"So small so similar" a Lebanon Travel Page by xaver

16/07/2006
It's really weird to watch tv and see what for me was a great holiday and a very welcoming place become a bomb aim, places I enjoyed totally destroyed, I don't know who is right and I do not think one is totally right and one is totally wrong, I only hope this madness of violence finishes soon.
Sometime people doing this kind of wishes looks stupid or too innocent, like babies that believe in the perfect world, but the more I think of escalations of violence, the more I wonder who really acts like kid.
I remember a gipsy motto: men shouldn't own earth, if they think earth is theirs, they become slave of that territory, the only way to be free, is knowing earth has no owner.
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I am used to work during Christmass holidays, but this year, for several reasons, I had the chance to travel.
I promised to a friend that had never been outside of Italy to go with him if I was free and so, where to bring a person that never travelled before, on Christmass while all the media got crazy for terrorism threat?
Middle east ofcourse!

I really loved the idea to spend Christmas away from Christmas delirious, away from Santas and away from Christmas trees but....when I arrived in Beirout dec. 24th, I got a bad surprise, even the cab drivers weared Santa's hat and in the middle of a square a giant Christmas tree lighted tons of small santas dancing and singing HELPPPPPPPP!

The morning after I woke my mate up at 7 am and said: ok I am not spending Christmas like if I was at home, so let's go to Damascus!
There, walking from a Mosque to another, from a souk to another Mosque, I probably spent one of my holiest Christmas, it was not a religious holiday for them, but the passion they had in their temples were definitly higher than the one I am used to see in our shopping centre during Christmas holidays, but I'll tell more about this in my next Damascus page.