Category: Tourism

  • A trip to the Cedars – II


    This is a sequel to this 1st part

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    It’s cool to relive the ‘tourist’ experience in Lebanon every once in a while. Makes you fall in love with the country all over again! I wish I had more time to elaborate… But it’s back to real life & deadlines!

    In other news, I was at Virgin Megastore yesterday, and here’s what i saw!!!!!!

    I should say thank you to all of you who made this happen! Amalgam 2 is #5 in Virgin Top 20, 2 weeks after the launch! Calls for a special song to celebrate 😉 Enjoy!


  • A trip to the Cedars – I

    north lebanon cedars

    To be continued tomorrow! (I have tons and tons of work these days, so will post bit by bit rather than not posting at all…)

    I consider myself very lucky to have a friend like Nadine and I wish her the best for the year to come in Montreal. Now it’s back to reality with the start of another working week… Good thing we have music to give us back the good memories. We listened to this during our road trip, and I, to  certain extent, identify with the lyrics.

    Enjoy, and most importantly, be yourself––no matter what they say! ♫ 😉

  • A day in Hasbaya

    During this long week-end, I visited Hasbaya, the village I come from South of Lebanon

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    Of course, after the classic stop at al baba sweets in Saida. I'll have the honey and pine nuts ice cream

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    Hasbaya is a village full of history, a perfect example of Lebanese diversity

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    In the village, people visit each other everyday. This is abu assaad.

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    In the house, I found a box of old images

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    Why were oldies so much more elegant in the old days?

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    Then, I picked up flowers and made 2 bouquets

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    Watching granma in the kitchen

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    But in all this serenity, one thing broke my heart...

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    the chehabi citadel is crumbling down and noone seems to care!

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    this citadel is a historical, architectural and cultural treasure

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    This boy is a prince by blood, he lives in the citadel. His family cannot afford to maintain it,  leaving most of it falling apart. They are willing to let go of the property for someone who could take care of it... but nothing has been done about it!

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    Wish box: I HOPE THAT THE CHEHAB CITADEL IN HASBAYA WILL BE WELL PRESERVED BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE, THAT IT WILL BE DOCUMENTED AND PROPERLY ORGANIZED TO WELCOME PEOPLE INTERESTED IN KNOWING MORE ABOUT THE AREA'S HISTORY, ARCHITECTURE AND CULTURE. IF ONLY SOMEONE COULD HEAR AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

    If anyone of you knows a path that could lead to the realization of the above wish, please let me know. I hope you all enjoyed the long weekend & easter vacation! Now it’s back to work, and when we say work, we say music to compensate! Here’s Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong singing ‘Our Love is Here to Stay’. Have a wonderful day! 🙂

    12 Our Love Is Here To Stay

  • Visiting Zahle #2

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    I know one or two who will recognized themselves in the comics 😉 I have very beautiful memories from those 2 days spent in Zahle, thanks again to all of you who showed up at the exhibition, and who gave me feedback, I really enjoyed it! To those who missed it, here are the photos of the event, tag yourselves and your friends. Tomorrow, I will be giving a presentation in Ayman Itani‘s class at LAU, and will be posting live from there! 😉 See you then!

  • Visiting Zahle #1

    Last week, March 8 [International women’s day], was the opening of ‘Amalgame’ exhibition at the French Culture Center [CCF] of Zahle. It was a chance to  discover a beautiful town far from Beirut’s chaos...

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    Zahle is a gorgeous town that was nicknamed "bride of the bekaa" by poet said akl

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    It's located right behind the mountains, in the Bekaa valley.

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    The area is full of blossoming almond trees

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    … That was the “touristic” aspect of the Zahle visit! Isn’t Lebanon just beautiful? You can see some photos of the visit on the Facebook page. Tomorrow, I will tell you about the “serious aspect” i.e. exhibition, book-signing and encounters with lovely local schools & university students.

    And before I leave you to your busy days, here are 2 Lebanese songs that I love [for a change!] by Fairouz: Al Bint Al Chalabiya & Shayef El Bahr Shou Kbir. Enjoy & have a beautiful day 🙂

    AL BINT EL CHALABIYA

    09 Shayef el Bahr shou Kbir

  • Trip to Tripoli

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    3-twitter-comparison

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

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    The Tripoli tweetup was a great chance for me to meet lovely people in a beautiful area of Lebanon that I was not familiar with. I loved Tripoli for its authenticity, its vernacular streets, smells, colors, political posters – not to mention the amazing hospitality of the ‘traboulsiyyeh’. Oh it’s great to be a tourist in your own country, and in Leb, you can never get enough! I recommend all of you who haven’t been there to visit it and enjoy its beauties. 

    Who was at the #tripolitweetup? @funkyozzi, @azzi, @dashkoun, @sunkentreasure6, @sdarine, @beirutspring, @larazankoul, @ghassanb, @danyawad

    Last but not least, I met someone in the tweetup who will probably never know what twitter is.

    rabih

    I had a lovely little talk with 14 year old Rabih, who was working on the boat, just like an adult! Made me wonder about child labour in Leb. I don’t have any idea about the ‘numbers’. But this boy’s eyes were so full of a weird mix of innocence and harshness. He went to school for 2 years only, but then spends his life working just like an adult. It’s too sad to see how basic education can be neglected due to poverty.

    Anyway enough for now, I should get back to work (I am super-overloaded in the coming days!)  Wish you all a great week! 🙂

  • Trip to Batroun

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    I wish we only worked 1 day a week and had the 6 others off.. In a world of my own that would be the case! By the way, I didn’t know flying kites was so complicated. It was a really fun thing to do, and most importantly for Lara Z to be able to shoot the concept ‘go fly a kite’ for her flickr images that you can see by clicking here. I advise you to go to Batroun before the summer is over, it’s a beautiful city. Oh and thank you all so much for the lovely suggestions you made last time about places to go in Lebanon.  I have to say I now have a long list, and will keep you all updated on the trips and adventures. Have a beautiful day! 🙂

  • Trip to Sannine

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    3-discover-sannine

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

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    I had an amazing time in Sannine! You could see Lebanon in all its width from the sea to the mountains of the Syrian borders. Lebanon has so many beautiful places to visit. It”s lovely to be the “tourist” from time to time. Especially when you live here and when you are too busy or caught up in routine to take the casino jameshallison time for such activities. Lately I am finding my tourist friends informing me about Lebanon, how shameful! This trip has motivated me to put a limit to extra work, and to make an effort to enjoy the beauties of Lebanon on a regular basis. Thank you Pascal for the motivation! 🙂

    Here are some sketches I drew while picnicking in an old abandoned farm near Baskinta. (click to view in large size)

    your-sketches

    Any suggestions for beautiful places to visit in Leb?

  • Mall revelation

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    3-why-are-streets-empty

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    4-no-beach

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

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    7-electric-door

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

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    11-crash

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    12-revelation

    To be continued tomorrow…

     

    Hello my darlings, I’ve been very slow in posting I’m sorry! but i need to catch up on a LOT of work + I’m preparing some X-filed surprises that I will tell you about hopefully soon!!! Ramadan Kareem to all concerned, didn’t have a chance to ‘3ayyedkon’ before. So this is the first part of the revelation, we’ll see tomorrow how the story unfolds 😛 Until then, have a lovely day! 🙂 (and to those of you who are not in Leb, the car on the wall of the mall is really there, it’s an ad, very creative one!)