Day 2 - Flight to Beirut and stay

The airport wasn't terribly busy or complicated. It had the architecture I would expect in France. It was cool. :)

I had someone there help me get my boarding pass for the next flight, and then headed to the luggage checkpoint. The checkpoints were kinda annoying for me. I had to take out both laptops I had on me (one mine, one for Peter when I get to Iraq), put them in separate bins, put the 2 bags I had on the conveyor belt, and another bin for my jacket, shoes, wallet, passport, and cell phone. Not only that, but I have to remove my glasses for it and can't see anything until my stuff comes thru the other side.
I had had no problems at the Philly airport, but while waiting blind on the other side, the bags came out, as well as the laptops, then my shoes - but not in a bin. At first I thought maybe the bin got caught and the shoes fell out. I blame that silly thought on not having glasses on and it makes me stupid as well as blind. Needless to say, I had a feeling they saw something suspicious with my luggage. I wasn't sure at first, but when they pulled me aside and asked if they could search my wallet (I furrowed my eyebrows and said, "sure"), I realized it was the knife I had in there. I could never remember that it was there because I've only had to use it twice. Plus, I didn't get stopped at Philly nor at any point in my trip to Mexico for my brother's wedding.
They did confiscate the knife, called the police, holed me up in a prison cell at the airport (like a dungeon), interrogated me for 3 hrs, and...just kidding. They only confiscated the knife and recorded it, then let me go. They said the knife was of legal length, but because you could flip it open like a switchblade, it made it an illegal length after that - Bummer.

The flight:
We had to walk outside to board the plane and the weather was outstanding. Clear skies, light breeze, I'd say about 65 degrees.

The take-off was the bumpiest I've ever been on, not that I've been on many flights, but it was still the bumpiest. The landing gear seemed to affect the stability of the flight too and made a LOUD noise at one point that sounded like something hit it full speed. It made this sound while retracting the landing gear, as well as later when extending the landing gear. It startled me a little bit, as well as other passengers around me.

About 20 or more minutes into the flight, they announced that a passenger had missed the flight, but his luggage did not. For security reasons, they said, they had to turn around and land back at the airport and drop the luggage off. They decided to refuel while there, as well. This turned out to be a 2.5 hr delay before we took off, once again bumpy.

Many people were bickering and complaining about the delay and the reason that was given. It seemed like most people said it was an excuse for something the crew did not want to tell us. I was thinking, "Hmmm, rough take-off, loud noise on the landing gear, plane turning around. I hope it's not faulty landing gear." I half-expected the plane to crumble on the left side during the landing at one point. ;) Yes, I was on the left side.

The flight was very smooth and the rare turbulence was barely noticeable. I slept on and off during this flight, so I'm not quite sure how much sleep I actually got. I did watch an episode of Heroes that was available, as well as Eagle Eye and part of Quantum of Solace. The landing in Beirut, however, was slightly rough (again), but uneventful. The weather was steady, but light, rain and cool. I was ok with this!

Met up with the Catranis family (Beth and 2 sons, Tad and Kit) and headed back to their place.
I will be staying with them until Saturday, when I fly into Baghdad and then the final leg of the journey.

We dropped my stuff off and then went out to get some dinner.
-- Needless to say, I was quite tired that night. We got back to the house around 10:45PM and I wanted to shower since I hadn't had one since Tuesday morning around 8:30AM. Ewww. I was stinky.

I got to sleep around 12:30-1:00AM.