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| Visas: All nationalities, except Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nationals, need a visa to enter Lebanon. Australian, Canadian, most EU, New Zealand and US passport holders can obtain a visa on arrival. Public holidays: New Years Day; Eid ul-Fitr (End of Ramadan); Feast of St Maron (9th February); Eid ul-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice); Islamic New Year; Good Friday; Easter Monday; Ashoura; Labour Day; Prophets Birthday; Assumption; All Saints Day; Independence Day (22nd Nov); Christmas. Local dishes: Lebanese cuisine uses the best aspects of Turkish and Arabic cooking with a French spin. A typical meal consists of a few mezze dishes (hors doeuvres), such as spinach pies, dips, dried cheese and stuffed vine leaves. The main dish is usually meat (often mutton) or fish, stuffed with rice and nuts, plus a salad such as tabouleh or fattoush. The national dish is kibbe, a finely minced paste of lamb and bulgur wheat, sometimes served raw, but more often fried or baked into a pie. Puddings are very sweet. Try the syrupy baklava pastries or other walnut based desserts. Good reading: The Hills of Adonis by Colin Thubron is a lucid and insightful account of travelling in Lebanon just before the civil war. Robert Fisk's Pity the Nation is a heart-wrenching journalistic account of the war itself. |