well, here i am on the road again, even if only on holiday this time. this is my first foray into the middle east, and its certainly a very exciting time to be in lebanon. i arrived on saturday, and have spent my first few days in beirut, pounding the pavement - ive covered a lot of distance! one of the first sites i saw was the former holiday inn, one of the most visible reminders of the the civil war which lasted for seventeen years from 1975. its amazing to see the building - which apparently is still structurally sound - in its bullet riddled state, surrounded by other luxury hotels with stunning views over the sea. i had a stroll along the corniche - the sea front promenade. its quite a place to be seen. old men are playing backgammon, young lads cruising along in their cars with the windows down and music blaring, families out enjoying the sunshine, people fishing (even saw someone almost manage to reel in an octopus!!). theres no beach along this stretch of coast, but that doesnt stop teenagers diving into the water to go for a swim among the rocks! theres vendors selling coffee, hot nuts, hooped bread... its a great place for people watching. at the end of the corniche are the pigeon rocks, (beiruts only natural feature) spectacular natural rock arches, where many tourists and locals gather to watch sunset, while drinking beer, eating ice cream or smoking a nargileh - a water pipe. the last few mondays have seen big demonstrations in the city centre, and they have turned into something of a weekly event, so a few of us decided it would be worth going along to watch. the one the previous week attracted several hundred thousand people, but it was the last big such protest before the elections which will take place next month. there were maybe as few as several hundred in the city centre, marching, waving flags and carrying photos of the former prime minister hariri, who was assassinated in a car bomb attack last month. the site of that has hardly been touched, and so i saw the ruins of the st george yacht motor club, and many cars which were damaged in the attck, all still lying as they were. it was really eerie, particularly as the area was guarded by security guards, some of whom looked as young as about sixteen or seventeen, carrying machine guns! ive seen the american university of beirut campus - its set on a hill, so great views out over the med, and also visited the national museum, which houses some great artefacts, many of which survived the civil war in tact, due to the forethought of the curators. yesterday i went to the jeita grotto, a really amazing series of caverns - absolutely enormous, with enormous numbers of stalactites and stalagmites. it was really incredible. we had access to two caves, and were although the set up of the place is a bit like disneyland - theres a cable car which takes you about 200m up a hill, and a 'train' which takes you back down - it didnt detract from the wonder inside the caves. it was really awe inspiring. ive been thoroughly enjoying the food ive had so far - much better than i was expecting, from what little i knew at home. and on that note - its time to go and get something to eat!! Jo xxx