Castles Part 2

The second castle was very different from the first.  It is rare to find a German style castle in the middle of Lebanon.  Yet there is an interesting story behind this castle.  First off it was not built by Germans, it was built by one man that wanted to prove people wrong.  The story goes, that the builder was in school during the 1940's and was repeatedly beat by his teacher and was scorned by his classmates.   He often times spent his days drawing pictures of the castle that he would build when he was older.  It was during one of these times that the teacher beat him with a stick, ripped up his picture and told him that he would be nothing.  To add insult to injury the girl that he was in love with told him that he would forever be poor and would never build a castle.  The very next day he left school, walked to a far away town and learned how to be a stone mason. After 15 years of study he purchased the land and began building  In 1962. It would take nearly 60 years of his life.   Mr. Moussa is 85 years old and greets people at his castle and is eager to tell his story.  All of the figures that are in the castle either represent people who helped him or those that ridiculed him.   A small part of me thinks that this is obsession gone just a little too far.  The larger part says, "Way to go Mr. Moussa in following your dream!"  Regardless, well played Mr. Moussa.  Well played indeed!!!


The front of Moussa Castle

A full size replica of the last supper

On the third floor of the castle we found this man playing traditional Arabic instruments.  He called Delaney and Janna down to help him with the music.  He also served us Arabic coffee which Midge and I both agree....we need to find more of it!!!

In the basement is one of the largest weapons collections that I have ever seen.  Here is just a few of the swords and daggers.

Some of the figures that fill the castle.

 A small portion of the firearms that fill multiple rooms.

Backside of Moussa Castle

This boy was offering pony rides for just over a dollar and it was one of those things that we could just not pass up.  This is Janna's first horseback ride... to be honest I thought she was just going to get her picture on the horse and the boy started walking her around!!

A Tale of Two Castles ...Part one

Well, yesterday was a great adventure day for us. We went out to the Chouf to see two castles called Beit el Dine and Moussa.  There was so much to see that I'm going to split this one up.  We'll start with Beit el Dine (spelled Beit-eddine as well). Here's a Wikipedia link that is pretty accurate to the history of this Palace. This is also the summer home to the president of Lebanon. Since it's no longer summer, although it sure feels like it to me, the president wasn't there. Our colleague, Nada, said that if he was there the place would have been swarming with armed military.

 This is the main entrance area. It was really hot but at least it was dry. We can handle that.

 Below, you can see where we entered.

They turned on the fountain a little later.

Here are a couple pictures of us.

When we went into the next area there was this really neat fountain.

We looked around inside and found this "sitting" room. This is where the Emir would see the people and listen to their complaints. All the walls are carved Cedar of Lebanon. The picture doesn't do it justice. It was incredible. I spent a lot of time looking up at the ceilings.

We also went into the area that the president uses for his residence. I saw a room where he meets with dignitaries from other countries. (I saw it in the paper when John Kerry came to see him this summer.)

 

This is a picture that was in the presidental area that I just really liked.

 Below is our new friend and neighbor on the 4th floor Sharon. She's the new MS drama teacher and we think she's pretty nice to have around.

There are also Turkish baths since the Ottomans used the palace as well.

The really awesome thing about this palace is that it also holds the worlds largest display of mosaics. They were everywhere from in the middle of the grass to in little corners and nooks within the palace. Here are just a few of the ones we really liked:

 Here we are in front of the above mosaic. That one was one of my favorites.

 Tim really liked the one below because it has pheasants.

There was also an ancient musical instrument museum here. It was pretty awesome and reminded me of the science project I used to do at HP because they were organized by the type of instrument. Here are a few pictures of the many instruments there:

Here is another picture of the palace that we just really liked:

The view was spectacular. So far, what we have seen of Lebanon looks a lot like this:

This was just half of the day. The next post will talk about the second half but I'm starting to think the Lebanon is the land of awesome day trips and really nice people!

 

Happy Birthday to Tim! and a sad day in Ain el Mreisseh.

Tim's birthday was Friday and what a busy day it was! After an action packed day at school, we headed home and met up with our new friends Dillon and Brittany! They love board games like us so we have started a tradition of trying to get together every Friday to play some games. We went out to dinner at a place called "Kababji". Not bad Kibbeh there! Tim had some Chicken Taouk which is like chicken kabob. Here's a picture of our new friends with the girls.


We had a nice time playing Dixit and Citadels with them.

The next picture is of the awesome tree outside the entrance to the American University of Beirut. There are a few of these trees here. I LOVE THEM. This one we happen to walk by a lot because we pass it to go where we shop for food.

There are a bunch of cats that live around the tree as well. Yes, Beirut is full of cats! Many of the staff here have ended up adopting cats from Beirut. I don't know anyone in our building that doesn't have a cat or two.

NOW FOR THE SAD NEWS.....
First of all, if you're wondering what/where Ain el Mreisseh is, it's our neighborhood we live in.
Remember last week how we so enjoyed the burgers at the Hard Rock Cafe?? IT CLOSED TODAY!! So, we ran down there today to get some stuff from the "rock shop". Okay, so it was 70% off!! Here's what we got for around 125 bucks! Big score! But we are sad that we won't be able to go there!

Good bye Hard Rock! We are sad to see you go!

Sorry this blog is so short! It's been a long week!

Took a walk around our neighborhood and ended up getting a taste of home for lunch!

Since we feel like we've been working, working, working, we decided to take a walk around and see some more of where we are living before school starts tomorrow.  As we were walking down to the water we saw this sign:

 I'm thinking this tutor isn't going to get many jobs....

We then went down to the Corniche and went the opposite way we would to go to school. This is the view both ways. Notice...no sandy beaches but you see a lot of people swimming in the tide pools.

You also see men fishing everywhere. They have really long fishing poles and no reels. The line seems to just be attached at the end. The fish they catch are really small. Maybe about 3 - 4 inches.

  .

As we were walking, we passed a very serious place here in Beirut. Rafic Hariri was a Prime Minister here in Lebanon who was one of the main individuals who invested in the reconstruction of Beirut after the War. His motorcade was destroyed by a bomb outside of the St. George Hotel in 2005. In this area there are many memorials to this man.

 The one below is in the middle of the street. If you look closely, they are Lebanese flags shaped to look like fire. This is where his motorcade was.

The hotel has this very large sign on it. It looks like they are trying to rebuild it again.

We started walking back to the Corniche and saw the man who makes orange juice there. We had been told that we needed to try it and so we did. It was tasty. It would  have been better with ice but we have been warned about ice from the tap....

After that we decided we needed some lunch and had quite a treat!

YES! a little bit of America right here at the end of the Corniche. Hard Rock Cafe is maybe 5 blocks from our apartment! YAY!
The girls were really craving burgers and fries since we haven't had any since we left Washington. Of course, the waiter had no clue what root beer was....ah well!

Final note...Paul, do the nachos here look like all the other Hard Rock Cafe nachos you've had around the world?? It was a wonderful treat!