جبيل

today i woke up at 6:45a to get ready for my third tour with nakhal (this time, it was to tripoli)... but decided in the shower i'd rather go to byblos/جبيل instead. did some thesis research for a bit after the shower (no need to head to byblos at 7:30a), then i dressed like a grown-up to drop by the carnegie foundation. my professor at miami wanted me to meet the director of the foundation, who does some really good work on lebanon & would be able to help me with my thesis. i received no reply to the e-mail i sent the director earlier in the program, but my professor (who's friends with the guy) encouraged me to abandon my "midwestern manners" & quit worrying about being a nuisance. just show up, he said. 


ok. since there was no time for that during the program (wouldn't have made it downtown before the foundation closed), today was the day. unfortunately for me, the director is on vacation. wah wah.


next time, then.




so, grabbed a cab back to AUB, changed into something that didn't require high heels, & got to the main gate just in time to wait only a couple of minutes for the cab i ordered. my first stop once in byblos was pepe's byblos fishing club, formerly a haunt of all dining celebrities (including american ones). the tour book claims you can still feel the '60s vibe... i guess i could give them that. the important part was that i had a very pleasant view of the water & of small boats coming in with fishies while i enjoyed a delicious lunch. i also quickly learned that when you request the fish of the day (per the menu's suggestion), you must head indoors & select your fishy up close & personal. for those of my friends who are familiar with my fish semi-phobia (which i'm very gradually overcoming, p.s.), this was a bit of a step for me. not a first, as i did the same in egypt... but a step nonetheless.



i enjoyed labneh, my very favorite lebanese dish, with plenty of garlic & a side order of olives while i waited for the fish to be grilled. definitely emptied more than half of that olive ramekin. i washed all of this down with a glass of white wine from ksara winery, the oldest in lebanon & the one i visited with nakhal previously. pepe's offered a very relaxing way to spend an afternoon.


when mr. fish arrived, he appeared just as i expected: like a real, live fish. but then the waiter asked if he could clean it for me. wasn't sure what "cleaning" the fish entailed (shouldn't that already be done at this point, if it's a matter of sanitation?), but i enthusiastically said yes & didn't regret it since it turns out "cleaning" the fish means making it not look like a fish anymore. he picked it all apart for me, removed (most of) the bones, &... well, he left the head on the plate, probably for me to eat (as some people like to do), but we can't ask for perfection, right?



i devoured most of the fish -- fresh, fresh sea bass -- & gave the head instructions to thank the waiter, then headed in the direction of the ruins. i quickly got sidetracked by an alleyway lined with shops -- i was attracted by the sign for a fish fossil shop about which my tour book raved. before i could even wander to the end of the alley & happen upon the place myself, a woman asked me if that indeed was the shop i was hunting & led me right to it. there i scoped out the private collection after my full stomach required me to turn down the shop owner's offer to join him & his companions for lunch. the owner soon met me in the small exhibition room to tell me stories about the fossils. man, it was really something. as my book indicated, pierre is the third generation of his family to run the business, which involves not only selling these 100-million-year-old fossils (REALLY, they're that old), but also digging for them at the quarry his grandfather owns. 


boy, does this man love his job -- he's so fortunate. he essentially delivered the same lines my tour book cited, but added plenty of extra detail about how much he enjoys going to dig for the fossils, which he compares to (live) fishing: you know the fish are there, but you never know how many you'll find/"catch". when i asked how much of the quarry has been excavated, he estimated that there is at least another 100 years' worth of digging left at the site. 80% or so of the species found in the quarry have never before been seen, which is so cool. pierre talks about digging for the fossils like an epic sort of adventure, & i believe it must be. after i told him tyler studied archaeology, he informed me he'd studied the same before getting a degree in paleontology. he promised that next time i visit (with tyler), he'll take us out to dig for fishies. cool.


his shop has been featured in a national geographic documentary in addition to the many write-ups in "big-deal" magazines, & this winter he'll be famous again when nat geo airs yet another documentary devoting even more airtime to the place. can't wait to watch! if you're interested in pierre or 100-million-year-old fish fossils or what have you, check out the shop's website: http://www.memoryoftime.com/english.html.




after my shopping (had to collect a few souvenirs, naturally), pierre insisted i leave my "heavy" bag behind so i could go enjoy the ruins & the church. he handed me a guidebook off a rotating stand outside a nearby shop -- owned, it turned out, by his brother -- & happily pointed me in the direction of the ruins' entrance. most everyone i've met in lebanon has been so kind & so glad to help, even when help isn't always needed. this is such a wonderful place in so many ways.



so, the ruins. i'd planned to hire a guide for between 10 & 20 thousand lira (which is about $6.66-$13.32), but when i didn't immediately see one i decided to wander the place quietly on my own. there seemed to be maybe a dozen others visiting the site, so for the most part i had the place to myself. after visiting baalbek, the ruins at byblos don't really measure up, but i did enjoy exploring... even if it was HOT HOT HOT today. the ruins overlook the water, so there's a pretty backdrop for all those giant piles of rocks.






next i wandered to the rebuilt souks (everything "to see" in byblos is crammed into a very compact space). i admired a painter's exhibit set up by the office of the ministry of culture & bought a stack of postcards since the "real thing" was far outside my budget. to beat the heat, i devoured strawberry & lemon sorbet at a small cafe's outdoor table while i watched people occasionally pass. i was "encouraged" into a shop by a man who happened to be fanning himself next to me while i gulped cold water after polishing off my sorbet, then (after walking the length of the alleyway i was on) i was led into another of his shops by the somewhat overly friendly man himself (i got a hug & kiss which, for some reason, made me feel a bit uncomfortable since i was alone with him... harmless, but i was ready to leave). i didn't buy anything, unfortunately for him, & almost made it out of the souks with only my fish fossils in hand... when a shop window caught my eye. the shelves contained glistening little birds carved of precious stones, & the screamed "grandma" to me. my grandma is a bird watcher & an aficionado of all things winged, so i couldn't resist a peek into the shop. after a brief browsing session & a bit of half-hearted haggling, i came away with a carefully wrapped piece for my grandma: a hummingbird with a slick little beak, perched on a hunk of rocky amethyst. a relief, as i had yet to come up with an idea for a "grandma souvenir" minus the arab sweets i planned to tote home & the bar of camay soap i discovered in the grocery store (her favorite, but difficult to find in winchester anymore).




my final stops were the church of st. john (pretty, but nothing spectacular) & the wax museum my tour book "recommended," half-jokingly, it seemed. the wax museum was a very creepy kind of highlight for the day: by far, the creepy-crawliest i've felt during my entire stay was wandering those narrow hallways alone, peering into life-size "scenes" of lebanese & world history peopled by wax creepies. if you feel i'm overusing the word "creepy," you have yet to comprehend how appropriate the label is, & i think sharing a picture or two still won't do the place justice. the tour book wasn't joking when it said madame toussaud would feel at home...




my taxi ride home was relatively uneventful... at first. then my driver's peugeot began to misbehave. the incessant beeping of the dash, which i attributed to an overheated engine (that seemed most logical, especially after he kept dumping the cold water i'd politely declined into a mystery compartment under the hood) prompted my driver to pull over on the congested highway multiple times. he became increasingly frustrated, so i made a special effort to appear unbothered (if that's a word) by the whole thing so he wouldn't have any more reason to worry. he was a very nice man, & we'd made pleasant conversation on the ride -- some of which was in arabic, & he was very patient with me on that score. i didn't want him to think i'd be filing a complaint with the taxi company or attempting to haggle for a lower price. his peugeot's attitude wasn't his fault, after all, & i wasn't in any particular hurry to get back to a near dead campus. so i quietly read my book, watched out the window, & played a puzzle game on my cell phone while he tried to tame the mechanical beast.


unfortunately for my driver, the car never did decide to cooperate, so he ordered me another cab from his company which toted me back to campus. i enjoyed what would probably be my last cab ride through these parts of the city until my next adventure to lebanon.