Blogs from Lebanon, Middle East
April 10th 2012
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 ... read more
April 6th 2012
It's everywhere and most of it is really great - very little rubbishy tagging and much more political statement (well, on the whole). Most of this is from around Hamra..... read more
April 5th 2012
Lebanon is a tiny country the size of Wales, but even so, I didn't leave myself very much time to get around and look at it - hard to drag myself away from Beirut in the end.... However, did manage to get to the grottos at Jeitta - no photos as none allowed, but absolutely stunning and worth seeing and much more staggering than anything you see on the net - then to Harissa and Byblos. I was in Harissa on Easter Sunday, so everywhere, especially up that enormously steep hill, was really packed. Atmospheric - an intense lone voice singing hymns in Arabic and the occasional ringing of the huge bell tolling over over the hillside...people quietly made their way up the steps to the huge statue of the Virgin Mary. It was quite something. ... read more
December 17th 2011
You haven’t seen Beirut until you’ve seen Beirut at night. It’s at night that the city wakes up and everyone comes out to play. With their troubled history, no one understands about living for the moment better than Beirutis. They do it right. Whatever your predilection for nightlife – from American swing dancing to Arabic belly dancing; from shaking your hips to Latin beats to shaking your dreads to reggae rhythms – you can find it in Beirut. One night I went to a church to hear the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra and the next to a grunge bar to hear a friend DJ. From the quiet contemplation of well-coiffed residents to the lively head banging of the oddest couple I’ve ever seen, one a gangly man in hot pants (complete with prosthetic ass and Pinocchio nose), ... read more
December 15th 2011
It was only after a trip to Tripoli that I felt like I’d finally seen Lebanon as a country living its daily life. What I saw was an old city whose crumbling buildings seemed to be held together only by a web of crisscrossing power lines. I saw a vibrant market where people haggled over the price of zaatar. And I saw a country still plagued by the vestiges of war – bullet-riddled walls with pictures of martyrs smiling down, armed tanks on the corners, and, everywhere, evidence of corruption. I was lucky to have a Lebanese woman, Amani, traveling with me to translate and to laugh over Lebanon’s idiosyncrasies. We arrived in the middle of Tripoli’s main street, tired from the journey, and walked into a café thick with men and smoke. It’s hard to ... read more
December 10th 2011
More often than not, I can get the feeling of a place as soon as I arrive. Within minutes, I know that I love it, or that I want to leave on the next available bus. Beirut has not been such a place for me. I’ve been here for over a week and I’m still confused as to whether or not I like it; still confused as to what Lebanon is all about. It’s a country of incongruities with a complex national psyche that short-stay visitors will struggle to wrap their heads around. I’m not wholly convinced that life-long residents fully understand it. Like most of the Middle East, Lebanon has a long history of occupation that dates back to the dawn of civilization. From the Babylonians to the Ottomans, the Phoenicians to the Persians, almost ... read more
December 7th 2011
I never thought I’d go so far as to say that Roman ruins are boring, but as I walked past a handful of teetering columns on a street in Jbail (I couldn’t bring myself to pay to see them from a closer vantage point), I realized that, to me, that’s just what they are: boring. I used to feel awe next to the marble megaliths. I used to feel small. Now, I feel nothing. The only stirring within me is one that approximates irritation. I’m bothered because I feel like I should be impressed and that my lack of reverence reveals me as an uncultured ingrate. But I am thankful to the Roman Empire for the advances it brought to modern civilization, such as the alphabet and the sewage system. I only ask why they had ... read more
December 4th 2011
Beirut is everything I thought it would be – a city of ramshackle, industrial-looking structures – and nothing I thought it would be – an über-cosmopolitan metropolis of chic stores and trendy cafes bedecked in Christmas decorations. Churches outnumber mosques three-to-one, which is the same ratio that M-16 toting soldiers outnumber civilians, at least as far as I’ve seen. But, then, I haven’t seen anyone. Beirut is eerily empty. There are no crowds and hardly any traffic. There doesn’t even appear to be places for people to occupy, to eat, to drink, to hang-out. There’s no historical center, no real downtown, no parks or small, cheap eateries. It took me the entire day to find falafel! Where are the street vendors? Where are the street musicians? Where, indeed, are the people?... read more
December 3rd 2011
I love finding my people all over the world. There’s such a peaceful, welcoming feeling when I’m sitting in a living room with people I’ve just met, listening to music, sharing stories and laughing. I’m in Beirut, but I could be anywhere in the world, with any group of like-minded people. The more I travel, the more places I go and people I meet, the more I realize that we’re all the same. I don’t mean to depreciate the eccentricities that make you you, but we’re all the same. We have different standards of personal hygiene, eat different foods and pray to different gods, but we’re all the same. We all feel hungry and need to eat; we all feel blue and need to dance; we all feel hurt and need to love. We’re in no ... read more
December 2nd 2011
It was with a heavy, yet beautifully unburdened heart that I boarded a plane that would carry me away from Istanbul – a place that was beginning to feel like home. I knew the side streets and shortcuts, where to find the best tahinli and cheapest tea. I’d built a small community of friends and established a routine of sorts. But rested and empty, it was time to see something new. The destination was Beirut and the company was unexpected. A spunky young Canadian teaching English in Istanbul, Ada, and I had found the same cheap flight to Beirut and the same person to host us there. The only thing of note on our short flight to Beirut was the screening of the pre-fight safety video. I normally block out the seatbelt fastening instructions, but Pegasus ... read more
