Over the course of the winter holidays, I went on a trip to Lebanon to visit family.  I was indecisive when choosing a destination to go away, however, I have not visited Lebanon since 2004, and felt like it would be good to visit family now and it would be a great refresher on my culture. 

I left Toronto on my own, and met my mother in Lebanon, as she arrived from Egypt, a few days after that, my brother came to Beirut also to visit family.  I took great advantage of my brother being there, as he and my cousins took me around to the mountains of Lebanon, and visited various different cities.

During my trip in Lebanon, I really enjoyed the food, got a refresher of what the culture there is like, and experienced many differences from which we all live in North America. Although Beirut is considered to be the “Paris” of the Middle East, it still holds its value in the Arab world.  I re-visited a tourist attraction in a city called Jeita, a very beautiful and large cave, which a river runs inside of it.  This cave has many ice looking substances sticking out of its inner walls, and like no other I have seen. 

My relatives in Lebanon are mainly in Beirut, however I have some family outside the city, which I got to visit, and view the towns and experience that as well.  Unfortunately my trip to Lebanon was limited to time, and I would have loved to stay much longer, but with recovering from jetlag and preparing for a second semester of school and scheduling some work shifts, time was limited for me. 

I had an early flight leaving Beirut, so I was up all night with my cousins and my brother at a café for most of the night, than went to eat my favorite type sweet called ‘Knafe’. I will greatly miss my relatives and friends there, and especially the food and sweets and the culture, and  view of the country being so beautiful.