Pilgrimage from Juniyah to Beirut (City Mall) 10/08/08

Being Sunday Elie and the other workers start late and want to sleep in. Sounds great to me and I'm happy to lounge around till 10:30 when Elie makes an appearance. I only have fifteen or twenty kilometers to walk today so starting late doesn't bother me at all...

Sitting around chatting I find out why Elie is here working in a restaurant rather than in Dubai. The guy is having a bit of a rough trot to say the least. I don't know if it is fair to share all the details with you all but his story couldn't be much sadder, and is also a story that could quite easily happen to any of us. And what makes it so sad it the situation is entirely his own making, with a bit of bad luck thrown in...

What impresses my though is his dedication to his faith and his good will to others. I don't know what religion he is but almost certainly he's Christian or Muslim, and even though he doesn't know why his God made the things happen the way they happened he accepts there is nothing he can do now other than be thankful for what he has. A job, a roof over his head and friends. And even though he is going through as harder time as anyone on this planet has to go through he can still take the time out to help a passing traveller. To me this is someone who has a good understanding of what religion is all about. Cheers mate, you are a champion! :)

Making my way to Juniyah center I can't hep but be amazed at the amount of "Super Night Clubs" to be found. There's one every 100m. It's hard to believe they can all have people in them even on a busy night!

Stopping for a quick coffee Australia and Argentina are playing in the Soccer. Seventy minutes have passed and the score is 0-0. I'm impressed :) But my happiness doesn't last long. Five minutes later Argentina score and manage to hang on to win 1-0. This is one thing I'm a bit sad to miss, normally during the Olympics I hole myself up in front of the TV for the duration, I don't think I will catch too much this time around though...

It's then on to the highway for a long, straight, boring walk to Beirut. I have some Couchsurfers lined up to host me so reaching the outskirts of Beirut I give them a call and find out the best way to get to their house. The turnoff form the highway is only 500m down the road so walking there, I find a taxi and head up the hill.

Ryan and Jen are awesome. Both are American, have lived in Lebanon for five years and are very well traveled. They immediately make me feel at home and after a superb home cooked meal, a couple of glasses of wine and a good chat it's time for bed...