Bomb damage and alcohol poisoning

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Beirut is about 4 hours away from Damascus but it may as well be on another planet. There are expensive cars, western chain stores and banks everywhere. The downtown area has been completely rebuilt and it’s like any city in Europe complete with the standard clothes shops, Starbucks & Mc Donald’s.

There are still plenty of reminders of the city’s tumultuous history: visible bullet holes in some of the buildings and the massive bullet ridden Holiday Inn dominates the skyline in part of the city. As well as this walking around the city during Friday prayers there was literally a soldier every metre around the mosque. Not to mention tanks in other areas.

Other than the war Beirut is probably best known for its nightlife. The bars are centred around the Gemmayzeh area where we went the first night. Then the second night went to a club called B-018 which used to be a bomb shelter. It’s a pretty cool spot with a totally open roof on the dance floor. It was $20 to get in but that included a free drink. The free drink was a cocktail which was effectively pure alcohol. That combined with the fact the beer here is about as strong as the wine back home (9% - 12%) made for an interesting night...

I could have easily spent a few more weeks in Beirut, never mind a few more days! But I figured it was best to move on before any more physical or more importantly financial damage was done. I spent a night in Baalbek, which is the site of one of the most important Roman ruins in the world before heading back into Syria. There’s a risk of becoming completely sick of ancient ruins when travelling around the region but Baalbek is seriously impressive. It would definitely make more sense as a day trip from Beirut though.

I have to say for me one of the highlights of the country was the people. So many of them came up to me and started chatting and offering to show me around. Two girls we met even brought myself and two other guys from the hostel to see a really nice touristy town Byblos.

Having said that one guy did accuse me of being a Mossad agent because I was Irish. But hey, no where’s perfect!

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Comments

[Ger]

Great photos and a very interesting read. I suppose Irish passports are used so much by the Mossad it is understandable why the guy made the mistake. Syria looks great too, you must be nearly burnt out with ruins at this stage