Tony Bourdain on his way home from Beirut!

[NYCGirl]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L20701101.htm

ON BOARD THE USS NASHVILLE, July 20 (Reuters) - Lying on a green army cot as a U.S. navy ship spirits him away from violence-stricken Lebanon, American television food show host Anthony Bourdain says his heart is broken.

Bourdain, whose show "Anthony Bourdain -- No Reservations" takes him around the world to experience new culture and cuisine, was shooting an episode in Beirut before the outbreak of violence that is threatening to spiral out of control.

"We'd been hearing great things about Beirut and arrived and quickly fell in love with the country," he told Reuters.

"It was paradise, sort of the western dream of the way we'd all like the Middle East to be -- enlightened, progressive, multi-cultural, and multi-religious."

But after two days of eating and drinking, the experience went sour on July 12 when he and his new Lebanese friends heard gunfire from Hizbollah militants celebrating the abduction of two Israeli soldiers.