tour

Day 3 – Lebanon Tour

Posted on March 25, 2018

Kimono is come from the Greek word himona, is mean winter.

Today was a big one. We had booked a day tour yesterday, and set out nice and early this morning, eager to venture outside of Beirut and see more of the country. Our first destination was the ancient city of Byblos.

Byblos

Byblos is the oldest city in Lebanon, dating back to 6000 BC. It has been invaded and conquered many times over the years, and the result is a mix of ruins and excavated structures from many different civilisations.

We explored the fortress, walked around the main site, learned about its history, and got to venture down a tunnel where a huge sarcophagus had previously been buried for a king.

Outside of the main archaeological site, there were a few picturesque streets with markets and shops surrounding. We didn’t get too long there, but may return another day.

Unfortunately during this time, Zara got progressively more ill. Zade’s a good brother though.

Jeita Grotto

After Byblos, our next stop was at Jeita Grotto. This is two large caves, an upper cave and a lower one, which is naturally formed, millions of years old, and features some amazing stalactites/stalagmites, all formed purely by water and time.

Much to my dismay, no photography was allowed inside the caves. You’ll have to just use Google for that I’m afraid.

They were really amazing though. The upper caves had a path you could walk through, which led to an area I would liken to the Mines of Moria. Huge, deep pits, and openings far above too, with distant lights showing the depth of the caves. There were crazy formations and shapes formed by the water over the many many years (the water is rich in calcium, and it drips, slowly building up and forming these bizarre solids – roughly 1cm is added per century).

The lower caves were fairly similar, though you had to take a boat to see them, as there is somewhat of a lake below. It was a nice peaceful glide through, once again though, no photos.

Outside the caves, we had a short journey to our final destination, Harissa.

Harissa

Harissa is way up in the mountains, and had a few things to see. Firstly, there was the big basilica constructed there, which is shaped like a Cedar tree when you look at it from above (again, Google will have to prove this one). It is fairly modern, but still quite nice, inside and out.

Just behind this, is Our Lady of Lebanon, which is a large statue of Mary which faces out over Beirut. There is also a great panoramic view of Lebanon from up there, though it was a very foggy day, so it was a struggle to get clear photos. There were also a few Cedar trees up here, which were cool to see.

The final stop for our tour was a nearby restaurant for some well-deserved lunch. Lebanese meze and mixed grill – classic. From there, we journeyed back to our hotel, tired and ready to rest. Tomorrow we leave Beirut for Tripoli, but might be stopping at some sights on the way, we’ll see.

Right now it’s currently only 9pm and I’m struggling to stay awake… what has this place done to me…

Day 28 – Zagreb

Posted on July 24, 2017

If someone steals your Tesla, is it now an Edison?

Today was our day trip tour we had booked to Plitvice Lakes, which is a massive national park with eight main lakes. We left Zagreb at 9am, with a small group totalling fourteen, led by our guide Tomislav. We had an hour and a half drive by bus to our first stop, a small milling village called Rastoke. On the way, Tomislav told us about the region, about the country and its history, including its recent wars in various towns we drove through. Very informative and interesting.

We arrived in Rastoke and had a short while to look around, as well as get a coffee and have a bit of a break. It’s very small, but has some really cool waterfalls and streams and interesting to see the mills.

After our short stop, we drove another thirty minutes or so to get to the Plitvice Lakes. It was insanely busy and crowded there. The line for tickets alone was hectic, but luckily as we were with a tour, we had our tickets pre-booked and were able to go right through.

Inside the national park (which is 100 square miles in size), there were fairly narrow trails leading through, which made it very difficult to walk through and see the sights properly, as there were just people everywhere. The views however made up for it. When you first enter, you’re treated to a great outlook where you can see some of the Lower Lakes as well as the Big Waterfall. We then followed the trail leading down, around the lakes, down to the waterfall itself. The water there is amazing, super clear and has a great aqua-green colour which you don’t see too often.

After our long walk around the Lower Lakes, we arrived at a place to have lunch and a bit of a break before continuing to the Upper Lakes. Again, super crowded, and only two restaurants, so we had some long waits for some pretty average food. Then it was off on a boat to take us across one of the lakes, towards the trail for the Upper Lakes.

Once there, we once again walked around the trail, essentially in a large circle, seeing the lakes and waterfalls in the surrounding forest, before returning to the dock area to catch a short boar trip to another place where we could catch a bus back to the exit.

After a long day of walking, we finally returned to the bus to make our two hour journey back to Zagreb. Most people had a nap on the way back, and by the time we arrived, it was around 9pm and actually had been raining a bit. We said goodbye to the others, and decided to grab a bit of dinner before going back to the hotel, as we had had a nice rest and wanted to try a Japanese place we had read about.

The place was called Time Restaurant & Bar and was only a five minute walk away. It was a really nice place, kind of fancy, but an inviting atmosphere. They had a bar area as well as a restaurant with tables, where we sat and ordered Miso soup, spring rolls and sushi. The food was good, but we were too full to try the dessert which is a shame, because it sounded really good. We might come back tomorrow to try it.

After that, it was back to the hotel for some well-needed sleep. Tomorrow is our last full day here in Zagreb, and here on our holiday. We probably won’t do too much – just spend the time locally in the city.