Beit Mary

People i met here who contributed to, and improved my trip: Julia (Russia)

On Wednesday we had planned to make a day trip to Tyre, but by the time we made it to the bus station we decided that it was a little too late, so instead opted to visit Beit Mary, which was much closer. A public bus took us from the centre of the City into the mountains, and it cost 1000LL ($0.66) and took around an hour.

Located 800m above Beirut, the climate was considerably chillier than in the City and sadly it was an overcast day, so the panoramic views weren't all that they could have been. A nice lady drove us to Deir al-Qalaa Maronite Monastery when we asked her for directions, as she said it was way too far to walk - the trip took about 30 seconds in the car! It really baffles me how so many people in the World think that a few hundred metres is a long way and if you hint that you would walk a kilometre, they behave like you are quite possiby ready to be admitted into the lunatic asylum!

There wasn't much to see at the Monastery, other than some old Roman pillars, so we went to some nearby Roman and Byzantine ruins. Here we got to see some buildings that were becoming overgrown with plants and bushes and a couple of badly preserved floor mosaics. An hour was more than enough to look around, and after this we began to walk back down the hill towards Beirut. After a few kilometres we decided that we may as well catch the bus the rest of the way, as we really didn't fancy the remaining 15kms.