baalbeck, I woke up in a chilled mood, remaining in my baggy pyjamas. 10am and Bogdan walks in the common area, looks around and suggests;

'One more space in the car for Baalbeck guys...'

Nobody answers.

'Ok then. I'll come! Give me two minutes'. 

Chuckles in the background.

I run and get ready- knowing that we're heading to the snowy mountains. We get in the car and instantly start trolling our tourguide and driver Mohammed for not knowing how to get out of the streets of the hostel.

We pass a few checkpoints on the way and gradually lessen the distance to our destination. We are in awe of the snowy mountains and he assures us

'I will take you to Baalbeck'

'Inshallah'

'I believe you.'

We reply.

Baalbeck is considered a 'red zone' area and travelers are not advised to visit. It is on the border to Syria. 

We talk about Hesbola and the war taking place behind the mountains on our right. We pass the last checkpoint and celebrate our success with smiles and hoorays.

We reach the castle and get lost in the hypnotic view of snow-covered ruins and clear blue skies. We explore the area and take scenery, photoshop-like pictures. Our toes are freezing and our noses are red.

We decide to move on.

No photoshop used yeani

We're on our way to a 'very good lebanese food restaurant' that Mohammed wants to take us. He insists that we try this delicious delicacy with beef and I subtly announce that I don't like beef.

'Are you vegetarian?' !

'Yeah..! Yeh kind of.'

'But you are in Lebanon! You must try the meat!'

I laugh and say ok.

We get to the restaurant and he looks quite concerned for my food choices. He insists that if I don't eat meat I will be hungry! I laugh, look at the beef delicacies and turn to the cheese rolls instead.

We eat well, smoke some shisha and make a move as the sun starts to set. It looks like there is a snow storm coming so we decide to take an alternative route as we do not have chains on both tires. 

We reach a village, and, some kilometers away from our route we find ourselves in some mountain snowy turns. It's dark and the driver gets nervous. Bogdan figures out new routes through Google maps and we are stuck in a dark deadlock. The driver takes initiative;

'Guys, we must remember. Safety first. We will go back, safety first.'

We head back to the main road as none of us loses faith. The trip was still a journey and the mood sets back to cosy-comfy. We reach a crosspoint and buy more chains for the tires. I pop to the store to get some chocolate and the journey continues.

The road is dark, snowy and dangerous. Our driver takes it easy. We all keep it cool while Bogdan starts admitting his love for mountains. He sings us a Ukrainian song about love and mountains as the troll continues. We then all take turns to sing a song in our language. Luise is Armenian, Songyue is Chinese, I sing my Cypriot stuff and Mohammed sings in Arabic. Very sentimental, sweet moments as we have no idea what has been sung yet we all listened carefully. 

'Yalla let's sing something we all know!'

pause

'Titanic!'

And so we all start singing 

'Near... Far... 

Wherever you are'

And this is how Celine Dion has been bonding people since 1997.

[LoveLebaon]