So I decided to celebrate it the way it should be!

I woke up very early this morning, got picked up by a minibus at 4:45AM and by 5:45AM, accompanied by the sun, I rose into the air aboard a hot air balloon piloted by Lars, one of the most experienced pilot in the region of Cappadocia.

This ride was a first for me and it will definitely be one of the highlights of my trip. Alongside a second identical balloon piloted by Lars’ partner Kaili, we were airborne for almost 2 hours reaching a max altitude of 800 meters (2400 feet). On a background spotted with tens of other balloons, we loomed over Cappadocia enjoying the valleys and the rock formations, descending in some of the canyons, brushing against the top of the trees, landing on the top of the fairy chimneys, hovering above villages or greeting people as they were peeking outside their house to find out from where that hissing sound was coming from.

The two balloons followed an intricate choreography, played with the wind and with each other to see which one could get closest to the ground or a rock without touching it.

The view from up there was amazing and picturesque. People on the balloon were very nice and wanted to make this flight a great memory for me.

Long after all the other balloons had disappeared from the sky, we finally landed in a field several kilometers away from our take-off point. Lars landed the balloon right on the trailer (With some help from his land crew). We then jumped on the balloon to help deflate it.

Soon after, we were served a celebration drink and cake.

Kaili, Sandie and some other people started singing the ubiquitous song for me.

Yes, today is my birthday. I am now 30. The big 3-0! My 30 Wonders .

If you did not guess it before, one of the goals of my trip was to fulfill a dream, a promise I had made to myself that I would go on a long trip before I was 30 y/o. I wanted to see more of the world. Especially its wonders and based on that list (that could be debated for hours on), Cappadocia is the 30th Wonder I have seen since I am born. How fitting!

Today is also the end of this trip. I booked the plane tickets and will be flying back to Paris tomorrow. I decided it was the perfect symbolic time to stop. I have been feeling overwhelmed and empty at the same time for almost a week now. If I had a lot more time planned for my trip, I would have settled longer here and waited until the will and desire would come back but since I have only 10 days left max, it does not make sense.

However, I am not fully finished with this trip yet since I will not be back to San Francisco and real life before mid-August. So keep on reading!

On Tuesday, I visited the archaeological museum. As it is expected, it has some great artifacts collected from all the corners of the empire during the Ottoman era. The most impressive certainly are the sarcophagus of the necropolis in Sidon (Lebanon) that is so well preserved. I stayed a long time contemplating the so-called sarcophagus of Alexander that I had wanted to see since I had heard about it in Lebanon.

Yesterday, I visited the Dolmabahce Palace. It is the last palace used by the Sultans which replaced the Topkapi Palace as the Sultan’s residence. It is an impressive place and is definitely worth a visit. Too bad I had to get on guided tours. I ended up being rushed around without much time to admire and contemplate what I wanted to see. With more than 2000 paintings and more than 200 rooms, it was surely worth more than my 1h45 visit. But unfortunately that is how long I was allowed to stay in the palace. At the end, it all blurred together as the guides were pushing us around from one amazing room to the next.

I also met with Taylan and some other friends of Elif for two evenings. Since she was not able to be here when I was visiting her country, she had given me the contact info of her family and one of her friends. Thanks so much Elif. Not wanting to bother her family I decided to contact Taylan instead. It was very nice as many of the guys speak very good English.

The first evening, I met Taylan and his friends in Taksim, the most bustling part of the European side. I found them quite easily and we went around to some cool bars drinking “Efes” beers. At the end of the night, I was offered a very good small hamburger that Taylan presented as a staple of late night eating in Taksim. I do not remember the name though!

The second evening, I accepted to join them on the Anatolian side (as they call the Asian side) so I had to find my way to the bustling street called Bagdat street. To tell the truth, it took me some time to get there as I did not have a map of that side (the Asian side is not documented in the guide book!) and I did not know how to get there either. Well, I went to the ferry dock and started asking around which ferry to take. First window, the guy tells me to go to the next on the left. I go there and the guy tells me to go to the left… hum, maybe he meant the next peer. Next peer, first window, the guy tells me to go to the next on the left again! I assume he means next peer so I go there and the guy at the window tells me to go to the next on the left again! Fortunately, it was the right peer as there was no other on the left! Well, I managed to get to the other side and a taxi whisked me away to the right place. Taylan had invited some other friends of Elif this time. I had a good time but frankly, I did not notice much difference between Taksim and Bagdat. They kind of looked the same with clothing stores, cafes, restaurants and plenty of Starbucks!

Tonight was a mellow evening as I went to the Turkish bath for a complete cleaning. It was very similar to the one I had last time albeit more expensive but less dangerous . I also splurged myself and got a 30 minutes oil massage for that much more. I can tell you I was feeling great and was radiating peace as I was walking out of there. When I arrived at the hotel cafe, I was welcomed by a belly dancer who took me on the dance floor for some dancing. It was a great way to finish my stay here .

That’s it for Istanbul. Tomorrow I am going South along the Aegean Sea .

Volcano’s Villa, our hotel, was just great with very discreet staff and an awesome view. The hotel is located a bit out of Oia (second largest city of the island) making it looking secluded at first but it actually is great to not be cramped in the city like the other nice hotels of Oia.

Anyway, that is it with the rambling .

Our room was one of this nice cave house with all amenities and a gorgeous view of the Caldera and the Volcano. The pool was very nice too with a view as magnificent as the one from the room. But sadly, we did not get to enjoy it as much as we should have since we were most of the time gone to explore the island and its great beaches.

For that purpose, I had the fancy of renting a scooter and ride along the winding roads, shirtless, and the wind blowing through our hair 8-). OK, I don’t know about that last part because first I don’t have much hair to blow and second, it would have been really reckless. Anyway once on the island, we realized how dangerous it was at night with the locals driving like crazy and how strong the sun was during the day and Ledi wisely and easily persuaded me to rent a car in place.

But I did not fancy a dull Hyundai so we looked for something a bit different. We ended up renting a Smart cabrio and it was definitely a smart choice :-p. First, I always had wanted to try one of those and second that little car was the perfect size to go around and park anywhere in usually full parking lots. It had a very cool blue color with numbers as you can see on the picture and we fell in love for it as soon as we got it. We took that little beater all around the island covering almost all its roads. Even if its little engine had some trouble sometimes getting through steep slopes, it never let us down and gave everything it had and more to get us where we needed to go. A real little warrior! Yeah, I know, I got gaga for that car. Ledi was too and we ended up haggling to know who would be driving .

While there, we mostly drove around checking out the landscape and stopping to nice spots to take pictures, to supermarkets to stock up on goodies, to small sandwich places to get the best panino ever or to major beaches to lay back and enjoy watching the time pass doing nothing. Exactly the kind of activities we needed.

Our favorite beach was the Red beach where we went the first day. It owes its name to the red cliff at the foot of which it is located. It is small and secluded, well protected from the wind and has some great spots to dive from. There we met a group of six cool Greeks that invited us to join them as they were diving from rocks and taught us some words in their language including some bad words.

We also visited quite extensively the city of Oia and Fira (the main city) jam packed with shops, restaurants and tourists. As it is the case on the rest of the island, the new view you get at every street corner calls for a photo and one has to control oneself to not take pictures all the time. Not to be missed, the port of Ammoudi at the bottom of the cliff in Oia is very nice and triggered our picture frenzy one more time.

Of course, we had to at least look at the sunset once but since the sun was not decided to go down and it was well over 8PM, we turned that time in a silly photo session, once more.

We sure had a great time in Santorini where everything was just perfect. I already miss that little island! We loved it, I am sure you would too 8-).

My mission was to get from Fethiye to Athens in less than 2 days without spending a lot of money. That meant no flying or using any kind of private transportation.

I had been planning this trip for more than a week and I was looking forward to it, since I was going to meet Ledi in Athens. I had contacted a travel agent to help me book the ferry tickets from Bodrum to Pirraeus via Kos since it is difficult to do it on the Internet. It went well. I had my tickets in hand:

• Bodrum – Kos / June 29th / 5:30PM – 6:30PM
• Kos – Pirraeus / June 29th / 8:40PM – 9:20AM (+1 day)

Fethiye - June 28th – 4:30PM.

Just out of the boat and freshly checked into a nice hotel thinking I had plenty of time to get to Bodrum the day after so I could visit the town.

Everything was just perfect.

It is when I checked my emails that luck turned around. There it was, a notification from the travel agent that my boat from Bodrum to Kos had been cancelled and he had rescheduled me on the 9:30AM boat on the 29th. That certainly was not good news but I was so thankful I had gone through an agent who took care of rescheduling and notifying me. Kudos to “Anker Travel” for their great work.

Hum, there was no way I could get to Bodrum on time if I slept in Fethiye that night. So I rushed back to the hotel and asked the clerk if he could find out when was the next bus to Bodrum. It was at 7PM and he told me the bus company would come to pick me up down the street at 6:30PM. I was there but I never saw the bus and it was already 6:50PM when I hopped on one of the buses that had Otogar written as destination.

“The bus station is only 2km East so I should be there on time” I thought optimistically. I was quite wrong as it turned out I had taken the bus in the wrong direction (misunderstanding between me and the Turkish driver). Well, what could I do? I arrived at the bus station at 7:15PM hoping that the bus had not left yet. Turns out Turkish buses leave on time so no luck there and I started to feel bad when I was told there were no other buses to Bodrum before 5AM the day after (too late for me).

This is when a guy just showed up from behind another bus and told me there was a way to get to Bodrum if I took his bus and changed at some other place whose name I could not understand. But he seemed to know what he was talking about and I did not have much choice anyway so I got on that bus hoping for the best . Luckily everything went smoothly from there. When we arrived where I was supposed to change bus, the bus steward told me to get out and handed my bag to the other bus’ steward. I got on that bus and we were in Bodrum at 1:30AM. Not the fastest way to get to Bodrum but I was on track to catch my ferry the next morning.

After a very short night spent in the first cheap enough hotel I found, I made my way to the ferry dock to recover my tickets and check into my first ferry. The guy at the counter gave me my Bodrum-Kos ticket but he could not give me or tell me where to get my Kos-Pirraeus ticket. I was a bit annoyed about that but I thought I would leave it up to my good stars (that have been good to me so far) to take care of putting everything together at the end so I got my exit stamp, boarded and found a nice spot to read and enjoy the view.

As soon as the ferry departed, an employee came towards me and told me he needed my passport in order to take care of my Kos-Pirraeus ticket! Yes, he just found me on the boat and took care of everything returning 5 minutes later with the ticket. It all worked out for the best again .

Once in Kos and through the emigration check (welcome back to the EU!), I had almost 10 hours to spare on the island so I thought I could check it out a bit and take it easy on one of the numerous beaches for the rest of the time.

I just needed to find a place to store my bag for the time. As I was thinking about that, a woman on a scooter with her little girl standing in front of her came toward me offering lodging. After I explained what I needed, she told me I could store my bag and even take a shower at the end of the day all for 5 euros. I sat on the back of her father’s scooter with my big bag strapped on and here we were going through the streets of Kos. I have to say it was quite cool .

The day went well. I mostly lingered on one of the long chairs at the beach enjoying the sun, the warm water, and the “view”.

I was on time but the ferry ran late. Nothing too bad and we were on our way soon after 9PM. I spent my time reading, walking around the decks, watching Turkish TV, and sleeping where I could.

We arrived in Pirraeus at around 10:30AM with the seagulls accompanying the boat as we entered the port. It is quite fascinating to see them play in the boat wind.

With some help from the locals speaking good English, I was in the metro bound to the Airport and checking into the hotel in no time.

Athens – June 30th – 12:30PM – Not the freshest but Mission Accomplished! :)

My cruise along the Mediterranean coast ended today. The boat left Sunday morning from the Finike harbor and arrived this afternoon at the Fethiye harbor. We actually got transferred from Olympos to Finike by bus but I knew this beforehand so it was not a sour surprise.

The gullet was a very nice boat called Suleimanbay with 8 cabins and sleeping space for 14. There were only 8 people on the boat the first day, Erin and Ann (Australians living in London), Stanley and Cecile (French), Sebastien and Marilou (French speaking Canadians) and Natalia (South African). A very nice American couple joined us the second day in Kas. Kind of a strange mix at first glance but it all worked out well as there was a lot of room on the boat to keep everybody content without stepping on each other’s toes.

The boat moved from one beautiful spot along the coast to another during the day. It anchored at the harbor on the 2nd night and at a cool spot the rest of the nights.

When the boat anchored at a nice place, a staircase was lowered to the water level. So, I was able to dive from the boat directly in the water and swim around the boat or even to the shore. I could also ask to be taken to shore by boat if there was something nice to see, which usually required some hiking as well.

When the boat was on the move, I socialized with the rest of the passengers, contemplated the amazing view, sunbathed, read a book, or simply slept.

I can remember a lot of cool moments that made this trip memorable.

Every morning, I would wake up, get on the deck and jump right into the water. It was great; I did not even have to walk to the pool or to the beach.

The second evening, we harbored in Kalkan so that the Ausies could see their team loose against Italy in a nice dive at the last minute. After dinner, Natalia and I checked out the little resort town. It is a very nice place built around the harbor.

On the morning of the third day, we arrived early at a beach located at the end of a valley called the Butterfly valley. Rod had mentioned to me that the place was very nice and I really wanted to check it out. Surprisingly the captain was saying the opposite, not nice, too hot, too far, trying to get us to stay at the boat. However, I had my mind set on going and was ready to swim there even with my shoes on if I needed to. But finally I managed to convince 3 other people to come with me. The captain had no choice but to get us to the shore. I was happy to discover a beautiful white sand beach with not too many constructions on it. The place had a warm feel of community with a garden and a small hotel. The way to the valley was very easy to find and the path was very pretty. It leads you to a lovely waterfall where I took the liberty to shower under it (How cool is that? ). To add to the magic we were accompanied by beautiful butterflies along the way. Rod was right, the place was just perfect and we had the chance to enjoy it without other people around. Our boat actually left just as the place started to get crowded. The whole setting was amazing and I would not have minded staying there a bit longer. It was definitely better than Olympos. Thinking about it, maybe this is how Olympos used to be when it all started.

Our next stop was in Olu-Deniz whose lagoon is called the “dead sea” because it is protected by a natural rock formation. After lunch, I swam all the way to the beach with Ann and Erin to check it out. The water was much warmer in the lagoon and the setting was just beautiful. Unfortunately, the beach is fully covered with lounge chairs which is totally the opposite of what we experienced at the Butterfly Valley beach. Still we ended up staying there a bit too long for the taste of the captain who had raised the anchor and was ready to go while we were swimming back. He sent the small boat to get us and we were soon on our way. 

The final stop of the day was in the bay of Saint Nicolas Island. It was a bit disappointing because it was only 3pm and it seemed there wasn’t much to do there. I would have much preferred to have stayed longer in Olu-Deniz. The captain did not give any insight on the history of the island and declined to take us to the shore with the excuse that he was busy working on the anchor system. I guess that might be the reason he left early from Olu-Deniz. To make things worse, it started raining and sadly there was not much to do except dive or swim around the boat. However luck was with us that day as another tour boat anchored close by. It turned out this boat had a water slide on it and we were more than ready to try it out when invited by some Turkish guys. It was quite an experience sliding through the boat which certainly brightened up our day.

On the last morning of the tour, we anchored close to a nice little beach and I decided to swim to the shore. On my way there, I spotted a small inflatable red ball that was drifting on top of the waves. It turned out some little girls had lost it and the waves and the wind drifted the ball too fast for them to be able to seize it. I caught the ball and took it back to the girls who… immediately lost it again . So, I caught the ball and brought it back one more time (It was quite a fast ball!). Then I left. It turned out the girls had lost it again while I was on the beach but nobody was there this time to catch it. That little ball just wanted to be free!

Overall the cruise was great. However, some things were disappointing or just plain bad.

The program mentioned that the boat carries water toys like snorkeling gear and a windboard but unfortunately they were not available on board. There was a windboard but it was missing the sail and some other parts so it could only serve as a decoration! The captain on the other hand continuously promised he would buy some snorkeling gear at the next harbor but he never did.

Also, I was hoping to do some water sports at the stops but never managed to. Wave ridding and water skiing are forbidden in many places because there were too many tourists to make it viable, and not offered at all in some other places because there were not enough tourists to make it worthwhile. I was thinking to try paragliding in Olu-Deniz but as I mentioned earlier the captain wanted to take off earlier, so I missed the chance. Gokkaya bay is the only place where water skiing is available, but we arrived there too late because of our delayed departure from Finike. It was already dark when we got there . Too bad, it would have been a lot of fun to have tried these things.

The captain never sails the boat. He only uses the engine to direct it. It would have been nice to shut the engines down and just sail, as the wind was definitely strong enough to pull us. I guess I have to rent a boat some time and try it myself . 

I lost two towels in two days! Yes, I first forgot my travel towel in Olympos and then the towel I had just bought in Kas fell off the boat during the 2nd night! It must be a sign. I don’t know yet what kind, but without doubt it must be one.

And definitely the worst part was the fact that the captain and the cook made advances on the two Ausies during the first evening. The girls were certainly very upset and did not tell me until the next day. But, because of my experiences in the Middle East, I kind of guessed what might have happened when I saw them agitated that night. Very sleazy indeed!

But all these did not really compromise my enjoyment of the trip and the good definitely outweighed the slight bad. I would do it again any time.

At the end of the cruise it started raining, so I did not feel too bad about leaving the boat. I also have a long journey ahead of me so there is no time to look back yet .

Anyway, I really felt like it so I did it .

After walking around the old town visiting the souq (market) area and the main mosque, I located the place and entered.

The cashier pointed out a set of small lockers and not knowing exactly what to do, I confessed to him that this was my first time. “It is OK” he said with a smirk, “Just put all your valuables in the drawer”.

Another man came by with a piece of tissue wrapped around his hips and said “Like this”. I understood I had to undress and wrap with that. After this was done, he gave me some kind of nest and a bar of soap. He pointed at a pair of wooden sleepers that I put on and took me to the Sauna room. It was just like any other sauna I have used before so I just sat there sweating.

It got very hot though, so I decided to get out for a bit and was wondering what I should do next. There was a set of other rooms with water basins close to the sauna, so I wondered if I should wash there or somewhere else. “In case of doubt, don’t do anything” goes a French saying, so I decided to try and re-enter the sauna which by that time was smoking very hard. Maybe I should not have added so much water on the floor!

After 10 more minutes of cooking, I was done and came out again. This time, since nobody seemed to come for me and the French saying did not do me any good, I started to wash at one of the basins but got stopped in my enterprise by another man wrapped with a cloth that told me to follow him to another room. It turned out he was the scrubber masseur and it was time for deep cleansing .

He sat on the floor close to a water basin, took the nest thingy and the soap from my hands and told me to sit close to him. He first started with the scrubbing. Right arm…”Man, this is strong!” I thought. Left arm, right leg, left leg… “Watch out for the family jewels!!!”.

At this point, he asked “You are French!?”. Hum, how did he find out? My accent or something else?! Well, I did not dare ask and just answered that he was correct .

He finished getting two layers of skin off my body and it was time for the cleansing massage. The nest thingy is used like a sponge and he went ahead and showed me how strong he was. That was some deep tissue massage. The moment he jerked my legs around and I felt a sharp pain at the right knee is when I started missing the sweet soft massage I got last time in the US. With that he was actually done and told me to go back to the sauna.

After 5 more minutes in the sauna, I was really well done and got out to cool off. I then went back to the entrance where a man wrapped me in towels from head to toe and enjoined me to seat in front of a glass of tea. I rested there for some time, dressed back in my clothes, got my valuables back, paid, and got out.

I actually felt quite good and maybe the cleanest I have been in months so I guess this hammam thing worked. To finish the evening off nicely, I had a nice Lebanese dinner in a very beautiful old Ottoman house transformed into a restaurant. The perfect cure after that 7-hour bus ride .

Yesterday started as well as the day before had finished when we were served a great breakfast of freshly backed croissants, chocolate croissants and baguettes with some cheese, butter and jam (As we had agreed on with the chef the night before).

The idea was actually to stay one more night at the hotel after Mr Kamal had brought to our attention that the best Lebanese wineries were not so far and he could arranged a tasting and lunch at one of them. First, we had to deal with Rod plane tickets since he had booked for early today and we thought we should be back in Beirut the night before his flight. Changing the ticket ended up being a costly option so we thought about other options since we really wanted to go to the winery and staying at the hotel one more night was definitely a nice proposition. Talking with the very helpful reception, we found out that we could get a ride to the airport early today for a very decent price and we would get on time for Rod’s plane if we left at 6:30AM so that solved the issue.

We left for Chateau Kefraya at 1PM and one hour later, we were on the domain. It turned out nobody else was there and we had the cave and restaurant for ourselves.

We first started with a great tasting with the clerk going over all of the chateau’s wines and telling us more about wine in Lebanon and histories of the chateau. We got to taste a large sample of the wines he had. He did not get older than 2000 for the great Red Chateau Kefraya and did not offer any of their top-end Comte d’M though. The top-end having only started recently, it might have been too young anyway.

We then sat up for lunch. The menu was again all in French so I translated some words to Rod. We set for deli meat plate, coq au vin for me and a filet sauce Roquefort for Rod and a cheese plate to finish. And of course, a bottle of red Chateau Kefraya 2000 to accompany the meal! I was very pleased with the whole experienced but Rod did not like his main dish that much. The sauce Roquefort was not very good and the steak was cooked medium while he had requested rare. And they charged us two servings of tapenade while we had not asked for it or told it was not free. (Yes, I can be picky)

The rest of the day went very well with a smooth ride back to the hotel to watch France-Switzerland and Brazil-Croatia and a nice dinner again.

This morning went as planned with a great breakfast again and the added advantage of having Mr Kamal himself driving Rod to the airport and me to Beirut as he had some business to deal with here.

Rod and I parted ways again for the third time in less than a month. He is going to London for some days and down to Spain from there. I am sure we will meet again soon.

All in all, our experience at the Hotel La Memoire has been great. It is a very nice hotel with a lot of charm and a great staff.

For the two days we were there, we were the only guests in the hotel so we had all the staff working for us. At the same time, there were so many of them that it looked a bit curious at times.

If I had to be perfectionist, I would change the dinning outdoor area to wood personally as it is not up to the rest of the furniture. The staff is a bit inexperienced but all the little imprecisions are easily forgotten when you see that they really are enthusiast about working there and doing whatever it takes to help you on any matter. Some little things are not perfect yet but what can you expect after nine days. Having talked quite extensively with Mr Kamal and some members of his staff, everything will get very smooth very soon and Hotel La Memoire is promised to a bright future. If you go to Baalbek, be sure to check it out.

Being able to enjoy the beginning of an hotel like this is quite an experience and I enjoyed it a lot since everybody was so enthusiastic about making our stay comfortable. I hope this enthusiasm does not get lost as time passes and the hotel becomes more famous and more busy. Great memories!

These 3 last days have definitely been different than the rest of my trip. I think I needed to splurge a little bit after traveling kind of rough for the last month. This was perfect! Now, back to normal .

We only planned to stay one night in Baalbek so we had to check in an hotel and go see the ruins. The first surprise when we arrived was that a lot of construction going on in front of the hotel that seemed best based on Lonely Planet (2003). We still got in and asked for a room. I did not like the rooms because they were quite shabby and it was smelling moldy. Since we were only staying for one night and Rod wanted to get to the ruins fast, we still checked in after the owner had told us it would go away with some aeration.

We went on to visit the ruins. The ruins are quite compact and it does not take that long to visit them. There are three temples:

• The main temple was the temple of Jupiter that must have been massive with columns of 20 meters but there is not much left standing today.
• The second temple and the most impressive is the temple of Bacchus that was called the small temple at that period. It has nothing of small to tell the truth and it is quite well conserved. Very impressive!
• The third temple is actually not on the main site and cannot be approached. You can see the temple of Venus from 15 meters away when you are outside the main complex. It is not in a very nice shape though.

Construction work of the theatre for the Baalbek festival starting July 13th are going on so it removes a bit of the site. The amphitheatre is located in between the two main temples so it was not preventing us from visiting though.

There are also two museums on site and they should not be missed as they are very nicely documented and present some nice pieces.

The guide and people are raving about Baalbek but I still prefer Jerash for its cheer size and overall conservation and restoration state. Baalbek is not to be missed still and I would advise to visit it over Palmyra if you had to make a choice.

After visiting the ruins and the nearby cool looking mosque, it was time to get a beer and watch some football so we went around looking for a bar. Experience taught us that your best bet when you are in a smaller town in the Middle-East was to go for the bigger hotels.

And we started with the most famous and actually oldest hotel of Baalbek. The Palmyra hotel is located near the ruins and was considered the best hotel in town by the same Lonely Planet Middle-East. It is a great looking building with a nice garden but the reception was not very friendly. It was not bad but nothing very inviting so we decided to move on and try our luck somewhere else.

We did not really know where to go from there since there was nothing else in the guide. But on the way to Baalbek, we had seen commercials on the side of the road about an hotel called Hotel La Memoire that was not in the guide. And we also had seen an indication of where it was located when we had arrived in town. So we decided to go and check it out. Maybe we would be luckier.

The hotel is not very far from the main road actually but still far enough to be in a calm little street. We climbed the steps of the entrance and made our way to the reception where we were very well greeted by the receptionists. Soon after, the manager showed up and offered to set up a TV so that we could watch the games.

Sadly, the hotel is not serving alcoholic beverages so far so our hopes for beers were a bit shattered. Mr Kamal, the manager, offered us to try a non-alcoholic beer as a welcome drink and this is something you should not refuse in Middle-East.

While we were drinking and some staff was setting up the TV for us. We had a very nice discussion in a mix of French and English about the hotel, Baalbek and the Bekaa Valley in general. It turned out the hotel was only open for 9 days! And since it was still quite new, guests were scarce.

Mr Kamal then gave us a tour of the hotel. It is a very nice boutique hotel of only 9 rooms. Every room’s door has a very nicely handmade metal cover. There is a VIP suite, a Junior suite with a balcony with a view of the ruins and 7 other rooms with either a king bed or two king single beds. Each of them is richly decorated but not overloaded. Quite modern with touches of ancient. For example, our room had this old chair and ottoman that I wanted to take home with me. Each room comes equipped with at least one plasma TV, A/C, a personal fridge and safe box. The hall and lecture room are richly decorated with ancient furniture. The two outdoor areas are very nice.

I was quite sold to the idea of moving there by then but Mr Kamal was still not there yet. After realizing we had just seen the old Roman temples, he graciously offered to lend us the hotel car with a driver to take us around town to see other sites of interest.

The very young driver took us to some places. The first one was the site of “the largest stone on earth” that is a stone carved out by the Romans to be used at the temple complex. I am not sure if it is the largest stone on earth but the story of the site that was provided to us by the unofficial guard is quite interesting .

The driver then drove us around town to the main park and “lake”. It allowed us to realize that Baalbek was actually a big city with 150 000 inhabitants as we would learn later.

As we got back to the hotel, we were both sold for sure and decided to move from the shabby hotel to this great place. I don’t think we will ever regret it.

We first had dinner but since the hotel does not have menus yet, the chef came out of his kitchen and gave us some ideas of what we could get. We went with his suggestions and got served a fine meal. It was not as good as the dinner of the day before but it was definitely good. The waiting staff was clearly inexperienced so service looked a bit hectic at first but nothing bad happened .

We finished the evening watching Italy-Ghana projected outside on one of the white wind protection placed around the terrace.

Once at the hotel, I met with my old friend Rod that had been in Beirut for some days already. We had a beer and decided to go walk on the cornice since the hotel is located close to the sea.

As we were walking, a young British guy came toward us and after some introduction, he asked us if we would like to be part of a British TV program that was formerly known as “Lonely Planet” but has been renamed since. Sadly, I do not remember the new name and Rod could not remember either so if by any chance you do, please let me know. The program is about backpackers traveling to Beirut and in the course of the program, they have some tips provided by actual travelers. And it is where we come into play . We talked a bit with the director and came up with two good tips that we recorded. We sat on the fence by the water and I started first. Mine was about getting a up-to-date map of Beirut because there has been so much construction going on that some districts have changed a lot and it can be difficult to find your way with an old map. Then it was Rod’s turn. His was about using the service taxis to make traveling in Beirut cheap and easy.

We did three takes. After the first one, the director wanted me to explain why the need for the new map better. The second one was good but the camerawoman said the mic entered the field so it had to be redone. Nothing that special after all but it was fun to do it.

And who knows, maybe they will actually use the take and we will end up on TV . I wish I had asked the guy for more information but I did not. If I get more info about it, I will update this post.

After going through the immigration officer, recovering your bag and going through custom, the first thing you need to do is usually get money in the local currency. This time, I did not need to do it at once as Rod exchanged his Egyptian pounds he had left and I did not want to exchange the Jordanian dinars I have left since I am going back to Jordan soon. So, I borrowed some money from him and planned on getting cash from an ATM as soon as we would get to Jerusalem.

Once arrived in Jerusalem, we walked into the old city and found a very nice (except for the curfew and some other rules) hostel to stay at. The next step was to get money so we started going around in the old city and could not find any bank or ATM here. I asked to many shop keepers about that and they confirmed the fact: No ATM inside the old city! You have to go out and walk a bit to find one.

Alright, so after having lunch, we went on and exited North by the Damascus gate in the search of a bank. I think we might have walked more than 1 hour in streets bordering the old city but could not find any banks. Asking the locals proved not easy as they either did not understand me (how do you say “Where is the bank?” in Hebrew yet?) or they just did not know where there was one close by! We had come to the conclusion that people in the old city do not use banks and keep all their money under their mattress!

Anyway, since Rod had enough Shekels for 2 for the day, we decided to postpone the money hunt and resume our visit of the old city and neighboring vicinities by hiking to the top of the Mount of Olives and strolling around in the streets of the old city after getting back in through the Lions gate.

We actually gave it another try later in the evening by going in the other direction once out of the Damascus gate but without any more luck. Whatever! Rod still had enough money and worst get worst, I could change some of my Jordanian dinars .

Yesterday, we decided to resume our search after visiting the Wailing wall and the Church of the Saint Sepulchre as well as some of the other stations and one of the church where the last supper might have taken place. We got out by the Jaffa gate and started walking North on Jaffa street as many people had told us there were banks up on that street. The added benefit being that it was in the direction of what is called the new city that is the animated part of town so we could check it out!

We walked for like 10 minutes: no sign of banks. And  with all the shops closed on Saturday, there was no way to ask people.

We continued on walking for like 5 minutes more and here it was: A bank!!! I have never been that happy to find a bank with an ATM.

And it has never been so hard to find one in any city I travelled to before! I usually just need to get out of my hotel and walk for 2 minutes maximum before I find one. But not in Jerusalem if you are in the old city.

Funny hey!?