Welcome to Lebanon

This is my first time in Lebanon. I'm visiting my fiancé's home, family, and friends. The trip over was long but overall good. I spent 12 hours in Stockholm and got to see my sister and her kids, and my pregnant friend Michaela. Then it was off to the airport again. The flight to Budapest was almost an hour late, and I only had an hour to change in Budapest to the Beirut flight. I was obviously nervous to miss the flight, but the flight was nice enough to wait for me. 

Landing in Beirut came culture chock no 1. The plane touches down and the whole cabin bursts out in spontaneous applause and hurrays. Wow! Does it usually not go this well?! Then during taxiing to the gate, everyone unbuckles and stands up, gets their stuff from the overhead bins, while the poor flight attendants try in vain to make the unruly passengers sit down again. Ok, I've learned that Lebanese in general do not like to follow rules and that there is always a competition to get places first. Somehow, even though everyone has seats, it's best to get on the plane first (explaining why instead of a line to get on there is just a mass of people pushing to get onboard), and obviously also best to get off the plane first. 

Immigration and customs were extremely nice. No visa necessary, no long forms of questions, nothing, it was just welcome to Lebanon!

I made it out of the airport close to 5am and didn't get to bed until 6am, actually around the same time the roosters around us signaled the start of a new day.