Insanity even by my standards

As most people know, I have very high standards for what I consider crazy or absurd especially after having just ridden 4000km across Europe on a bicycle. The previous 36 hours however might just be the most random set of events and spur of the moment decisions I’ve ever made. Oddly enough, even amidst all of the craziness I was never overly concerned or stressed, everything was just, well, chaotic.

It started with what seemed like a simple enough decision, I was trying to figure out what to do after the trip ended. I opened up google maps and took at look at where I currently was in the world and noticed that Lebanon and Syria were right below Turkey and thought to myself, I bet those are amazing places to visit, I’ve always wanted to see Beirut and Damascus. The next step was also fairly simple, find a cheap plane ticket and a place to stay for the first night in Beirut and then hit the ground running. Shawn and Eileen also thought this seemed like an excellent idea so they also got tickets on the same flight.

There were a couple minor hitches to the plan however, we still didn’t know where we were going to store our bikes for the next 2.5 weeks, and needed to get rid of our panniers and buy backpacks to make it all work out. Luckily, a small bazaar had randomly set up shop right outside our campsite and had backpacks for sale; I also bought a watch so I would stop having to rely on the sun to tell time. Shawn and Eileen arranged with a woman who owned a bakery for us to store our bikes in her basement and it seemed like the universe fully approved of our plan. That was until the next morning.

Waking up at 6am after about 5 hours of sleep we started to take down camp and change from panniers into backpacks. We were supposed to meet the woman who owned the bakery at 8am to store our bikes, and then head off to the airport where Mark would take mine and Shawn’s panniers back to Vancouver with him as he was leaving that day.

We arrived at the bakery at 8:30am and the woman was not there. After a very charade-filled conversation with two people who did happen to be there, we ascertained that the woman we were seeking was still sleeping, would not be in until 10am, and the

y had no idea what to do with our bikes as she had the key. We had of course forgotten the piece of paper with the phone number for Benjamin (the owner of the shop next door who spoke English and arranged our storage with the bakery woman) and had to bike back to camp to get it from Keely.

Once we finally got through to Benjamin with our rapidly declining phone card, he called a couple friends and found a new place for us to store our bikes. Unfortunately, it was now 9:45am and we had no idea if Mark had already checked his bags at the airport so we had to leave our panniers locked to our bikes and quickly find ourselves a cab to take us to the airport for our 11:20am international flight.

Check-in at the airport actually went very smoothly and after clearing two different securities and passport control we were boarding our plane at 10:50am. We even ran into Mark at the bookstore in the airport and found out that he had also had an adventure of a morning so it was a good thing we’d not brought our panniers. Boarding the plane with Shawn and Eileen provided me with my favorite moment from the morning as Shawn turned to me as we were walking and asked, “so what’s the deal with Canadian visas in Lebanon”? The answer for those interested is that you can get them at the airport upon arrival and they are free.

The plane ride itself was a short one hour forty minutes and I wound up sitting next to a pair of guys who had spent about 7 years in Montreal. We each asked the flight attendant for an extra meal and shared our feast with each other. It was quite the sight to behold and drew some interesting stares from people sitting in nearby seats.

When Shawn, Eileen, and I arrived in Beirut it is safe to say we were a little drained. We had had a pretty crazy morning and all we really wanted to do was get to the bed and breakfast and nap. Well, I wanted to get to my reserved bed and breakfast and nap, Shawn and Eileen hadn’t actually booked a room anywhere yet and were hoping that something would either work out at my place or somewhere near by. The only tricky thing was figuring out how to get there, but this situation soon solved itself. We struck up a conversation with an airport employee working at a bank based there about the cost of the Lebanese visa and exchange rate and he offered to give us a ride to our accommodation as it was near his house and he was getting off work in 30 minutes. I’m sure this would set off warning bells in some people’s heads, but we have had so many gracious hosts over the last two months that we have come to believe in people’s best intentions, plus he seemed very nice so we agreed. I also found out later that Lebanese and Syrian hospitality is supposed to be phenomenal.

True to his word, and actually ten minutes early Jad met us and took us out to his BMW SUV. He then offered to take us back to his parents' place for a quick bite to eat and drink and we of course agreed. With that settled we then set off rolling down the streets of Beirut in an air-conditioned SUV listing to the Smiths and Radiohead.

When we arrived at his parent’s house we were warmly greeted and quickly brought a delicious salad and a rice and chicken dish. We stayed only for about 45 minutes before it was time to leave as our new friend was getting his wisdom teeth removed later and wanted to leave plenty of time to find our accommodation.

Here is an interesting note about Beirut streets: they are super tight, no one obeys the traffic lights, and there are no real street signs. There are signs occasionally on the buildings that have names, but they tend to be the district or route number and don’t actually help you find where you are going. Apparently the thing to do is just to stop and ask someone in the area where the place you are looking for is. This works out great if it is a well-known building or landmark, but far less so if it is a small unsigned bed and breakfast that isn’t answering their telephone.

After an hour of looking it was getting close to the dentist appointment time so Jad dropped us off at a popular local café with wireless internet and said he’d come back in a couple hours to make sure we found it. This actually provided a nice break from our car tour of the city and allowed for Eileen to do some shoe shopping.

True once again to his word Jad came back to resume the search. By this point Shawn and Eileen had decided they wanted somewhere else to stay so after dropping them off at a different hotel we set off once again for where I was staying. Finally, after borrowing a cell phone from a passerby on the street (the cell we had ran out of batteries) we got ahold of someone, arranged a meeting point, and I got to where I was going to sleep. It was now 7pm, my new best friend had been with me since 2pm, and he convinced me (it wasn’t very hard) to come to a bar his brother was spinning at for a drink after I had showered and relaxed a bit.

An hour and a half later he picked me up and we went out to this cool new underground bar for beer. He of course did not let me pay for a single drink, his or mine, despite my insistence, and then dropped me back off around midnight to finally get some sleep. What a crazy day.