Though Hemsa was suspecting that something is going on, she did not know that we are going to Beirut until one day before the flight date; I told her one day before so that we have some time to buy winter clothes (living in UAE requires a shirt and jacket maximum).
She was very excited and happy about the Idea of going to Lebanon to celebrate our 5th anniversary.
As the most important thing for Iraqis is the visa issue, I spoke with the Lebanese Embassy one day before to confirm that the visa will be issued upon arrival to Beirut international airport (Rafeeq Hariri airport), the lady at the embassy said that you have a return ticket, hotel reservation, and $ 2000 cash.
Lets sort the picnic by dates:
18 Feb 2009:
Our flight was at 10 am, Bashar came and pick us up at 7 am, upon checking in the stupid lady at the counter said “I can not check you in unless you have a visa” I told her that the visa will be issued upon arrival, she replied that their system is showing that the visa is required before departure. I doubled check with embassy and they have confirmed that the visa will be issued in Beirut, the supervisor there suggested speaking with Beirut to confirm, and thanks God Beirut confirmed the Embassy story.
Flight time was 3.5 hours, but due the time difference with reached at 11:35 am Beirut time, heading to the immigration section a man was standing in front of the counters asking about nationalities and advising the counter number to go to, as usual Iraqis have different rules, he said you have to go to the airport security to get the visa, they were very cooperative and immediately they approved the visa.
We reached the hotel (Safir Heliopolitan) at about 1 pm, we rented a taxi for 24 hours for the whole period (4 days). Abu Mohamed (the taxi driver) took us immediately to place called Hareesa, and you have to reach there by the teleferic , the place was very nice. Jbeil was the second destination for that day, we reached the hotel by 9 pm (11 UAE time) we just fell sleep.
19 Feb 2009:
Early morning breakfast, cap to the mountain where we have a SNOW day, it was really fun, after which we went down the mountain to Jeita Grotto (a cave with 2 parts, upper and lower). After which we went to wax museum, lunch, hotel then down town at night (called Solidire), where we sat in a coffee shop (with couple of minutes of facebooking :) )
20 Feb 2009:
We headed south to Musa house and Bait El Dein (ancient places), it was raining heavily and very risky driving up and down the mountain. Lunch at Raouche.
At night we had dinner with Hemsa’s cousin Mazin and his wife’s family (his wife Ranya, her father and mother). It was Italian restaurant.
Late night we visited a night club ( to finish all activities of Lebanon “the Famous night life”
21 Feb 2009:
Breakfast, Hamra street, sweet shop, check out, airport.
Over all it was a great trip.
She was very excited and happy about the Idea of going to Lebanon to celebrate our 5th anniversary.
As the most important thing for Iraqis is the visa issue, I spoke with the Lebanese Embassy one day before to confirm that the visa will be issued upon arrival to Beirut international airport (Rafeeq Hariri airport), the lady at the embassy said that you have a return ticket, hotel reservation, and $ 2000 cash.
Lets sort the picnic by dates:
18 Feb 2009:
Our flight was at 10 am, Bashar came and pick us up at 7 am, upon checking in the stupid lady at the counter said “I can not check you in unless you have a visa” I told her that the visa will be issued upon arrival, she replied that their system is showing that the visa is required before departure. I doubled check with embassy and they have confirmed that the visa will be issued in Beirut, the supervisor there suggested speaking with Beirut to confirm, and thanks God Beirut confirmed the Embassy story.
Flight time was 3.5 hours, but due the time difference with reached at 11:35 am Beirut time, heading to the immigration section a man was standing in front of the counters asking about nationalities and advising the counter number to go to, as usual Iraqis have different rules, he said you have to go to the airport security to get the visa, they were very cooperative and immediately they approved the visa.
We reached the hotel (Safir Heliopolitan) at about 1 pm, we rented a taxi for 24 hours for the whole period (4 days). Abu Mohamed (the taxi driver) took us immediately to place called Hareesa, and you have to reach there by the teleferic , the place was very nice. Jbeil was the second destination for that day, we reached the hotel by 9 pm (11 UAE time) we just fell sleep.
19 Feb 2009:
Early morning breakfast, cap to the mountain where we have a SNOW day, it was really fun, after which we went down the mountain to Jeita Grotto (a cave with 2 parts, upper and lower). After which we went to wax museum, lunch, hotel then down town at night (called Solidire), where we sat in a coffee shop (with couple of minutes of facebooking :) )
20 Feb 2009:
We headed south to Musa house and Bait El Dein (ancient places), it was raining heavily and very risky driving up and down the mountain. Lunch at Raouche.
At night we had dinner with Hemsa’s cousin Mazin and his wife’s family (his wife Ranya, her father and mother). It was Italian restaurant.
Late night we visited a night club ( to finish all activities of Lebanon “the Famous night life”
21 Feb 2009:
Breakfast, Hamra street, sweet shop, check out, airport.
Over all it was a great trip.
