Finally real holidays!

Once the jet lag is gone, electricity is no longer being cut at night and my mood has improved, it is time to enjoy my vacation here in Lebanon and that is exactly what I have been doing these last days.

Last Sunday I had a visitor from Brazil, Bruno, a trainee who is currently expatriated in Madrid. Bruno stayed here for only a couple of days and passed by Beirut during his road trip in the Middle East. Despite the very short time he stayed here, we managed to do quite a lot of stuff. On Sunday, we went out to a nice bar in Gemayzeh. On Monday we drove south of Beirut and went to the beach, a very nice one that opened last year, hence it was my first time there too. For those of you who are not familiar with the beaches in Lebanon, the concept of beach is different from the one we have in Brazil. Going to the beach here means you have to pay for it, but you also get a lot of stuff that makes it worth and by the beach it is built a structure similar to a 5-star hotel. The beach we went is called Oceana and by chance we ended up going to the part of the beach called “La Suite” or the VIP section. By the entrance there is a huge restaurant, where a bar stands at the end, right by the pool, an enormous rectangular pool with a jacuzzi by the bar. The chairs are displayed all around the pool together with some huge white beds full of white pillows for people to sun tan or just lay down. With all this structure, the beach, which is rocky and not sandy, becomes just part of the whole scene and I didn’t even go in the sea this time. There was also a DJ playing lounge/dance music and this part of the beach is only allowed for those who are older than 18 ;-) Considering that we are in the Mediterranean, needless to say the weather was magnificent!

At night I took Bruno to a typical Lebanese meal in downtown. Bruno left on Tuesday morning to Damascus. On Wednesday I passed by the Maersk office to see how the guys were doing and it is such a nice feeling to see these people because I truly like them and in fact they arranged for us to go out tonight for a dinner followed by drinking and dancing. On the same day, I had lunch with Darine and spent the afternoon with her at ABC Mall just walking around (no shopping for me at the moment).

Yesterday night I went to one of these places that a tourist would hardly go in case he is just visiting Lebanon and it is one of my favorite restaurants in Monot, a street full of pubs and bars. The restaurant is called Solea, it is a Spanish restaurant and the food is very authentic and tasty. The owner is a nice Spanish lady, who runs the place together with her daughter. The place is full of character, nice decoration with a seating area outside by the garden. Apart from the delicious tapas and sangria, yesterday there was a guy playing Spanish songs, which made the night even more enjoyable and I remembered the trip I did with Cintia and Mike through Portugal and Spain during the summer of 2003.

Today I’m going up to the mountain to have lunch with Gladys and her family. The place is called Faraya and the weather is very enjoyable up there at this time of the year. During the winter, it is one of Lebanon’s top ski resorts.

As you can see, I’m having a great time and this is mainly because of the people and friends I left behind once my job with Maersk was completed. That is why I say my expatriation to Lebanon was amazing because apart from the professional growth, I made life time friends, who will continue to be my friends regardless of where in the world I end up going.