Beirut

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Only a short trip - five days, but enough time for a little look around. However, I've only been home a day and already I know that I'll be back at some point...this city is staying with me.

I based myself in Hamra, which turned out to be a good place for me - dusty, busy and slightly chaotic, with utterly mad traffic - to cross the road, don't wait for a gap - you'll never get across. Instead, just step out. Somehow, the traffic - already slow, although bumper to bumper - slows even more for you. I was escorted across Hamra Street on my first day there by an armed soldier, who stuck out his hand to stop the cars. Think he just got fed up of watching my utterly pathetic attemps to cross what is, in reality, a fairly narrow ( albeit very busy) little road.

To an outsider, Beirut seems to have many personalities: every area of the city has a distinct character and they don't seem to overlap. Downtown looks amazing and the amount of restoration completed and on-going, is staggering and it's done well. The squares and wide streets are calm, the red stone gleams in the sunlight, the arcade arches and beautiful ironwork balconies have been replaced and often seem to match the original ( from what I've seen of 'Beirut Memories' by Ayman Trawi.) But there seemed to be few markets and no 'souks' as such, none of the buzz I had been hoping for. It feels just a bit sterile. There are though, very up-market shops like D&G. Even Hamra Street has a Starbucks, Body Shop, Costa and an H&M. Bit uninteresting, and why would Beirut want to recreate a homogenous European high street? I live in London and we know now that we have made mistakes - I hope Beirut doesn't do the same thing...

So there seems to be 'Bling Beirut' and something more ordinary, but much, much more interesting. For example, there are many fantastic, ruined old mansions dotted all around the city ( but that could be because that's where I was based, so I simply came across them more often). They were the wrecks of what had been utterly gorgeous homes, ornate and decorative. I know there is a movement to protect these buildings, but from I could see as an outsider, it looked like a losing battle...they're not only evocative, they're Beirut's history and that history seemed to be rapidly disappearing under concrete high-rises...Those old mansions are though, also small reminders of the war...Beirut's terrible history is all around in the bullet-scarred buildings and it's hard to ignore. The photos change halfway through, because I had more than one set of experiences and emotions there - and Beruit has more than one history. I hope there will somehow be room for them all...

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Photos

February 30 bar - great cocktails!
Inside - very Alice-in-Wonderland

Comments

[Joe Frem]

Best Place in Town
February 30 took the bar scene to the other level with the best concept bar in town! A must see place is all i can say.

[ZenaF]

Hi - yes, it is a really surprising place with friendly staff (and even better drinks!) I certainly intend to go back!