After a late start to the morning, MJ got back around 5.30am and Djalma and I were just plain lazy, we got breakfast while MJ got ready for a mammoth day trip session to Byblos, Baalbek and another city. Derek arrived looking fresh as a daisy and they set off soon after that. Djalma and I planned our day which involved walking round the city and to Pigeon rocks which we hadn't got to the previous day and then went back to bed until gone 4pm.
Finally making it out of the hotel room we got a freshly cooked Arabic pizza which we ate on the way into town. After a little debating about how much of the pristine yet soulless down town area we should see and still have enough time to make it to Pigeon rocks for sun set, we decided to leave off the city map showing a long historic route and wandered in the general direction of the sun. I don't know much about the history of Lebanon, just enough to know that there was a particularly nasty civil war for a good fifteen years and that Hezbollah, an extremist religious group, is camped south of the city in the Southern region of Lebanon – and that it isn't advised to go there. I really wanted to show some of the contrast between the rebuilt area which saw a lot of the action and areas of the city which hadn't been plastered over and made to look pretty or at least presentable again.
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| From Beirut, Lebanon |
We saw lots of the latter on the walk from the station the previous day but it was too hot and I was indescribably irritable – not the best recipe for picture taking. Down town cost well over 1billion USD to rebuild and although I couldn't say if the money has been well spent, it looks immaculate. There is no rubbish anywhere, rich kids sit outside of Starbucks or other cafés smoking nargileh made from watermelons and rich people shop in luxury brand shops and boutiques. It isn't that busy probably because it wasn't reconstructed for everyone, just the elite.
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| From Beirut, Lebanon |
We left the area and headed down to the water front to walk by the sea along the corniche, we passed by several huge abandoned derelict buildings pockmarked by bullet holes, the amount of space that these empty buildings took up was quite incredible, it was a wonder that more money had not been spent on Beirut as a whole and less on an area which not many people seemed to visit.
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| From Beirut, Lebanon |
The walk along the sea front was beautiful, the promenade was full of couples, young families, old families and groups of friends, the rocks on the other side if the barrier between the pavement and the sea was put to good use as an informal nargileh spot for friends to sit and smoke right next to the sea.
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| From Beirut, Lebanon |
There is a lovely culture here, people bring their own water-pipes and set up where ever they feel like relaxing, at the beach, on a quiet bench in a park, it doesn't seem to matter too much as long as you're relaxing or having fun. We passed lots of these people smoking by the sea, some of them right nest to belly floppers and jumpers who had trunks on and were jumping in between the rocks. There were several guys fishing, one old guy by himself probably enjoying the peace and quiet out by the water – he certainly didn't look like he was having much luck catching fish.
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| From Beirut, Lebanon |
We saw the sun setting along the shore while we were still en route to the rocks, it was a beautiful and vibrant bright red and bounced off the ripples on the water. Continuing along the path we carried on, hoping that we would at least make it while it there was light.
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| From Beirut, Lebanon |
We made it, eventually, and while there wasn't that much light left there was enough to take some pictures. We headed to where we could catch a bus which rattled through town, the door open the whole time (I was a little bit worried that I would fall out), it dropped us off and we jumped in a taxi needing to get back to the hotel in case MJ had returned. We needn't have worried, we had the place to ourselves until gone 10o'clock. When they got back, Derek included, they talked about their day in Byblos, the grand tour hadn't happened because it was so difficult to get between the places. We got a couple of beers to drink in the room, the two they had brought with them looking like a very good idea. We sat and talked about places to go, planning our separate trips and reading about things to do in different places. I was drunk after the first beer and so a second one seemed like an excellent idea, we tucked into beer while getting ready to go out, this time it would be better.
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| From Beirut, Lebanon |
Make-up and hair done, I was ready to go back to bed but we said goodnight to MJ and set out to conquer the town more than little tipsy by this point. We refuelled on some XXL a strong mix of vodka and energy drink, it was just drinkable and kept us going on our very long lovely walk to a bar. We walked for ages just talking and laughing, Djalma took an age to tell me a story about how he and Bayer had been refused entry to a club in a shopping centre and the things they had done to try and get in and then away in one piece. We ended up in a cool little karaoke bar and after ordering some delicious Long Island Ice Teas we sang along to the French, Arabic and English songs with enthusiastic abandon. We met some really friendly Lebanese people who spoke amazing English, they gave us lots of advice about what to do which I scribbled down on some paper – completely illegible in the cold light of day. And on the them – a young lifeguard gave us a lift to our hotel and then arranged to pick us up the next morning and drop us off at Jeita Grotto. We decided that we should get some food before sleeping and got some spinach parcels and meat things. We sat outside the café/restaurant (opposite our hotel) – the same one we always get our pizzas from and shoved the food away hungrily – the cook brought us out the plate of garnishes which we did our best to demolish before thanking him and staggering into our shared room trying to be quiet, I don't remember much else except taking out my contact lenses and asking if D had set the alarm.
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| From Beirut, Lebanon |
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