I am heading in 2 hours or so to Kobayyat, a town in the district of Akkar in the North. It’s a town almost at the borders with Syria and takes a 2 hours or 2 hours and a half drive from Jounieh. I haven’t done such road trips since a long time, so I kinda am looking forward to it, even though many warned me that the road is not that good, long and tiring.
Kobayat is a very big town for those unaware of it and even has its own website which is pretty cool. [Website]
I am not planning on taking my computer with me since I will be back by tomorrow and don’t expect to find any internet up there. You never realize how much you are hooked on the internet until you do such trips. It’s been since ever that I was unable to go online for more than 24 hours.
Anyway, hope you are enjoying your holidays and Happy Easter again!
We have our own version of El Classico in Lebanon, the one opposing Hekmeh (Sagesse) and Riyadi (Sporting) basketball teams; however the only difference is that El Classico games between Real Madrid and Barcelona always come to an end, while Hekmeh Riyadi games are 90% interrupted for some reason and end up in riots and fights.
I was just flipping through TV when I saw Hekmeh and Riyadi playing, and all of a sudden some fan jumps on the basketball playground and stays there and then everyone goes down and the game is stopped and now security forces are all over the place.
Is it so damn hard to control 2000-3000 fans? Why don’t we put fences and stop pretending to be civilized?
Speaking of basketball, my brother sent me this picture while he was watching an NBA playoff game in Atlanta. Will we ever get there? I don’t think so.
I’ve always liked this tradition every year on Holy Thursday, not just for the religious part, but also because I love visiting new churches in Lebanon and I must say every year I discover some beautiful ones I haven’t heard of before.
One of the churches I visited this year was inside the Notre Dame University (NDU) in Louaize and was within our Lady of Louaize monastery. It’s a beautifully renovated complex with the church right inside of it. The church dates back from 1700 and is done with old Lebanese stones.
You enter the monastery and go through a long hallway that gets you to a courtyard. The church is accessible from a door on the left of the hallway. I could not take a picture inside of it unfortunately as it was late and they had turned off the lights.
I love Balkis in general and I tried out today their latest product, which is Balkis Afandi. It tastes very fresh and really good. Afandi is tangerine for those unaware of it.
It’s been almost a month since the Lebanese security forces announced that they located the seven kidnapped Estonian tourists and that their release should be very soon [Link]. My first reaction to this news was that how come the police is spreading all over the news that they found the kidnappers?
I mean unless they have them cornered with no way to run, the kidnappers could have easily heard the news and fled the scene to a neighbouring and very welcoming country. If that’s the case, then our security officials are almost indirectly responsible now for anything that happens to them.
A video was broadcasted few days ago showing the Estonians begging for help [Naharnet]. May God be with them.
Around 10 days back I posted about the new updated website for The Daily Star. My biggest issue with it was the fact it lacked any personality. So I decided to spend 15 minutes quickly putting together what I think would be a better version of their website. So the picture above is what’s currently there now and below is my remix.
Not a major change but enough to give it some sort of character. If I spent more time on this I would fix up the grid and spacing all over the page as well as get the font sizes in order since they currently use around 10 different sizes. So what do you guys think?
Update: I just realized how they could still keep a different color for every section, check the images below
Yesterday Najib posted a bank commercial that he thought was lame so I decided to post a bank commercial that I think is pretty cool. The one above is for Banque Libano-Francaise. [YouTube]
I just found an amazing collection of Lebanese war photos taken by Roger Moukarzel back in the 80′s. My favorite from the bunch has to be the one above. If you want to check them out click [Here]. It’s a flash site so I don’t have a direct link, just go to Portfolio > Roger Moukarzel > Chaos
I was driving back from AUB when my friend spotted this seemingly tornado in the sea facing the AUB beach. Apparently tornadoes at sea are called waterspouts.
It is touching the water even though it doesn’t show very clearly. I couldn’t get a better picture of it. We don’t get to see those everyday in Lebanon. In fact, I don’t know much about weather but I thought those things happen in winter or after a storm or something.
Margherita is a pizzeria located in the middle of Gemmayze. Since it’s close to where I work, I eat there with some colleagues on a regular basis. I’ve tried enough pizza places in restaurant and I have to admit the pizzas in this place are amazing! I usually order a Pizza Diavola, which comes with tomato sauce, cheese, and spicy salami. It’s sooooooo good! I always start by eating really really fast, but slow down when I get to the final two pieces and secretly wish that one of my colleagues won’t be able to finish his / her food so that I can have some :) lame, i know.
One cool thing about this restaurant is the fact that they give you the opportunity to eat for free. The waiter asks you to pick a number between 1 & 90. He then mixes a container (see below) and pulls out a number, if you guessed correctly, the bill is on the house.
I had dinner the other night with a friend and for whatever reason, he picked the number 65 in the end, and we ate for free!
I asked the waiter what number was most commonly picked, he said guys usually go for 69, girls are more random. I then figured out why he chose 65… Initially he wanted to say 69, but switched to 65 in half sentence
Positives:
- Great food
- Opportunity to eat for free
- Location, right in the middle of Gemmayze
Negatives:
- The place is a bit tight
- Does not accept reservations
- Smokey as hell! While you are eating your food, people from other tables, which happen to be 10 centimeters away, start blowing smoke in your face
- You kinda smell like an oven / ashtray when you leave the place
They recently updated their menus and have a couple of blank pages for customers to leave comments.
